Possible Permanent Low Back Injury From Doing Upright Rows

[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!