Workaround Back Injury

[Joshua Denny]

Hi Mark,

If you have time for a little advice it is greatly appreciated. Saturday's workout was Squats/Bench Press/Deadlifts. Squatted with 285lbs and then after bench warmed up and did Deads with 285. As far as I could tell by feel my form was good but on the 4th rep I felt a pain in my left lower back, just above waist level. Nothing too crazy but I skipped the 5th rep. Sore but not unbeatable rest of Saturday. Sunday however I felt like a cripple. Couldn't get up from seated or laying position without immense pain.

Today it is still painful but I can get around. I can squat (tried with bodyweight only) to about parallel and then it gets painful. However something as simple as getting in the car sucks. When I go to lift my left leg into the car after stepping in with my right it is quite painful and I have to use my arm to lift it in.

I notice I am favoring that side enough due to the pain that I can see I am not standing up straight. I made an appointment with an A.R.T. guy but he can't see me for a week. Should I skip training all together or do some lighter stuff to keep movement going on? I am guessing it is just a slight pull or strain and I don't want to make it worse but if some light activity will help I'd like to do it. I feel some swelling or adhesion/knot on the left in the pain affected zone.

I'd just like an opinion I respect rather than my doctor trying to prescribe something or tell me I shouldn't lift weights, LOL.

[f4thpathway]

I notice I am favoring that side enough due to the pain that I can see I am not standing up straight.

When you say you aren't standing up straight, are you referring to leaning to one side or an inability to stand fully erect? If you are standing with a slight forward lean from the hips then you shouldn't train until that goes away.

[Joshua Denny]

By not straight i mean with a curvature to the spine. I can stand upright but if i look in a mirror the left side of my body "sags" to the left, almost like scoliosis. It feels better now than earlier today but if I put my hand there and try to massage the muscle it feels larger and kind of "knotty."

[f4thpathway]

If it affects your posture you shouldn't work through it. Let it loosen up first. When my spine goes out I can only stand up about 85% straight because I can't extend the hips. That's after paralysis has passed if it occured, and/or I am able to do daily life activities again. Typically the postural imbalances are there to prevent further injury. They tell you to slow down for a while. Listen. Let the knot work itself out. Sometimes I don't even know my back is out unless I look in the mirror and my waist looks smaller because my pelvis is tilted. Trying to train in that state takes a 2-3 day layoff and bumps it up to 1-2 weeks.

[Joshua Denny]

Fair enough. I don't want to create any longer layoff than necessary. I have noticed that it is more sore after I get up from sitting. For instance, after my 30 minute drive to work it gets sore but if I am up and around it is feeling better. Tonight should be Squats, Bench, Power Clean. I was going to try to at least do my benching or do you think it is best to avoid lifting altogether? Thanks for your advice.

[f4thpathway]

Bench should be fine. Maybe even shrugs instead of power cleans. Anything the requires more movement than that isn't a good idea.

[Roy]

Here are some red flags about what you've said:

* localized pain in lower back during deadlift set. terminating set.
* following day you felt like a cripple
* back flexion causes pain (bodyweight squat to a certain point, getting in/out of a car)

I had a few incidents like this leading up to a relatively severe l5-s1 herniation, followed by sciatica for some months. Nobody wants to think they have screwed up a disc, and it must be the piriformis, or some kind of muscle/tendon/joint sprain/strain....anything but injury to the disc.

You may be lucky and get one or two or three such incidents before eventually it just won't go away quickly anymore. But taking a week or two off is absolutely nothing compared to your recovery if it gets really bad. Just keep things in perspective and listen to your body and you should be fine. But the risk/reward ratio here is on the side recommending being conservative and taking a little time off until you feel better.

Ibuprofen helps, too.

[Joshua Denny]

Again thanks for the information added. I did my bench workout last night and that was all. Laying down onto the bench caused some discomfort just laying down but there was no pain during warmups so I proceeded to my works sets with 205lbs. All went well. I still have some pain and soreness there so I will probably just lay off any work that affects that area until I see the doc on Monday. He is a chiropractor and Active Release Practitioner that specializes in sports medicine so I am hoping he will be good and be able to identify the issue and how to correct it. I am always leary of doctors when it comes to weight training because so many seem very ill informed. I have friend that had his GP tell him he should NOT do squats and deadlifts because they are dangerous and he should just do light weights and high reps because he doesn't have the build to get bigger. I told him if his doctor is that stupid he may want to switch.

Anyway, thanks for the advice and you are right, a few weeks layoff is nothing compared to what would come with a serious injury.

[Joshua Denny]

Just to update for anyone that cares or helped and wants to know the outcome I visited the Dr. today. He said that it looks and feels like a muscle strain and that I should be good to go after another week off from squats/deads - stuff involving the lower back. A week has passed between when the injury occurred and when I saw the Doc, so there has already been a lot of improvement. He is going to do another treatment on Wednesday and hopefully I'll be back at it a week from now. I have just been doing the bench portion of my workouts since any hip-centric exercises aggravated so the good part about that is my bench has come up faster whereas it has always been one of my weaker lifts.

[f4thpathway]

Great news. I hope you can get back at it soon.