Tweaked my back about a week ago and I gave it a couple days rest and slowly began working back into it.
I didn’t think it was serious, I can wrestle, and do most exercises where I keep a fairly neutral spine position. But anything that involves bending over I get a sharp pain and I’m incredibly weak.
the first pain I felt was in my lower back, 3-4in. above my tailbone. (was doing elevated deadlifts).
Since i didn’t want to be a whiney little bitch…I continued with my workout (front squats, good mornings, then ghr’s) and I do believe I aggravated it further. (Considering I wrestled and worked thai pads 3-4hrs later)
I tried to do rack pulls yesterday
and 135 hurt. 225 was like a 1rep max…and this is from a guy that can usually pull mid-high 6’s (with belt and straps)
so part 1 is:
I’m going to the doctor for a physical this Friday… until then is there any diagnosis you can give me?
The dumbass diagnosis (ie, what i think) is that i herniated a disc. I’m not positive though because I can still front squat (normally can front squat around 350, 315 irked me though so that where i stopped this time) and do other stuff. But I try to keep as much weight off my spine as possible.
part 2: what can i do other than rack pulls to really work my traps. I usually do rack pulls heavy (and power shrug it if i can) and then do some high rep work (ex, face pulls for 4 sets of 15-25)
But I dont think much can subsitute for going that heavy with pulls :-/
Since you’re going to the doc. on Friday, I would just take the next couple of days off and see how you feel, and then if it’s still bothering you, bring it up to your doc. so he/she can give you some ideas as to what it might be.
It’s hard to say what your injury is at this point. Could be anything from a herniated disc to just plain old muscle soreness.
Xen… if you injured your disk, any disk, you’d feel shooting pain or numbness or both radiating down one leg or another. Since your lower back is the source of pain, I’d guess that you gave yourself a major strain.
Continuing to work out after an injury is never a good idea. When you do something the back of your mind says “this is serious,” you’re supposed to shut it down. You may have gotten away with a minor injury. Not now. Hey, at least you learned something. Shut it down when you hurt yourself.
As for working yourself back to good… Stretch you lower back. While on your back, bring your knees to your chest. Also, while on your back, one leg straight, bring the other across your body. It’s a football stretch, you know what I’m talking about.
When I did this last, I was riding my bicycle to and from work every day… that bike ride sure was difficult at first, but when I warmed up, it stretched my back out.
Quit lifting heavy for a little while. Do some good mornings and stiff leg deads with the bar only to stretch out. Do some reverse hypers, low reps until you feel good and then up the reps.
[quote]Djwlfpack wrote:
Since you’re going to the doc. on Friday, I would just take the next couple of days off and see how you feel, and then if it’s still bothering you, bring it up to your doc. so he/she can give you some ideas as to what it might be.
It’s hard to say what your injury is at this point. Could be anything from a herniated disc to just plain old muscle soreness.[/quote]
definitely not muscle soreness…
No shooting pain down my legs. and no lower back pain anymore, its just when i try to pick shit up off the ground i feel like someone’s stabbing me in the middle of my back.
Im going to take ur advice and ease off for a while and I’m glad this new article came out with more aggressive soft tissue work because the foam roller has gotten boring.
Not sure exactly what the problem is with your back, but please report back with the results from the doctor. You described a very similar pain I feel from a similiar injury. It’s not exactly a pain, but rather a weakness when bending too far back or sometimes rotating my body.
xen, i am not about to diagnos your problem over the net, but one thing you should consider (from a guy with multple/multiple SERIOUS back injuries like myself) is that the vast majority of back injuries fix themselves with time. rest and nsaids for a few days, then start moving.
get blood into that area as often as you can. lots of low abd work, backwards walking on a treadmill or weighted sled, and a reverse hyper if you have access.
good luck.
if i had wnet under the knife everytime i had a doc want to cut on me after an injury, i would be in a wheel chair now, not 40 years old and still setting pr’s(rare though these days) from time to time.
[quote]SkyzykS wrote:
Get your hip allignment checked. Check your quads, front hip flexors, and i.t.b. for over tightness.
Those are a big contributing factor to a lot of lower back pain and injury.
[/quote]
Thanks i’ll be sure to see if the doc can test these things as well (or at least i’ll bring them up)
HeavyThrower, thanks for the advice… I’ve done the same with antibiotics. If I had taken them everytime a doctor wanted to put me on some I’d be immune to penicillin and a host of other things… I’ll do my best to find out whats wrong and do my own rehab.
[quote]DON D1ESEL wrote:
So you weigh 180 pulling 6 and front squatting 350?
I, and many others here I’m sure, suck.
Get well soon.[/quote]
Seriously.
Like others have said, time and ice are vital. I’ve had some back problems in the past, from a 20-rep squat gone wrong and then a later one I’m not sure the cause of. The one thing that did wonders for me was doing some of the most basic stretching exercises in Cressey and Robertson’s DVD.
I was reluctant to buy it, at 50-odd bucks for one friggin DVD, it was a last resort, but it was worth it several times over. I couldn’t DL for a couple of months, and within a few weeks of their dynamic stretches I was breaking my old PRs. Highly recommend it.
update, it’s a disc protusion my doc just said rest and since i have my rom back she said just keep rehabbing how i already was… (tennis ball/foam roller and jacuzzi 2x a day)
[quote]Xen Nova wrote:
update, it’s a disc protusion my doc just said rest and since i have my rom back she said just keep rehabbing how i already was… (tennis ball/foam roller and jacuzzi 2x a day)
[quote]kroby wrote:
Xen Nova wrote:
update, it’s a disc protusion my doc just said rest and since i have my rom back she said just keep rehabbing how i already was… (tennis ball/foam roller and jacuzzi 2x a day)
And don’t lift heavy for a little while.[/quote]
That’s probably the most important thing. If you try to be a badass you will just end up fucking yourself over in the long run.
