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Stretching gurus / Injury rehab gurus...

T-Rage

New member
I've been rehabilitating a lower back injury now for 6 months. I am basically just doing alot of walking, stretching and back strengthening exercises with slow progress.

I stretch every morning and night. In the morning I'll walk for 20 minutes to get the muscles, tendons and ligaments warmed up then I'll stretch. In the evening I'll do the same before doing any of my back strengthening exercises.

I've already been through some PT with a chiropractor which helped but only a little.

Everytime I stretch my back is so tight it feels like steel cables are back there. After patient stretching I'm able to get a good stretch but once I start doing things like walking, the dishes etc. it gets tight again.

Is this normal?

Has anyone else been through a similar injury and eventually felt good?

Could I possibly over do it by walking two times a day everyday?

Should I take some days off completely?

I have read so many different things from doctors, chiros, back surgeons, etc. They only know what they read. I need advice from someone who has actually been there.

Also, my injury for the most part appeared to be a strain/sprain of my lower back.

Thanks!
 
how tight are your hip flexors? alot of times those 2 go hand in hand. test it out. if your hip flexors are tight it will tilt your pelvis forward thus shortening your erectors. keeping them in this shortened position for a period of time can almost get them fixated and thus feel like such tension when its time to stretch. do you have a pretty big arch in your back? when you stand normally is there any tension in your glutes? simple checks to see if your hip flexors are tight and inhibiting your glutes.
 
Bignate,
Yes, my hip flexors are very tight and I do stretches to loosen them up. And yes, I do tend to tilt my pelvis forwards. I have been trying to walk with my abs tightened to help correct this. I feel like my back is overly arched. Not sure how I screwed up my posture (most likely not focusing on core strength) but I want to fix it.

Should I walk and conciously tighten my abs to help concentrate?

Should I focus on more ab work and hip flexor stretching?
 
It would be helpful to know what kind of injury you had. I've done some loser disc damage, but without knowing what you did I don't know if I can be helpful or not.

Cheers,
Scotsman
 
Bump what are the specifics of your injury.
I have knowlege of cracked/broken lumbar spine bc I had one :) My roomate at the time had disc surgery. lol Hows that for a combo. Both eating up basketball scholarships too! Coach hated us in 97'.
Bump for your specifics
 
Training your abs is a good start, but what you need to focus on are the 'transversus abdominus' muscles, which are the stabilization muscles for the spinal column and the muscles that work in correlation with the erectors.

If you lay flat on your back, place your fingers on the flat area just inside your hip bones. Try to flex this area, this is the transversus. You need to learn how to control this area while laying down without flexing your 6 pack. After you learn how to hit this area directly, you can start doing isometric isolation stuff for it.

Make it strong....It will help. I guarantee it.
 
Thanks all so far...

Here is my injury...

Ran a mile without being warmed up and worked through a little pain in my lower back and buttocks.

A day later while still sore I was squatting with 115 lbs. (really light for me) and my body was tight and not warmed up properly. I must have gone to deep as I felt some pain in my lower back and then I immediately stopped lifting. The next couple days the pain was horrible all over my lower back and spine. I rested my back hoping it would get better and somehow 8 weeks has passed with no progress. At that time I did the family doctor thing which meant NSAIDS and muscle relaxers (for the spasms). A few weeks later I finally began PT which helped a little. I did PT for almost 2 months and then continued on my own.

My problem is that I'm scared to work my back hard as everytime I increased the intensity of my rehab stuff I end up hurting it so bad that I can't to anything for a week. This has happened twice. I also know now that I should have rested for 3 days and then started active recovery. I screwed up and in the months trying to figure out what to do my back lost a lot of ROM and I'm sure it also weakened it greatly. Now I'm just trying to take my time and get my ROM back and increase strength which I'm hoping will help alleviate the pain I'm in (mostly when standing and sitting).
 
My advice is just take it very very slow and light. If something hurst ease off of it for a while. You may never regain the flexibility or strength you once had so just keep working and see where your body will let you go. As for specific things to do, start by strengthening your abs to help alleviate the strain on your back. Then maybe talk to a physical therapist to get an idea of exercises to avoid. Otherwise keep stretching and working slowly with the weights.

Cheers,
Scotsman
 
I feel for you man. I`m in the same boat as you. Have you had an mri. X rays? I know the normal thing is to "take it easy" and slow, but THIS IS IMPORTANT. Let`s say you`re deadlifting, even if you go light and think "I`m gonna start from scratch and strengthen my muscle again" If you do it too soon you may still be going in the wrong direction because without knowing YOUR OTHER MUSCLES WILL OVERCOMPENSATE for the injured one.
It`s VERY difficult to try to not "favor" the injured muscle and let it go through the motions. A small injury can become a disfigurement. My spine is shaped like an "S" from favoring my injuries. and never healing properly. Be careful. I know you`re not as bad as I am but it sucks. good luck bro.
 
Thanks all! Yeah, this sucks big time. I'll just take my time and hopefully I will slowly progress. I'm tracking everything in a journal in terms of how much I do, the pain for that day, etc. Hopefully this will help.
 
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