crap I hurt my back again....

[rykertest]

not lifting or anything but just as I was getting back into it after about 6 months off, my lower back is killing me. Going on about 2-3 weeks now of ZERO workouts. I'm really getting tired of this. All I can do is go slow on the elliptical and I hate it. I am trying to lose BF yes, but just slowly putzing along on the ET is kinda worthless it seems.

When your lower back hurts, you can't do anything without it letting you know.

 

[Scotsman]

How much ab/core work had you been doing?

And sorry to hear it, back injuries suck.

Cheers,
Scotsman

 

[rykertest]

How much ab/core work had you been doing?

And sorry to hear it, back injuries suck.

Cheers,
Scotsman

Mostly just sit ups to be honest, and only twice a week. I've never had back "problems" as in chronic but this one won't seem to go away. It hurts all the time, especially when I walk. It you can picture where the spine and the hip bone meet, down in that little "nook", thats where it is. I can't seem to stretch it out either. I think what kinda concerned me is that last week, I took some flexaril and some 800 mg ibuprofen to see if that would help, and it only midly helped. Thats kinda scary.

Now I just limp around and constantly use my heating pad and ice pack. I'm almost 36 you know. lol

 

[coolcolj]

situps? That means you have tight hip flexors and posas - situps make it worse, combined with all the sitting you do
Stop doing situps!!

Tight hip flexors, inhibt the glute from firing, so the lower back starts to become over active. Your glutes should feel it when you walk, not your lowr back. I.ve been there before

try this in the morning and after anytime you sit for a while and before training to
lossen up the hip flexors and activate the glutes, which will reelas pressure off your back. The glute should do all the work


do a quad/hip flexor stretch like this at medium intensity

http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/images/golf_stretching_quad.gif

after about 20secs, you should feel your hip flexors start to relax. You keep holding the stretch after the 20secs, and the start contracting the glutes at moderate intensity so the upper thigh moves back slightly - hip extension - but you only contract briefly. Relax the contraction, while still holding the stretch, the upper thigh will move back, forward a little, and repeat the contraction 20 times. Then do the other leg


When I've been sitting a while and I do this move, straight after, my lower back feels all relaxed and nice and my glutes take over an do all the work when I stand or bend over. Where I normally might have my lower back feel all tensed and strained. Everyone can benefit from this move as we all sit quite a bit...

Works great before a squat and deadlift session to get the glutes firing

 

[rykertest]

situps? That means you have tight hip flexors and posas - situps make it worse, combined with all the sitting you do
Stop doing situps!!

Tight hip flexors, inhibt the glute from firing, so the lower back starts to become over active. Your glutes should feel it when you walk, not your lowr back. I.ve been there before

try this in the morning and after anytime you sit for a while and before training to
lossen up the hip flexors and activate the glutes, which will reelas pressure off your back. The glute should do all the work


do a quad/hip flexor stretch like this at medium intensity

http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/images/golf_stretching_quad.gif

after about 20secs, you should feel your hip flexors start to relax. You keep holding the stretch after the 20secs, and the start contracting the glutes at moderate intensity so the upper thigh moves back slightly - hip extension - but you only contract briefly. Relax the contraction, while still holding the stretch, the upper thigh will move back, forward a little, and repeat the contraction 20 times. Then do the other leg


When I've been sitting a while and I do this move, straight after, my lower back feels all relaxed and nice and my glutes take over an do all the work when I stand or bend over. Where I normally might have my lower back feel all tensed and strained. Everyone can benefit from this move as we all sit quite a bit...

Works great before a squat and deadlift session to get the glutes firing

Maybe due to my not explaining but I think you missed the point of my post. I've injured something, like strained a muscle or pinched a nerve or something. I have tried stretching as I mentioned but it doesn't help.

But you do make a point about doing less sit ups or more accuratly "crunches".

 

[Tweakle]

Have you seen an ART doc about it? They can work wonders & let you know where the issues may be. Often the cause might be something you would never guess yourself (in my case, chronic hip pain at the front caused by my glute med not firing correctly.. something I could never have diagnosed or treat myself)

 

[rykertest]

Have you seen an ART doc about it? They can work wonders & let you know where the issues may be. Often the cause might be something you would never guess yourself (in my case, chronic hip pain at the front caused by my glute med not firing correctly.. something I could never have diagnosed or treat myself)

art doc?????

 

[searay]

i have back problems all the time. you really have to keep your hamstrings and back stretched out. what happens is if one of your hamstrings gets tighter than the other it will pull your hips out of line and then the tiny muscles that hold your spine together get tight and pull your spine out of line which pinches the nerves and hurts like hell. i see an osteopath who showed me how to stretch that keeps my hams loose which keeps my hips straight which keeps my spine alligned. your gonna have to go see an osteopath who will heat up your lower back and then stretch you out which will help alieve the pain sooner than just waiting it out. your gonna have to learn to stretch everyday to avoid having back pain. cause once it goes out it takes at least a week for the pain to subside. if you keep going this way youll eventually blow a disk and then its over until you have surgery and an extended recovery. good luck.................

 

[rykertest]

i have back problems all the time. you really have to keep your hamstrings and back stretched out. what happens is if one of your hamstrings gets tighter than the other it will pull your hips out of line and then the tiny muscles that hold your spine together get tight and pull your spine out of line which pinches the nerves and hurts like hell. i see an osteopath who showed me how to stretch that keeps my hams loose which keeps my hips straight which keeps my spine alligned. your gonna have to go see an osteopath who will heat up your lower back and then stretch you out which will help alieve the pain sooner than just waiting it out. your gonna have to learn to stretch everyday to avoid having back pain. cause once it goes out it takes at least a week for the pain to subside. if you keep going this way youll eventually blow a disk and then its over until you have surgery and an extended recovery. good luck.................

good post thank you. I have to go to my regular doc first per my insurance rules, but I will look into that. It's been more than a week now and it's odd, it starts to feel better, and then the next day, bam, it's hurting again bad. I've tried the stretching thing and I don't know if thats gonna help allthough it can't hurt. I didn't hurt it lifting or anything, it's been long enough to where I don't really remember what I did to injure it. It just started to bother me and it got worse.

 

[buffut1]

Searay is correct, a lot of low back strains actually come from tight hamstrings. I suggest you take some time EVERY day to do some serious hamstring stretches and Motrin 600mg TID for 5 - 7 days.

I've been plagued with back injuries for years (surgery and whole 9 yards) and this regimen works great for me when I have a flare.

Hope this helps.

 

[rykertest]

Searay is correct, a lot of low back strains actually come from tight hamstrings. I suggest you take some time EVERY day to do some serious hamstring stretches and Motrin 600mg TID for 5 - 7 days.

I've been plagued with back injuries for years (surgery and whole 9 yards) and this regimen works great for me when I have a flare.

Hope this helps.

OK I will give it another shot with the stretching. It's wierd but in the lower portion of my back on th eleft side about "belt high" it this wierd knot. it's not like a typical muscle not, but like a tendon or something and when I press it and dig into it, it helps with the pain. If it were a typical muscle knot, it would be gone by now with all the rubbing and massage I have done. I've had different muscle problems over the years like anyone has, but this is the longest lasting and most painful one. Thanks again for everyones replies and comments. Along with the stretching I am also going to see my doc early this week and get some more flexaril. It seemed that that with some high dose of ibuprofen really helps alot. Plus I sleep great too. lol

 

[coolcolj]

not so much tight hamstings, more like tight hipflexors and inactive glutes.

 

[searay]

^^^^^
yes, it is out of line hips that start the problems. the reason i start at the hams is because it is the root of my problems in that i have one hamstring that is shorter or tighter than the other. the thing that sucks is once you start having problems and one of your disks start to bulge, or the goo thats seperates them, then it will be an ongoing problem. the seat in my truck broke once and i was ridin around in a crooked seat and after about 3 days of that my back went out bigtime. went to sit down and WAM it felt like someone stuck a live wire into my lower back. i dropped to the ground, couldnt breath, and was in agony. my 12 yr old son thought i was having a heart attack. keeping your legs stretched out at least keeps that part of your body aligned and prevents ongoing problems. the next stretch is a twisting movement that keeps the tiny litle muscles that keep your spine connected stretched. if one of those tightens up its what causes the goo in between your disks to bulge and then the pain begins. once those tighten up they have to be stretched out so your spine can realign and the pressure relived so the goo can go back to where it belongs. if you dont deal with this issue it can cause a disk to rupture and then 2 disks are collapsed together because the goo that seperates them is gone and the the real and permanant pain begins until you have surgery to have the disks fused. sorry for the lack of proper terminology..................

 

[rykertest]

well it's been close to 2 months since started this post. My back did get better and I've had a few setbacks but I have found this inversion table does help if it gets tight again. I've not lifted any weights in 3 months now, but doing some cardio. I work a lot and my job is physical so I'm trying to really work on my diet. I do ok and use Sundays as my cheat day to keep my sanity and give me something to look forward too during the week.

To be honest I'm a bit leary of lifting, especially something like squats or deadlifts. I just see my back locking up and having to start this whole mess over again. I would like to try Omegas new program but I don't have the cash and I think I would need to of been lifting for a while before doing that. I'll wait awhile and see how the lifting goes and try and save some money. I feel ok about my eating as I feel my clothes getting much looser again so thats good as they were getting a bit tight there.

So anyways, I just needed to "type it out" so thanks for anyone that replies and has replied.