Painful pop in low back deadlifting, weak/fatigued ham and glute

[Hurlburt]

A couple of years ago, I was deadlifting - doing speed sets - and I'm pretty sure I had a rounded back when I pulled hard. In any event, I felt a massive POP in my lower back on the left side, an insane amount of immediate pain, saw stars, etc. By the time I saw my general practitioner doctor about a month later I had zero pain or discomfort. He thought it was the facet joints popping and basically dismissed it.

Since then I've had a significant weakness or fatigue in my left hamstring and glute, very noticeable walking any distance and up stairs.

I previously posted my experiences and recovery with two ruptured tendons this year (hope the posts helped someone) one bicep tendon which required surgery and a pectoral rupture that I'm rehabbing now. Since I seem to have some predilection to tearing tendons, and the sensation was VERY similar in my lower back, is it possible that I ruptured something down there? After tearing my bicep off the bone, initially it was blindingly painful, but after a couple of days it was completely painless, just useless.

Of course its possible that the pop deadlifting has nothing to do with my ham/glute fatigue, but the timing is amazingly suspect.

Thanks in advance!

[Chris Palladino]

Hurlburt,

Lets get a little more info first,
Age, height, weight, training history, currently training, MRI? Any other symptoms besides weak and fatigued glute/Hs? Any atrophy to the Left leg?

How much weight were you lifting when you ruptured the two tendons? DL?

[Hurlburt]

Thanks Chris, I should've included that in my initial post.

49 years old, 5'11" 185, started focusing on the major lifts a few years ago, never deadlifted until I was 46 and ran a number of cycles of the Texas method to improve that lift in particular. I'm currently getting decent strength back after the aforementioned pectoral and distal bicep tendon ruptures. I just revisited my primary care physician today who ordered prednisone and non specific physical therapy apparently hoping the PT can figure it out (punt!). He doubts I ruptured a tendon somewhere in my low back and said a herniated disc is a remote possibility and we can address it if the PT doesn't fix me. No MRI yet and no x-rays.

Other symptoms could be tight hip flexors, I foam roll and use lacrosse ball and my calves, particularly the left is a crazy tight bag of knots, glutes have knots, which I try and stretch and roll. No atrophy as confirmed by my Dr today.

When I ruptured my pec I was benching 90% of my 5RM on the second rep of set number 2, 215# as I recall. I wish I had a cool story for the bicep, but I was shoveling snow and went to pitch a heavy shovel full of wet snow and felt/heard the massive pop.

I really appreciate your guy's advice, I'd like to get back to feeling normal again. With a little guy at home and the problem not causing actual pain, I've put off addressing it for a while, but its time to take care of myself if thats possible.

[Chris Palladino]

Hurlburt,

If at this time you are not able to train due to the injuries then I would suggest training the unaffected side with machines, leg press, and DBs to keep some training stimulus going as well as a mental edge. If your ready to begin training...

The limitations of your bicep tendon rupture may serve to provide an ideal reset in weight for your lower back and bicep. For the deadlift, a double over hand grip must be used, you should begin training with the bicep tendon rupture injury being the primary judgement in weight selected, the back the secondary. As the bicep is still healing and may be more sensitive to reinjury. The initial weight selected should be pain free, the bar is not to be yanked from the floor and your typical novice approach should be followed, no need for Texas programming. Additionally, regarding your back, If your not able to set your back and pull from the floor, you may need to begin with a partial ROM. Such as a rack pull. If that is the case then lower the rack by 1 hole each session until the bar returns to the floor.

As far as the bench, again a pain free weight should be selected for a pain free range of motion. This may include a paused bench, pin press at a selected height, or avoiding the lock out. You will have to determine that. Start by using a weight you can bench for 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps, then the next session 2-3 sets of 10 reps, then 3 sets of 8, then 6 until you return to 3 sets of 5 reps at full range of motion, continue to add weight throughout the process. The process should be gradual and mostly pain free.

With a few injuries on the table you may need to take an pretty significant reset in weight, BUT you should continue to train. It may take a few weeks before your lifting even moderately challenging weight but its a process that needs to be completed due to the sensitivity of the biceps rupture.

good luck,

If you have further questions please reach out cpalladino29@gmail.com

[Hurlburt]

Update:
=I'm almost 18 months post surgery for the bicep tear, it feels and looks great, but when I do something heavy I can feel exactly where it's connected to the bone in my forearm, which still feels odd.

=Pec tear: I did pushups for months and am benching very light, 135-155 at higher reps. At ~50 years old, I don't see a reason to push it.

=The left hamstring weakness/fatigue: Zero improvement. I did a couple months of PT, she seemed knowledgeable, but ultimately stumped. The focus of PT was on activating the glutes in various ways and trying to strengthen the hamstrings. In my previous posts, I mentioned a massive pop and blinding pain in my low back while deadlifting with poor form before the hamstring issue. The pop occurred in the area of the quadratus lumborum on the left side two years ago and to this day the area is tender if I dig in there with a lacrosse ball. If I tore or injured something in there could it cause the hamstring to work harder to compensate somehow thus causing the constant ham fatigue feeling?

This is really frustrating, thank God it doesn't also hurt. Thanks for having a look at my post and as always I'm happy to share my surgical experience on PM with anyone who needs help.