Back Injury

Training Powerlifting
1

I’ll try to make this brief.

I got really bad staph over the summer, spent some time in the hospital, then a lot of time at home with an IV. Basically layed off from lifting for 6 weeks.

I try to hop back in where I left off (dumb, but I was pretty invincible strength wise over the summer PRs almost every week) and I hurt my right lower back.

I’m curious as to what I can do about it.

I’m pretty sure I hurt it while doing GMs at my 5RM. It now hurts when I flex my lower back and force an arch vs. a neutral spine.

When it gets really bad it hurts when I run with it.

Basically I’ve tried to work through it by trying to make it strong again. It hurts like hell but I’ve been able to use it, for things like GMs and squats (no where near where I was in strength), after long warm-ups it’s something I can work through.

That’s sorta the only way I know how to deal with injuries, in my short lifting career I’ve never had anything that couldn’t be fixed by “working through it” until it was strong and usable again.

I’ve hit it with a foam roller, and a tennis ball and it seems to help a little but the pain comes back if I stop the rolling aggressively.

I don’t particularly want to go to the doctor to hear “don’t lift with it” because that’s not an option.

I’m working on qualifying for USAPL Collegiate naitionals and then attending. Another layoff isn’t really doable. I’ll put a band-aid on the shotgun wound in the form of a really tight belt before I do that.

I guess that wasn’t so brief, but I want to know if you all think I can/should do.

Thanks.

2

I don’t want to touch this one with a ten-foot pole (but I will anyway)!

I understand that resting is not an option. I’m the same way. However, I believe that if you are intelligent here, you could benefit from this “set-back.”

I hurt my back a year ago and for two months did only walking barbell lunges, hip belt squats, step ups, bulgarian squats, bodyweight reverse hypers and standing leg curls.

After this two month period, I added in front squats, weighted back extensions, and weighted pillars for about two weeks.

Then, I started working back into squats, deadlifts and good mornings. After a couple weeks, I was back to my old strength levels and I believe I set up an environment for further strength gains on squats and deadlifts. Something good came out of something bad.

3

I know your pain bro. I had been killing myself to get ready for my first PL comp last year and I did something similar to yourself about 16 weeks out.

What happened me was that I popped a small bone at the bottom of my spine and it moved outta place and sat on my pelvis hitting nerves (at least that’s what I was told by my doc).

I took about a week off, then hooked up witha great physio and I was sorted within 6 weeks.

Try both a doc and chiro. Good luck with the recovery.