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Thread: Deadlift lumbar injury questions

  1. #1
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    Default Deadlift lumbar injury questions

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    I've done the requisite research here and elsewhere to see if my question was answered. I've gathered a lot of useful information, however, I don't quite have my answer yet. (You may commence special snowflake commentary now.) Stats: 47 y/o, 182lbs, 5'10, longish torso, 335 DL, 315 squat. Programming: LP, then 2-day split for a couple years, with a few setbacks due to travel and work.

    The injury happened on the first pull of my final set of deadlift warmups @ 305 (working weight 335). I got the bar to about my knees and felt a searing pain in the right-side lumbar spinal erector area, a few inches above my belt line. I dropped the weight immediately and fell straight to my back. The pain was intense. I've only felt worse pain during with an ear infection where the doctor used a medieval metallic scraping tool to clean it out. Fortunately, I was lifting in my basement and not making a scene at the gym. The crashing of the plates and the sound of a grown man screaming in pain started a family stampede down the basement stairs to see what was the matter. After lovingly snapchatting my agony to their friends, someone was nice enough to get me an ice pack and some pillows.

    Leading up to the injury, I had a little voice in my head telling me to take it easy that day. A few days earlier I had strained my back a bit while sloppily re-racking a heavy squat. Nothing bad - just a little tweak. But it lingered a few days and I should have known better. Anyway, I convinced myself it was no problem and the deadlift injury was located in the exact same spot I felt the earlier tweak. My initial sense was that the injury was a strain, not disc-related. I can't tell you specifically why that is since I've never experienced this before. It just felt like more like a tear when it happened. However, in the days after the injury, there was no bruising. I'm not sure if that's always a symptom of a muscle-belly tear. I haven't found the answer to that question yet.

    The pain was severe enough that I could not consider moving from my position on the floor. There was no way I was calling an ambulance or going to an urgent care doctor because the pain was so intense that I just wanted to be left alone and as motionless as possible. After about 6 hours, I was finally able to crawl over to the basement couch and I spent the next 24 hours there. After a day, I was able to gingerly hobble upstairs and spent the next day in bed. After that, I was finally able to shuffle around and slowly start walking and doing mini-air squats. I never did go to the doctor or chiro. I was feeling improvement every day and most of what I read indicated that a doctor was just going to tell me to rest, stretch, walk, and try to manage the pain as best as possible, which I was already doing. The pain in my back was matched by the radiating pain to my groin and hip area.

    It is now 3 weeks post-injury and the soreness in my back has diminished slowly and steadily. The anterior radiating pain is getting better too although it seems a bit slower. Sitting is still no fun but more tolerable now. After about a week the pain started to blur so I started the Starr rehab protocol with bodyweight squats. A few days of that and I am now stepping up the weight from an empty bar, 10lbs at a time, as prescribed by the protocol, followed by some light stretching. 25 reps is a lot, but I usually don't feel worse, just a little tired.

    After having read and thought about this a lot, I still have some lingering questions:

    1. I'm questioning whether my injury was actually a muscle strain/tear or actually a disc problem. Is my possible misdiagnosis setting me up for reinjury as I continue to up the weight in my rehab program? I'm a bit scared because that was really painful and took me out of commission for longer than I could afford. In Starting Strength, Rip says that most lumbar injuries are not tears since the muscles are mostly for bracing, not actually going through a long range of motion. But elsewhere here on the forum I've read that lumbar tears are more likely than disc injuries.
    2. Would it be advisable to go to a doctor or chiro at this point? Would an accurate diagnosis be possible or helpful?
    3. What should I use as a guide to determine if I'm pushing the Starr rehab too hard or not enough? Pain? It scares me that the little tweak I felt before the injury didn't stop me because it didn't feel like much, although the injury itself was debilitating. However, I want to do what I can to prevent any scar tissue in the muscle body, because that would really be bad news.


    Basically, I really do not want to reinjure myself by handling this injury incorrectly. This knocked me out for a long time and I had to take several days off from work. I don't want a repeat any time soon, but I do want to get back to lifting, so any direction would be greatly appreciated. It's a given that I need to re-evaluate my deadlift form and make sure to listen to the little voice in my head from now on.

  2. #2
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    Hi,

    I had an injury like yours some years ago, on the last rep of my working set of DLs. I just felt, no, I heard something ripping on the left side, somewhere between the kidney and the iliac crest. I was in a gym, I managed to put the weights away and take the Tube back home. Once the adrenaline rush subsided, I could barely move.
    Bending over was very painful; raising my knee, either from a seated or a standing position, was worse.
    Started rehabbing after two/three days with long sets of squats, although this is not the only option (here's Alan Thrall's take on the subject: YouTube).
    Since then, I've tweaked that same part of my back more than once, although never as seriously, and I am now usually able to resume full lifting in about a week.

    To answer your questions:

    - it's almost certainly not a disc injury.
    - If the above is correct, there is probably nothing a doctor can tell or do to help. Having said that, some foam roller or, even better, tennis ball work will help
    - Move. Movement is the better medicine. Let pain be your guide, you will get back to where you were (although IMHO, first time injuries might require a few more days than subsequent occourences).

    Last but not least; you probably will get injured again, maybe in the same spot. If that happens, don't sweat, don't panic; you will get back to normal.

    Hope this helps,

    IPB

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by ryan.hand View Post
    Would it be advisable to go to a doctor or chiro at this point? Would an accurate diagnosis be possible or helpful?
    Ask yourself if you have any neurological red flags. If yes seek treatment immediately.
    If not, ask yourself what a diagnosis would accomplish for you. Some things that are likely are: A pain prescription, a referral to a surgeon, orders to rest, exercise recommendations, physical therapy recommendations, telling you to come back for chiropractic adjustments twice a week for 6 months. Compare the potential outcomes of a doctors visit to what you are willing to do. If you are planning to keep training your way and heal on your own, is consulting a doctor adding value for you? Consider the costs (time, money, psychological effects) of going to a doctor to hear what you already know... your back is injured.

  4. #4
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    Dec 2016
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    You should not stop moving. For details go to Barbell Medicine youtube channel and watch the videos about pain and injury management.

  5. #5
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    Agreed on all of the above. I had a minor low back tweak 2 weeks ago. What made it worse? Resting around the house freaking out about it. What made it feel better? Training. Can't even feel it when I train and it feels 99% better after a day of lifting.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by ryan.hand View Post
    A few days earlier I had strained my back a bit while sloppily re-racking a heavy squat. Nothing bad - just a little tweak. But it lingered a few days and I should have known better. Anyway, I convinced myself it was no problem and the deadlift injury was located in the exact same spot I felt the earlier tweak.
    . . . .
    It's a given that I need to re-evaluate my deadlift form and make sure to listen to the little voice in my head from now on.
    Hi Ryan, I'm sorry that this happened to you. Based on the quotes I've put here, from your OP, it sounds like it might be your squat form, rather than your DL form, that you'll need to work on. (Or both?) The intensity of the pain with DL'g does not mean the injury did not happen on the day you did the heavy squats, I think.

    I've had a lengthy experience with pain that I believe is from disc injury, which compresses and/or pokes into nerve roots, as they exit the spinal column. The signs there are pain that radiates down to your butt, legs, or below (aka sciatica), or any loss of bowel or bladder control, or (in my case) a loss of knee and ankle reflexes followed by the left quad ceasing to fire -- which I found out when I tried to run a few steps and nearly fell to the ground. If you have "just pain" a doc won't recommend surgery, because back surgery only relieves "just pain" about 1/3 of the time, and increases pain an equal number of times. If you have loss of bladder or bowel control it's considered a medical emergency and a surgical situation for sure. The loss of reflexes and quad firing, in my case, did not lead to a surgical recommendation either, but you won't know about reflexes unless you see a doc and have him tap your knee with a mallet. But if your pain is not radiating far down the leg to the foot it's unlikely. For "just pain," even if it's caused by a disc injury, a doc will tell you that you need to keep moving (gently) and to be patient, because it's likely to take 12 weeks or so to heal. Nerves, once they have been irritated, are s-l-o-w to heal. I suspect the nerves can be irritated by inflammation that starts from a muscle tear, as well as from a disc protrusion. So your initial impression that the injury was muscular may be right, even with radiating pain. But as I said, even if it's a disc, if the symptoms are "just pain" the doc is unlikely to recommend any intervention. (I put "just pain" in quotes because it's what docs said to me -- not because I think the pain is trivial, by any means! When you're the guy in pain, it's very hard to hear "just pain!")

    You mentioned sitting as painful, but did not say whether your work is a "desk job." It may be time to consider a standing-up desk. If standing still also hurts, there are treadmill desks that let you walk slowly while working -- if you can concentrate while doing that. Amazon has quite a few products along these lines. One of the newer ones is this anti-fatigue mat, which I would try if I were still working: Amazon.com: Topo by Ergodriven | The Not-Flat Standing Desk Anti-Fatigue Mat with Calculated Terrain [Must-Have for Any Standing Desk] (Altostratus Grey): Kitchen & Dining --because I'd be unable to concentrate well while using a treadmill.

    I hope you feel much better, soon.

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