Unsure about the deadlift

[Stuffed Olive]

Thank you all for your imput, it's been really helpful, both in terms of understanding these types of injuries and what my condition possibly could be. Hopefully it can help others experiecing similar problems too.

If you are simply experiencing pain down the back of the hamstring then I doubt it is true sciatica. The more common presentation of sciatic nerve impingement is a sharp, shooting, lightning like pain down the back of the hamstring, crossing the knee, down the calf and sometimes into the foot. Numbness and tingling, or the feeling of your leg falling asleep is also textbook of nerve impingement.

As of writing this the pain in my left leg has almost completely subsided. Yesterday morning I woke up and it felt almost fine throughout the entire day, and it has been the same today. I can feel a twinge in my calf and even less in the hamstrings. I'd say the original pain was mostly in the hamstrings and some in the calf - not in the knee or foot, and I did not experience 'falling asleep'.

Tell me, do you experience pain while performing the Valsalva maneuver? How about when you cough or sneeze? When you increase the intra thecal pressure the disc is compressed. So if there is a disc herniation then an exacerbation of symptoms is likely. Just because there is antalgic posutre (leaning aways from the pain) doesn't always mean there is disc involvement.

It feels okay doing the Valsalva, and it seems to hurt a bit when sneezing. Ah I see, so despite my lean to the right it doesn't necessarily mean a disc?

Think about this, the hamstrings connect to the sacrotuberous ligament which connects the sacrum to the ischial tuberosity of the pelvis. The sacrum articulates with the ilium in the area where you circled your pain in the diagram.

Without more information from the physical exam, and using only what you've written here, it does not sound like a disc issue. I'm not saying that it's not. There is way too much information missing in your description to say for sure. But, SI joint dysfunction caused by a rotation of the sacrum with change the resting length of the hamstrings. SI joint syndrom can sometimes mimic sciatica if it is not properly investigated.

As far as what caused it, if you're imprperly loading the hamstrings due to dysfunction in the SI joint, then you're going to experience pain. Also keep in mind that the most pain experienced from acute inflammation is on the 2nd-3rd day. So if you played soccer on the weekend, you may not have noticed a great deal of pain until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Good luck with your treatment.

I see. Thank you very much for the info, I think I'm starting to understand the issue better, and that definitely explains the delayed symtoms. And should I be hoping it isn't a disc issue, of all things? I am seeing the chiropractic tomorrow and I'll bring up this possibility.

Thanks!

To the OP;

You're getting some great high quality advice, most of which is way over my head. My only two cents would be to suggest an MRI, IF you have health coverage, as they are pricey.

I was having some radiating pain(down the leg) a few years ago, did twelve weeks of therapy for Quad/Ham imbalance, end of sessions, pain still there. Went to another Ortho Pod, who couldn't believe the therapy prescribed, sent me for an MRI of lower back, showed "slight" compresson of L 3 4 5, prescribed Celebrex (only 4 weeks), which reduced the inflamation, I also worked on some decompression excersises, 6 weeks later-No Pain- and that was three years ago.

I do try to get a quality Deep Tissue massage every other month and catch a yoga class every so often, plus I gave up LSD running(that shit will kill ya).

Good luck, hope everything works out for you

Yep thanks, I'll definitely look into a scan, especially if my chiropractic thinks it will be beneficial. I am very happy to hear of your recovery. As for my injury I think the advice I got from Doctor / pysiotherapy was poor, and they made no attempt to make a full diagnosis - no wonder my condition worsened suddenly.

And coming back to the original point of the topic - did you manage to get back to weights - that is squatting and deadlifting? I'm assuming yes. An injury like this has shot my confidence, I've been very active the past couple of years and never had an injury like this that could affect me permanently, and naturally I'm cautious about heavy lifts that could put me out again, and this time worse.

If it is a disc issue, and a minor one, is the thought of weightlifting still viable? I really want to be able to train my lower body (rather than just bicep curls and benchpresses that everyone does) but of course its quite high risk.
And if it is an SI Joint problem, recovery still won't be straight forward, but it won't be as debilitating as a spinal issue? Either way I'll be very careful in the future with form and exercise in general.

I'm assuming LSD means long slow distance - so this sort of high impact activity is a big no for anyone whos experienced a disc injury, or has back problems? I'd be far more devastated if it meant no lifting, although I used to do some running (say 3 miles in 30 mins) to work on fitness.
Thank you.

[justinbass]

I'm assuming LSD means long slow distance - so this sort of high impact activity is a big no for anyone whos experienced a disc injury, or has back problems? I'd be far more devastated if it meant no lifting, although I used to do some running (say 3 miles in 30 mins) to work on fitness.
Thank you.

Yes, LSD means Long, Slow Distance (running). If you want to work on your fitness you are much better off doing shorter/harder workouts than 30 minute jogs. Read up on http://rosstraining.com/ and http://www.crossfit.com

[cmdrfunk]

Much lower back pain originates from trigger points in your glutes. Seriously, anytime my back has any pain in it, i start sitting on tennis balls or softballs looking for tender areas and the pain greatly lessens or goes away completely.

[Joel Chapman]

Much lower back pain originates from trigger points in your glutes. Seriously, anytime my back has any pain in it, i start sitting on tennis balls or softballs looking for tender areas and the pain greatly lessens or goes away completely.

I second this opinion, at least as it relates to lumbar pain. Foam rolling my glutes/hips has eliminated my chronic low back pain/tightness in less than a week's time.