please help - lower back pain on 1 side

[lavi]

I posted this in the medical issues forum but I dont think it gets much traffic...

my left lower back has always felt a little achy at times, right where my lower back connects to my ass. It is also much tighter than my right side.

Today I was squatting, working up to a 5rm and once I got to 175lbs (5rm is ~275lbs) on my back it felt a little strainy. Then I did 215 and 250 and during the last "lockout" part where I guess the bar speed would be quick and then stop at lockout, the left side of the very bottom of my lower back hurt a lot.

I stopped and then tried deadlifts with just the bar. I got the same pain, mainly at the lockout area of the lift. I would also feel it across the entire left side where the ass meets the back

Other info that could be important:
I used to deadlift over/under with the left hand over right hand under. I started to notice that my right trap was smaller and switched to hook grip. I switched about 7-8 months ago. Maybe a muscle imbalance ensued? To me it feels like my left side might be a bit bigger, and it is definately tighter. Is this related?
I'm not very flexible.
Even before I started working out, I went to some Chinese doctor guy a few times, and he said my back was the tightest he's ever seen.
my lower back recovers from deadlifts very slowly.

18yo
5'6", 150lbs
295 sq
420 dl

 

[musketeer]

Do proper hip and thigh and lower back stretches after each workout, such as pretzels and hamstring stretches. Practice them for 10-20mins after each workout - when you are competely warmed up. At a completely different time of day, use a HEAT pad to warm the lower back muscles and encourage them to loosen. Swimming - esp. with frog kicks (breast stroke) will also help your hams and willimprove your lower back strength. Use a swiss ball to work your abs and improve your core strength. Get over this recurring problem before it becomes a lifelong barrier.

GOOD LUCK

 

[natty]

Got back problems myself. Could be really bad knots in your back, worst case scenario spinal cord bones out of alignment or herniated disc. Chiropractor can help out.

 

[blut wump]

Pretty much what musketeer and natty said about seeing a chiro and doing lots of stretching after every workout. You could try throwing in some reverse hypers to open up the vertebrae but it'd be better to start messing about with DIY chiro after seeing a professional.

My chiro had me applying cold rather than heat. I discussed it with him along the lines of using heat to relax the muscles rather than cold to reduce swelling. He said the kind of heat you'd get from being in the shower is fine but that I shouldn't be applying heat pads and packs. I just can't remember why not.

Swiss ball in general is good to give you imbalance which your core must then work to restore balance. Dancing, apparently is good too. Get a copy of 'Core Performance" by Mark Versteggen for lots of core exercises.

It needn't be a lifelong problem if you get it dealt with.

 

[lavi]

Do proper hip and thigh and lower back stretches after each workout, such as pretzels and hamstring stretches. Practice them for 10-20mins after each workout - when you are competely warmed up. At a completely different time of day, use a HEAT pad to warm the lower back muscles and encourage them to loosen. Swimming - esp. with frog kicks (breast stroke) will also help your hams and willimprove your lower back strength. Use a swiss ball to work your abs and improve your core strength. Get over this recurring problem before it becomes a lifelong barrier.

GOOD LUCK

Hmm the heat pad is a great idea. It should help with recovery too I would think, which would be awesome. I definately need to stretch more but I never see results and would stop. Why is swimming necessary? I was actually planning to do that more next year at school, but I don't see how it is beneficial for strength vs weights?

You're right about the abs, I would get lower back pain when doing situps and have been told that is due to weak abs.

Got back problems myself. Could be really bad knots in your back, worst case scenario spinal cord bones out of alignment or herniated disc. Chiropractor can help out.

I spoke to my doctor today, she said she'd gimme the name of a chiro tomorrow. I have always been under the impression that chiro's are usually a lifelong ordeal. Considering I'm 18, I'm hoping I wont have to realign my spine every week for the rest of my life. You could be right about that though. I feel like theres a bigger bone on the left side at the spine/pelvis (i have no idea what it is), but I've had someone else feel it and she said it's just muscle. I guess I'll find out from the chiro.

Pretty much what musketeer and natty said about seeing a chiro and doing lots of stretching after every workout. You could try throwing in some reverse hypers to open up the vertebrae but it'd be better to start messing about with DIY chiro after seeing a professional.

My chiro had me applying cold rather than heat. I discussed it with him along the lines of using heat to relax the muscles rather than cold to reduce swelling. He said the kind of heat you'd get from being in the shower is fine but that I shouldn't be applying heat pads and packs. I just can't remember why not.

Swiss ball in general is good to give you imbalance which your core must then work to restore balance. Dancing, apparently is good too. Get a copy of 'Core Performance" by Mark Versteggen for lots of core exercises.

It needn't be a lifelong problem if you get it dealt with.

I wish I had a reverse hyper : (. Cold rather than heat? I guess I'll just go by what my chiro tells me heh. For Core exercises, I wish it'd be easy to know which are the best for this problem and for improving my PLing. Is it a worthwhile book? most of those books are damn expensive.

For now no more lowerbody workouts, which is extremely frustrating. Another stupid ass setback.

So the take home points so far:
Stretch consistently - (effectively is another matter)
either heat pad for lower back or cold pad for lower back lol.
swim for some reason?
Strengthen abs
See chiro - which I plan to do and will update you guys afterwards.
fix it NOW!

Thanks guys

 

[blut wump]

You can lump swimming and dancing in the same boat. The idea is to get you to use your hips more.

In general you use cold to reduce swelling/inflamation and heat to relax muscles. I just can't remember why my chiro said that too much heat would be bad for me. Maybe it had something to do with promoting too much blood-flow into the area. He had me applying cold for ten minutes about five or six times per day.

Regarding stretching, the most effective for me were hamstring stretches.

I wouldn't bother with "Core Performance" unless you plan to get serious about working your core for a few months. It's not worth buying for light reading. Maybe you can find it in a library.

Good luck with the chiro. My first few experiences with chiropractors lasted two or three visits and then life went back to normal. It all depends on the problem. At your age your body is more likely to sort itself out and it's very unlikely that you have some sort of chronic deterioration.

 

[musketeer]

I'm sure you will recover from this minor set-back, but it's time to adopt the best practices. If you are still training in 8 years time (like me at 26) then you will be doing these things like swimming and extensive stretching, and probably wishing that you started them earlier. If you lift heavy often, then it is in your interest to get checked out about twice a year by some kind of secialist professional. My choice is a doctor of oestopathy but it's about who you can find and who you feel comfortable with. The swimming will lengthen your muscles and work them without causing impact damage - like running etc. The stretching that you have been doing is probably not up to par, and before now (being young) you might have been supple enough anyway - find a martial artist or something, to show you how they do it. Ireccomend the heat as opposed to the cold because I believe that the problem you have is tightness, and not tissue damage, in your lower back.

 

[lavi]

I was referred to an orthopedist, not a chiro. Anyway, I saw him today. I told him about the possibility of muscle imbalances, my left side feels tighter, etc but he said that wasn't the issue. Here's what I was told:

-I probably tore a small ligament near my pelvis at the bottom of the spine. A joint near the sacrum or something. It's not a major thing relating to the spine. Basically it's not a big injury and not something I'll have to live with for life. And my spine is fine (took an x-ray).

-Bench press with your feet on the bench. Not on the floor.
-Don't stick your butt out when doing squats , military press, and anything else. Do the opposite to keep your spine straight.
-Don't do straightlegged deadlifts
-Don't do straight-legged situps.
-Flexibility is overrated and not the issue.
-Maybe my body is just not built for doing those types of exercises. (Yeah Ok buddy. I'll just stop working out now.)


Either I'm very confused or what he's said is the opposite of everything I'm supposed to do. He's been working out for 40+ years although not powerlifting, just being "healthy" I bet. He talked about that plenty. At least he has some idea of the exercises and such. I'm thinking I should just ignore just about everything he said? lol. I don't even see how it's possible to squat with my back straight heh. I'm not quite sure what to think of my visit today.



Anyway, he referred me to a Physical Therapist. I'll see what he says on Friday. Sucks being out of the gym though... I need to deadlift!!!

 

[lavi]

You can lump swimming and dancing in the same boat. The idea is to get you to use your hips more.

In general you use cold to reduce swelling/inflamation and heat to relax muscles. I just can't remember why my chiro said that too much heat would be bad for me. Maybe it had something to do with promoting too much blood-flow into the area. He had me applying cold for ten minutes about five or six times per day.

Regarding stretching, the most effective for me were hamstring stretches.

I wouldn't bother with "Core Performance" unless you plan to get serious about working your core for a few months. It's not worth buying for light reading. Maybe you can find it in a library.

Good luck with the chiro. My first few experiences with chiropractors lasted two or three visits and then life went back to normal. It all depends on the problem. At your age your body is more likely to sort itself out and it's very unlikely that you have some sort of chronic deterioration.

I asked about heat pads, he said it would relieve pain but thats it. He said stretching is overrated. My doctor called a chiro and he said that at my age it mgiht not be a good idea. Hence I went to an orthopedist. Thanks for your help. I'm curious about your reactions to my visit

 

[lavi]

I'm sure you will recover from this minor set-back, but it's time to adopt the best practices. If you are still training in 8 years time (like me at 26) then you will be doing these things like swimming and extensive stretching, and probably wishing that you started them earlier. If you lift heavy often, then it is in your interest to get checked out about twice a year by some kind of secialist professional. My choice is a doctor of oestopathy but it's about who you can find and who you feel comfortable with. The swimming will lengthen your muscles and work them without causing impact damage - like running etc. The stretching that you have been doing is probably not up to par, and before now (being young) you might have been supple enough anyway - find a martial artist or something, to show you how they do it. Ireccomend the heat as opposed to the cold because I believe that the problem you have is tightness, and not tissue damage, in your lower back.

Thanks for the advice. According to the ortho it's a small torn ligament and tightness is not an issue, although the ortho has said a lot of things . That is a good idea to get checked out regularly by someone knowledgable. First I gotta find someone knowledgeable.

I'm curious as to what I'll hear from the physical therapist. For now this thing is interfering with my upperbody workouts too, which is very frustrating. I hope the physical therapist really fixes everything!

I'm gunna ask the physical therapist about everything too.

 

[blut wump]

I was referred to an orthopedist, not a chiro. Anyway, I saw him today. I told him about the possibility of muscle imbalances, my left side feels tighter, etc but he said that wasn't the issue. Here's what I was told:

-I probably tore a small ligament near my pelvis at the bottom of the spine. A joint near the sacrum or something. It's not a major thing relating to the spine. Basically it's not a big injury and not something I'll have to live with for life. And my spine is fine (took an x-ray).

-Bench press with your feet on the bench. Not on the floor.
-Don't stick your butt out when doing squats , military press, and anything else. Do the opposite to keep your spine straight.
-Don't do straightlegged deadlifts
-Don't do straight-legged situps.
-Flexibility is overrated and not the issue.
-Maybe my body is just not built for doing those types of exercises. (Yeah Ok buddy. I'll just stop working out now.)


Either I'm very confused or what he's said is the opposite of everything I'm supposed to do. He's been working out for 40+ years although not powerlifting, just being "healthy" I bet. He talked about that plenty. At least he has some idea of the exercises and such. I'm thinking I should just ignore just about everything he said? lol. I don't even see how it's possible to squat with my back straight heh. I'm not quite sure what to think of my visit today.



Anyway, he referred me to a Physical Therapist. I'll see what he says on Friday. Sucks being out of the gym though... I need to deadlift!!!

The joint he's referring to is most likely the sacro-illiac joint. "Probably have a tear" is not really what you want to be hearing. If you wanted guesses, we could have done that. This basically means that you have little choice but to follow his regimen over a reasonable time during which healing should occur if it is a tear. If it doesn't then you can get him to think again. It sounds like he's taken the path of least involvement by telling you to take it easy for a while. If it is a small tear then he's probably right but I'm surprised he didn't recommend cold to reduce inflammation at the site.

As for the rest of his recommendations: he's telling you to take away any stress from the area. It's poor advice to suggest that you lift like this all the time, since it will lead to muscle atrophy and a useless posterior chain, but short-term it will take stress away from a tear. He might as well have told you to stop working out for a few weeks.

See what the physio says and ask him whether he's a sports physio or can pass you on to a sports physio. A bit of massage might work wonders on you anyway. Don't expect wonders from a physio. They're really just rehab guys and then mostly for older folks.

Basically, by telling you that it's "probably a tear", the ortho has taken the cop-out route in the expectation that your body will sort itself out. Unfortunately, if you ignore his advice then he'll blame you for any failure for the problem to go away. If you do ease back and it doesn't go away on its own then he might say that it's time to take a closer look. Did he make any recommendations besides taking it easy?

 

[lavi]

The joint he's referring to is most likely the sacro-illiac joint. "Probably have a tear" is not really what you want to be hearing. If you wanted guesses, we could have done that. This basically means that you have little choice but to follow his regimen over a reasonable time during which healing should occur if it is a tear. If it doesn't then you can get him to think again. It sounds like he's taken the path of least involvement by telling you to take it easy for a while. If it is a small tear then he's probably right but I'm surprised he didn't recommend cold to reduce inflammation at the site.

As for the rest of his recommendations: he's telling you to take away any stress from the area. It's poor advice to suggest that you lift like this all the time, since it will lead to muscle atrophy and a useless posterior chain, but short-term it will take stress away from a tear. He might as well have told you to stop working out for a few weeks.

See what the physio says and ask him whether he's a sports physio or can pass you on to a sports physio. A bit of massage might work wonders on you anyway. Don't expect wonders from a physio. They're really just rehab guys and then mostly for older folks.

Basically, by telling you that it's "probably a tear", the ortho has taken the cop-out route in the expectation that your body will sort itself out. Unfortunately, if you ignore his advice then he'll blame you for any failure for the problem to go away. If you do ease back and it doesn't go away on its own then he might say that it's time to take a closer look. Did he make any recommendations besides taking it easy?

Yes you're right, it was the sacro-iliac joint. He felt the area a little, let me explain some of what I was feeling and such. Then I took an x-ray from my left side. He believes it's a tear in a minor ligament and wrote up a "prescription" for a physical therapist. He didn't say this, but my understanding from someone I talked to that to really know you'd hafta to do an MRI which is expensive and invasive. But yeah I didn't find the visit entirely reassuring. Hopefully the physical therapist would know a little more?

Well his advice on form was not just for the next few weeks but in the long term too. Pretty much whatever I do aggravates my back except pullups and exercises where im lying down so I wont be working out very much anyway.

His recommendations basically were to take some aleve for now, go to the physical therapist, follow his recommendations on form and exercise selection. I asked about heat pads , muscle tightness, muscle imbalances, but he didn't seem to think they were important/factored in.

I check out the physio's website at ptspecialists.com, very fancy and stuff which is a bad sign but they talk mainly about athletes so hopefully its a good sign. I dunno who exactly i will get. I will ask for a sports physiotherapist for my next visit if I don't get one already. I'm going up to school in 2 weeks so I really hope I can fix this by then.

What else do you think it could be, assuming its in that area and assuming my spine is OK?

I'm not sure what to expect now, I just have to sit back and hope the physiotherapist can help fix everything. Meanwhile I can't work out which sucks ass big time. And this is basically right after a 2 week deload. feels crappy.

 

[musketeer]

Looks like you DID have tissue damage!

I feel for you man, but dont despair. Lot sof pros have had really serious injuries and come back fighting. My advice would be to get really good at all of the stuff that you can do. Some people who don't know how to workout just do a few exercises like pullups and bench presses and leg presses - but do lots of them, and they can look pretty good. When your back get better, you will be able to catch up really fast.

 

[lavi]

Looks like you DID have tissue damage!

I feel for you man, but dont despair. Lot sof pros have had really serious injuries and come back fighting. My advice would be to get really good at all of the stuff that you can do. Some people who don't know how to workout just do a few exercises like pullups and bench presses and leg presses - but do lots of them, and they can look pretty good. When your back get better, you will be able to catch up really fast.

Thanks man. Just saw the physical therapist. basically there isn't really much to do to enhance the recovery process - ligaments dont get much blood flow and take a while to recover. He said I should wait a month before doing squats and stuff and even then kind of build up for a few weeks before going heavy again. He did some stuff to help loosen up the joints and such, He'll probably see me again 2 or 3 more times before I go up school.

he was very surprised at how tight I was, with all the stretches he was like "that's it?" lol. He gave me some stretches to do everyday. Thats something I shouldve been doing all along. he said cold will help with inflammation and making it feel better but it wont help it recover quicker (which is all I care about as Im not dying from pain anyway).

So basically what I have now is:
avoid exercises that hurt it
see the physio a few more times
do the stretches 1-2 times a day to loosen up the area.

I just have to sit back and let it recover and accept the fact that my strength is gunna go out the window. for legs I have to stick to leg extensions/curls and hip abduction/adduction. my ass and lower back will atrophy for the next month. upperbody I probably dont want to do normal bench as the pl setup puts stress in that area. also cant do rows so will be doing pulldowns. I have to see if I can do ab stuff, probably not. this is all fucking crappy. i want my mommy!

This is my plan 3x/week:
4x8 DB Bench
4x10 pulldowns
3x10 inc/mil press machine
try 3x10 rear delt machine maybe
3 sets grip somehow
try 3 sets of glute-kick machine
3x10 leg extensions
3x10 leg curls
3x10 hip adduction
3x10 hip abduction
3x10 ext rotator cuff

another reason isolation sucks. 29-35 sets in 1 workout = im gunna be in the gym forever

Thanks for all the input guys!

 

[blut wump]

Thanks for reporting back. Good luck with the rehab.

 

[musketeer]

One or two months recovery is little to pay for a lifetime of STRENGTH. Suck it up and come back kicking ass; with a new post workout stretching plan...