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Training implications of tailbone injury
Rip, a swing broke and dropped me 2 feet onto my tailbone two days ago. It swelled painfully. I'm treating it with ice and ibuprofen. It hurts to deadlift, squat, and to stand up in general. Seems like I should reduce weight and increase volume on the lifts until the pain subsides, then return to normal lifting. Am I on the right track, or somehow causing too much aggravation to the injured area?
A note of interest for anyone who may have this injury in the future: Metamucil is your friend. The swelling impinges the colon and causes an incredibly challenging trip to the bathroom the next morning. Take my advise. Preemptive measures strongly advised!
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It's lonely out here in "Repetitive Inquiries" land. My searches on "tailbone" and "coccyx" mostly yielded information about strains caused by bad form. Mine is an injury due to a fall, which I don't think will be cured by improvement in form. Anyone have experience with actual tailbone injuries? Life is good until I sit down. It is now 8 days and I feel fine when standing or otherwise active. Deadlifting and squatting moderate weights is tolerably uncomfortable. I'd like confirmation that I'm on the right track, just to be sure I'm not making matters worse by lifting too soon after the injury. I haven't gone to a doctor because I think this is like a broken/bruised rib injury, where in either case you just suck it up until it goes away. Anybody have experience with this?
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Ten days post injury. I have been sneaking up on a rehab routine due to concern of overdoing it. That means 1 set of 10 squat and deadlift with bar, then 65 lbs. I felt enough discomfort to want to holdback and take my time, so I did not do this every day like a real program.
Today I pushed it. 1 set of 10 at 45, 65, 95, and what I'll call a "dare" set of 5 at 135 lbs. What pushed me to the dare set was sitting on a bench after the set of 95 and noticing there was no pain. I had planned on stopping at 95, and increasing to 3 sets of 10 at 95 before moving up. The "no pain" observation led me to try a little more.
I finished the rest of my workout and still feel no pain in the tailbone area. It's as if I just pushed it all out of me.
Tomorrow will tell, but I'm feeling optimistic. Work sets prior to the fall were 285.
I've been sitting on 2 rolled up foam pads on the seat of my chair. I found the foam donut did not relieve enough pressure.
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It's the next morning. I expected some typical swelling over night and early morning pain but the sensation is mild discomfort, kind of like a minor recollection of pain. It only hurts a little to sit on a chair without the pads. I would say the pain reduced about 50% since immediately before yesterday's workout. Today I'll hit it with volume deadlifts, along the same lines as yesterday's squats. I had been absolutely miserable the last 9 days. Sitting would bring on pain and angry moodiness, lack of resourcefulness if I forced myself to sit and work. I really don't think this just diminished on its own due to the time that passed. More after today's deadlifts...
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Deadlifted for volume today: 1 set of 10x45, 65, 95, 135, and 185. It all felt good, where deadlifts had hurt primarily towards the top of the lift. I think a lot of the swelling has subsided, because I have a faint sense of pain just left of center, indicating to me that was the point that hit the ground first. Still sitting on the foam pads, because it's easy and might still be needed. I'll post again tomorrow, but if I continue to make progress at this rate I'll probably discontinue posting.
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No real change today. Pain is about a 2 on a scale of 10, just like yesterday. No problem associated with the volume of deadlifts. Today I'll do both squats and deadlifts but lower volume. Keepingmibuprofen steady
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Whoa. Just when I thought I was out of the woods I tried bench pressing. Owwwww! I sat on the end of the bench and rolled back into position. That put my weight right where it hurt the most. As I reached the full prone position I was back to a 4 pain level. Arching my back for the press made matters worse.
I had to roll off the bench sideways to keep from hurting more. I rolled back on sideways to continue, but the pain must have distracted or sucked some energy from me, because I missed my work set weight.
Now that I've rolled off the bench I feel fine again, pain level 2. I did not expect this, and will continue the sideways rolling into position and a compromised arch while lifting lighter weights for awhile.
Now heading back in for volume squats...
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Today, 16 days post injury, squat day, I decided to go for a real increase. I did rehab volume sets of 10 up to 185, but went for 225 as top set. Pain! Not "rehabirritation", the type of discomfort that tells you you're on the right track and should push through; but the kind of pain that shouts "back off before you hurt yourself." So I did. Not happy, but what can you do? Maybe sit around and make your own words like I did above!
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Tailbone Talk #9
Today I pushed myself on volume deadlifts, in attempt to see how closely the pain associated with squats tracked to deadlifting. Good news, it didnt! I did sets of 10 @45, 95, 135, 185, and 225. 225 was my dare set, which I did without pain (but some grip fatigue). I'm close to concluding that deadlifts are only problematic in the acute phase, and if I'm misusing the term, then "right after injury". I'll keep the 10's going for awhile just in case, but I bet I'm ready to return to 385 or so right now. Squats, not so much.
Bench pressing was painless, due to this somewhat obvious technique for mounting the bench: Approach from the side and sit down with the pelvic "sits bones" hanging off the backside. Grab the racked bar with the hand closest to the bar and ease yourself down, rolling on the greater trochanter (oh yeah) as you lay your same side onto the bench. Then adjust position, press, and get off the bench in reverse order. The CUE: imagine a spike up your ass and maneuver as if to prevent driving it deeper.
I also did dips today, and found the traction element provided a nice measure of comfort.
My "walkig around pain is still the same as it was about 10 days ago. I really want that to go away.
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Tailbone Talk #10
The deadlifts really helped make the pain fade away!
Over Christmas I had several occasions to sit on the floor and roll while chasing grandkids. Damn, did that ever hurt! And it brought on the "pain induced weariness" I described earlier. Ibuprophen and volume deadlifts again brought relief.
Today, 3 weeks and 2 days afterthe fall, I did 3 sets of deadlifts at 275 without a bit of pain. I'm back to about 90%. I still need a pad for sitting, and probably need a standing desk, because about an hour of sitting is my limit. I believe 8 hours at a desk would add months to recovery. Now, if I'm not sitting on a hard chair or floor, the pain is just a mild irritation. This might prove I had nothing more than a minor bruise (with extreme pain early on), or that something in what I was doing accelerated recovery. I'm guessing it's the latter, and the volume deadlifts made the difference. Maybe this is "pinfiring" the tailbone?
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