Thread: Training around a back injury

Originally Posted by cheappinz

Its no surprise that bodybuilders with back injuries feel better as they thicken their torso up...Did you know there are medical studies that actually show the thickness of a body front to back (compare a thick bodybuilder to a super lean, tiny motorcycle racer physique..) protects the spine and improves an existing injury.. My partner has 7 healed fractures and a poorly healed and permanently damaged T7 which causes him to be pushed into a slumping position which ends up hurting him. Staying "thick" as he calls it, decreases his pain and allows him to manage his own body without pain meds or any other treatment...
*so do exercises that allow you to thicken up your postural muscles while maintaining a safe and painfree position.

You know of any good reads on upper back injuries? Seems the people here are referring to the lower.

i can tell u this, i have a back injury as well in the L4 L5 region with pinching on the sciatic, dont know if u have already but go to a chiropractor, i have seen the chiro for about 10 weeks once a week, made tremendous difference, im stubborn so there is no way i will cut out squats, i did cut deads and bent rows, chances are u not only have the disc problem, when ur back has any kind of displacement, the muscles and tendons and ligaments try to compensate, if u are a consistent lifter, the muscles will heal quickly, the tendons and ligaments only heal with time, keep training but be very conscious of how it effects ur back, the chiro will give a series of strecthes and exercises to perform do them consistently and ice ur stuff every night for about 20 min. i guarentee u will feel a huge difference in 4-5 weeks

Everything looks great inspite your injury

How did you get injured

Originally Posted by tennfan

i can tell u this, i have a back injury as well in the L4 L5 region with pinching on the sciatic, dont know if u have already but go to a chiropractor, i have seen the chiro for about 10 weeks once a week, made tremendous difference, im stubborn so there is no way i will cut out squats, i did cut deads and bent rows, chances are u not only have the disc problem, when ur back has any kind of displacement, the muscles and tendons and ligaments try to compensate, if u are a consistent lifter, the muscles will heal quickly, the tendons and ligaments only heal with time, keep training but be very conscious of how it effects ur back, the chiro will give a series of strecthes and exercises to perform do them consistently and ice ur stuff every night for about 20 min. i guarentee u will feel a huge difference in 4-5 weeks

Very happy with the progress since ive been to the chiro, still feel very tentative doing any bent movement, i'm trying dumbell rows on an incline bench this week

The way you hold your body makes a huge difference in the amount of relief or discomfort you will feel.
They teach us in school your trunk should be held in a comfortable neutral position. Its not because its just looks better to stand up tall and upright, but because the spinal nerves are at their best, healthies position while your spine is upright...nothing being pinched or compressed.
When you squat and exercise, you will need to take care to not let you trunk be in a flexed position. It presses on the nerves.
In addition to the obvious symptoms directly from the spine, there's the sciatica. If you wear your wallet in your back pocket, this may be causing some or all of the sciatica. You need to do a piriformis stretch as well as a lumbar extension stretch as part of your regular routine...

really need this training for my back..it's been aching everytime i sit down for hours..

try foam roller exercise

Nice techniques... love reading this...

This is a great thread, thanks for the info

I agree that this is a great thread. I appreciate the person who put the information together. I have a herniated disc in my lower back and this has given me some great insight.

Thanks for posting these. I don't have a back injury, but I do suffer from scoliosis. At my age (56) I have to be careful what I do since I am just starting out. You have given me some great suggestions and descriptions of exercises that ought to be safe for me.

shudnt taking a break what comes important

i have an L4 L5 disc buldge, I like to do wood choppers with the cables and other core strength excercises like pull overs. I found this to be a tremendous help. and all leg work is seated.

It was great to read this. Welcome to my world, have the same exact problem for the last several years. Any exercise that puts direct downward spinal pressure is out. Good bye squats front or back (leg presses kill me too). All seated movements are fine as long as there is an incline on the bench or seat. Over head seated military presses, alternating DB curls just to name a few are fine with incline. Legs for me are about the same as Rooster except I do plenty of extensions. My body is proof you can still carry good size and strength even with these limits. Good luck.

I have a similar lower back problem. Ive been getting nerve blocks etc for the past 3 years from a pain doctor. Id really given up on barbell squats until i saw a video of Mike O'hearn squatting. He does everything i never thought should be done. He puts the bar a little lower on his back than ive ever seen and actually bends at his back forward at the bottom of the movement. I tried it with very light weight at first and then heavy. No pain that night or anynight thereafter. First time ive done squats in 3 years that i haveNT regretted it the next day. its on bodybuilding.com sorry for not posting the link but its worth googling. SQUATS ARE IRREPLACEABLE.

Good Info.

I damn near cried today. No I did cry. My herniated disc is kicking my ass. cant sleep, sit up, sneeze, cough, bend over, turn, wash my dogs. I cant fucking move! I may not be able to train ever again. I dont care what you say about me, a man, crying. If a young football star was injured and was told he could never play the sport he loves and lives for EVER AGAIN I bet you he'll be ballin'

To all you Obama haters out there, this is why we need universal health care. I cant afford $300 consul + xrays + MRI + what ever fancy machine, injection and meds they feel like ass raping me for.

Im so scared too because school is starting next week and I dont even think ill be able to carry my books. Im looking into getting a wheelchair.

Im so scared about my future. without exercising i might as well kill myself because there is nothing else in this world that makes happy or to live for. and the field im going into requires me to be able to rehabilitate patients. lift people is need or whatever.


I hate you all! (I really dont hate you all, its the pain talking) I feel like breaking shit. with all this pain has caused anger. It made me even play chicken with an on coming car. And he didnt even know he was playing, he just swerved out of the way. I have lost my GD mind do to this pain.


FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!

Also

god bless the USA for NOT having universal health insurance so I can live a healthly and productive life. now i might have to go on disability. would you rather have universal health insurance(so I can keep working) or pay for my disability(and not work). either way its coming out of your taxes.

Im sorry, please lets not turn this thread in to one of those because of me. I was just in great pain, and I still am and lost control of my emotions due to the pain. Im just scared that there my not be anything I can do about it because of $$$$ and I live for exercise. Without it I will lose my mind.

I would like to say sorry and I apologize for my rant.

TJTJ, you will be in wheelchair in no time soon if u doing nothing..see physiotherapist and get proper XRAY...or try to look for chinese Physiotherapist..

My back pain caused by my pelvis misalignment..the chinese physiotherapist@sinseh adjusted it and im 70% better...i will be going for more treatment next week...he also find out my old injury on the my left waist side..

Originally Posted by Just_Moe

I think it is a chicken/egg thing. My right hip is forced forward while my left hip is forced back so it is twisting of the hips actually ( I am broken LOL).
I have to work on tight hip flexors as well as recovery from the resulting damage to the spine and surrounding tissue.

Thanks a lot of this thread--and advice!

pelvis mis-alignment?

Thanks for the lovely tips. this is what i was waiting for

great,love it

Thanks p-funk ,I have the same issues with my back and with your knowledge I can use that to help myself without hurting anything.

Originally Posted by P-funk

Yea, submaximal conditioning/work capacity stuff.

For example, since we are talking about sprint training, you would have your sprint days, which are +90% (but not maximal for speed or distance), which are done on your leg days.

The tempo work would be on your upper body days. For example, it may be something like tempo runs at a low intensity (<75% intensity) and you may do something like 200m tempo run, followed by a walk recovery, and repeat. Or, you may do a low volume of longer distance tempo work, like say, 3x600m tempo runs with active recovery, again at <75%. The reason that the tempo work is below 75% is to ensure that you are not sapping your nervous system so that you can adequately work on your speed/sprint days. The speed work is over 90% because anything below 90% (in that 75-85% range) is too slow to be considered speed work and to fast to be considered tempo work (or speed endurance work), so it will just burn you out.

Other things you can do for tempo work may be something like rowing intervals, bike intervals (if those don't bother your back) or, I like to use either KB snatches or KB swings (can use DBs if you want) for something like 15sec work:15sec rest for a set amount of time.

Those are just some ideas. So many ways to set up a training program though.

patrick

I never knew this. These are some great ideas

A simple and easy thing to do is to make sure to do a lot of ab workouts when doing squats and deadlifts... your body is a pully system... and with those two the back side gets so much more work than the front side.... anytime my back starts hurting i always bust out the abs for a day andall is good....

doctore told me i could never play football again i did and my days were ended playing college football... i had 4 levels of disc that were finally removed no fusion. when i was told no football i couldnt hold back the tears of no more football AMERICAS SPORT!!!