Possible Permanent Low Back Injury From Doing Upright Rows

[Nogloveslars-Chargeback]

Hello All,

This is my first post and I would like to say I have never learned more or spent as much time on any site as I have on Elite over the past couple of years.

A few months back on last set of upright rows I threw my lower back out and was laid up for a day. It healed quickly but never fully recovered. Took 9 weeks off and saw a Chiropractor. felt great with no symptoms. Went back to the gym and did T-Bar rows with very light weight and felt great. On the way home it went out (kind of spasmed) again from the workout. Laid up for a day. Now, 3weeks later I am able to exercise upper back on machines and cables but no lower back for fear of reinjury. Has anyone had this happen to them? Even after all this time, lower back is tight and I know it is not healed. I have to be careful in lifting anything. Fortunately, I am babe to do squats, bench and even low back extensions with no injury. Soon I am going to see the Doc and get an MRI to see what's going on. (x-rays from Chiropractor showed no injury) Can anyone shed some light on what this injury might be?

 

[Zyglamail]

Chances are you strained some tendons or ligiments. Now that they are stretched out the joint/s are sloppy and much more prone to injury, pain and spasm. Due to poor bloodflow, tendons and ligiments heal very very slowly and if overworked may not heal at all. The average Doc will tell you to reduce inflamation with meds which further prevents healing since this inflamation causes increased bloodflow. Before you give up, consider going under the knife or accept to live with the pain, I would seek out a prolotherapy Doc in your area. The treatment worked wonders for my tendonits. You can get more details on prolo at www.prolotherapy.com and there are also a few good books on the subject, here is a link to some books for ya

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-6231435-8768911

 

[Themachine01]

This is off topic, and Nogloveslars i apologize for putting this in your thread, but im wondering how if this was your first post, why is it showing over 500 under your username? If your platinum why arent your stars flashing? Just curious.

 

[Delinquent]

No one has glowing stars except MOD's right now. They're working on it though

 

[JKD]

I injured my lower back when I was 17. I ruptured disk L4 and L5 and also fractured a vertabrae. I couldn't walk without a crunch cause my siatic nerve was paralyzing my leg. I went through about a year of chiropratic treatment as well as intense physical therapy. I am 26 now and haven't had any real problems with it until about a week ago. I blew it out trying to lift an air condtioner out of the back of a car. I am in the middle of a cycle right now so I kind of screwed. Its been a week and I feel like I could start lifting again but it is probably not a good Idea. If I ruptured the disk again and I start lifting without letting the disk re-heal itself. The disk will continue to degenerate and the problem will get even worse. Basically, your disk are composed of a tough shell with a gel like fluid in the middle. When the rupture your disk gets smaller because the fluid is pushed out. You need to let the rupture scar so no more fluid is pushed out.

Usually you will hear or feel somewhat of a pop - thats when you know your screwed. If you are getting pain in the right leg or but cheek - your siatic nerve is probably being pinched which is not a good sign. I would go real light when squating that puts a lot of strain on the lower back and you may do more harm than good. Wait to see what the MRI results are before going heavy again. Good luck.

 

[Themachine01]

thanks

 

[Nogloveslars-Chargeback]

Thank You very much for the replies. I will definitely take it easy for a while. I did hear a "pop" during both times I injured it. Hopefully over time it will heal. Incidently I did go on Celebrex for a week after the injuries and it helped a lot. I am not sure why so many posts are showing under my name.. I just signed up for the Platinum earlier last week and posted for the 1st time today..

 

[Zyglamail]

Thank You very much for the replies. I will definitely take it easy for a while. I did hear a "pop" during both times I injured it. Hopefully over time it will heal. Incidently I did go on Celebrex for a week after the injuries and it helped a lot. I am not sure why so many posts are showing under my name.. I just signed up for the Platinum earlier last week and posted for the 1st time today..

I think you get a certian amount of posts added when you sign up for platinum. As for celebrex, be carefull, anti inflamatory meds while making you more comfortable actually inhibit healing.

 

[RRR]

Becareful with upright rows. It puts ALOT of stress on the shoulder joint. Don't ask me to get specific why, but someone I know was a physical therapist who switched over to a personal trainer explained to me why it was bad for the joint. It made sense at the time, so now I stay away from upright rows.

 

[genarr3]

Becareful with upright rows. It puts ALOT of stress on the shoulder joint. Don't ask me to get specific why, but someone I know was a physical therapist who switched over to a personal trainer explained to me why it was bad for the joint. It made sense at the time, so now I stay away from upright rows.

It's an injurious motion to your rotator cuffs. If you don't believe this try doing them with an imaginary bar in your hands. Assuming you're doing them correctly your elbows should be above the bar at all times. Now when you reach the top of the movement you should notice that your shoulders "bottom out" at the completion, in other words you can not raise your shoulders any higher. With no weight behind it this is not a problem, but with the momentum of 100 - 200lbs you won't feel this bottoming out and you most likely will surpass it alittle. Each time doing damage to the joint. There are far better ways to work your shoulders and traps, leave this exercise alone.

 

[JKD]

"As for celebrex, be carefull, anti inflamatory meds while making you more comfortable actually inhibit healing."

Yep, try not to take med unless you need them. I found the don't really do sht for the pain anyways. Rest the back - don't do squats or any other lifting till you have that MRI - especially considering you heard the god awful pop. Thats not good. If you rest and wait for it to heal you will be glad in the future. I am in the same boat except I am 6 weeks into a cycle. Just starting to get my strenght gains and now I got to contend with severe back pain. I am scheduled to get an MRI in a week. I aint going to do sht till then as far as lifting goes. I will do some swimming though.

 

[40butpumpin]

First of all bro, not many problems in life are truly permanent, so don't sweat that. You WILL get better.

What you've done is strain your lower back to the point that the very complex set of muscles down there cannot, at this time, hold your vertabrae in place properly. When that happens, your vertabrae compresses disc material which protrudes onto your spinal cord or major nerve(s) (Sciatic) extending into your legs.

Unfortunately, it's a viscious cycle when you have a lower back injury because when the spinal cord or major nerve material is irritated, the muscles, in a very involuntary and protective way, tighten and go into spasm. This, of course, is not an environment in which healing can take place with any expediency.

Here's what you need...

1) Wet Heat: Every morning and afternoon, take a big thick towel and get it completely wet with HOT water. Fold it in 4 and lay it on the floor on top of a plastic garbage bag. Lay right on top of it aligning your body so your lower back is completely covered by it. Keep your knees bent so your lower back is flat on the heat and not arched away from it. Stay there until it no longer feels hot, about 15 or 20 minutes. Then...

2) Slow gentle stretching: begin to pull your knees up to you chest one at a time, slowly and gently. Keep the leg bent completely, don't try to straighten it at all as you pull it up to your chest. Do one leg at a time for 15 to 30 seconds. Alternate legs until you can pull your knee right up to you chin or forehead without any discomfort at all. At this time your back should feel very relaxed.

3) Strengthening exercises: Look up ways to strengthen your middle 'trunk' area of your body, abs, lower back, etc. I do a lot of floor exercises immediately after the stretching above: leg lifts, crunches, etc. right from the laying position. If you need more info. on these just email me.

4) Avoid the types of exercises that cause excessive straining of the lower back: Bent-over rows (in fact most, if not all rows that require both arms at once) and standing straight bar curls are two that come to mind that are rough on the lower back. Using dumbbells wisely make it possible to still work these parts of your body while not straining your lower back.

You've got to strengthen and rehabilitate yourself bro, but it CAN be done. By doing this you'll find that not only will your back get better but you will have increased overall body strength and power.

I do hope that helps, all the best brother and hang in there!

 

[StoneColdGold]

once again i find that 40butpumpin has beaten me to the punch. he moves fast for an oldtimer .

his assesment is right on. i have degenerative disk disease and deal with these problems continually. the spasming is caused by the spine/disks not being in proper alignment. you can treat the pain by stopping the spasms like 40bp said. however if the problem is disk related, the solution will be more complicated. it is definitely worth getting an MRI so you can know exactly what is going on.

quick question... do you feel the radiating pain in one leg more than the other? the L4/L5 level is where i have my problem, and the dermatome for that level goes across the right hip and down the right leg.

 

[40butpumpin]

You know it buddie, I have to work hard to keep up with you young bucks.

I'm sorry to hear about your degen. disease, StoneColdGold, that pain can be rough I know. You'd think they could come up with something to help that by now. You hang in there with that, bro.

Nogloveslars, just to elaborate on StoneCold's comments, disks are a more complicated problem when there is a herniation of the disk material itself. A compressed disc is really no biggie...that's when MD's and Insurance Agencies humbly agree that Chiropractic Care is legitimate and necessary. Sorry for digressing. It's sometimes necessary to surgically remove a portion of a herniated disc that is lodged next to a nerve body. I had this done in '84. If it comes to this, this too is not really too big a deal. Just find a good surgeon, get it done and then do everything the Physical Therapist tells you to during your rehab. Don't rush your rehab and you'll be fine.

Now I need to go and beat StoneCold' to the punch again.

 

[norr]

I'm with genarr and rrr on this one; since I've injured my rotator cuff the upright rows are on my no-no list right next to weighed dips... very poor mechanics, you're practically asking for an injury especially if you like to go heavy.

 

[Nogloveslars-Chargeback]

Thanks for the advice Bro's. I will give these recommendations a try. StoneCold - I have not had any pain in the legs. It appears to be localized the low back. Honestly, I feel no pain unless I am doing bent over movements. No deadlifts for me for awhile though!