First off, let me apologize for not posting ANY training of mine this week. Its not a deload week for me. In fact, it was scheduled to be a big training week for me in this accumulation block. Only had ONE little problem. Ive had so much pain in my lower back that it is all I can do to get up or sit down in a chair, let alone try to squat or deadlift a couple hundred pounds. Accessory work? GTFO. No way that was happening. I can honestly say that I havent felt pain like this in a very, very long time. Its constant too. My only saving grace was that it was bilateral pain, and not in my spine. Fortunately, now though, it is starting to recede much like my hair, and, as much as it might pain me to say this, I have my lovely massage therapist wife to thank. Love you baby!
Why does it pain me to say that I have my wife to thank? I’ll tell you. Since Tuesday, i have been brainstorming a shit load on what could be wrong. I’m going to say I literally spent 4-5 hours a day since Tuesday night searching. I’ve also been researching information from all corners of the internet. WebMD told me I have cancer. Or PTSD. Or I am paralyzed. Not quite that extreme, but now I know who to thank for a generation of hypochondriacs. Some places said muscle tears, spinal injury, etc, etc, etc. The real problem i was having was that I had absolutely NO IDEA how I injured it. Usually, and I’m going to say that this is true over 90% of the time, if you hurt yourself to cause enough pain that it actually bothers you, you remember it. I couldn’t remember anything specific. NOTHING. My wife found out in about 15 minutes, and she didn’t even really try.
This morning, As my wife was getting ready to go to work, I goaded her into doing some work to try to loosen my lower back up. She relented, and started going to town on my back. She did all sorts of massage therapist stuff that im not sure I know the name of, but I can give a brief description of. They could all be called HURTS LIKE HELL. She had me flopping around on the floor like a fish out of water. Kind of pathetic to admit, but it HURT. I was not a happy camper. She told me that my erectors were all knotted up, which I knew. Then she started doing some work on my upper glutes, right next to the erectors. This in turn amped the pain to 11. She then worked down some into my gluteus medius, gluteus minus, and also dropped her elbow into my piriformis. She said that she has never felt mine so knotted up and tense. Here is the awesome part. As she was doing this, the pain in my back disappeared, almost immediately. It was awesome. Literally almost indescribable. Right now, it is sore from all of her bodyweight transferred to the muscles via her elbow, but the pain aspect is gone. I am indescribably happy, soreness or not. I may actually be able to get after it on Monday, regardless of the soreness. With a meet coming up, and my training cycle being in full swing now, that is a big deal. Now I realize what my buddy, Jo Jordan, has been dealing with. Here is the difference between he and I. he has been squatting, pulling and basically training like a maniac the whole time he has been dealing with his issue. And he has had it for MONTHS. You’re more of a man than me Jo. Or an idiot. I think I will let the people decide.
Tomorrow or Monday, I plan on continuing this post with some things that you can do to help alleviate this problem. I would do it now, but some of the exercise descriptions are a little tricky, and some pictures or a video would go a long way to help show you some things that you can do to not end up like me, or my idiot buddy Jo. Wait. Scratch that. I said I would let you guys decide. I don’t really think he is an idiot, just a little humor for you guys, and him, before I go to bed. If you are in a situation like mine, you may want to check out our Massage Therapy page and see if Dannielle can help you too.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Jason, you are so right: muscular tension can cause a lot of back pain. Each person is different, and each person changes continually. In my case, the current problem tends to be hip flexors pulling the pelvis and putting tension on teh lumbar discs; the erectors themselves are mostly ok. A year ago, my problem was tightness in the thoracic region erectors.
This is where a good LMT or ART is worth their weight in gold.
Often it is like pressure that’s built up, and if its been painful for a long time without any therapy whatsoever it can be very painful when you do get something done to it. But next time it will be less painful, so keep doing massages.