Im 17 years old and have been lifting for about 3 years. In the past year ive suffered a few injuries, but the thing is they never seem to get better. Ive been reading articles about back and knee problems on this site and have been going to the doctor. With the next football season approaching i need to get better quick. so i figured id let you in on whats going on and maybe you could help me out a bit.
My Back - About 3 months ago i injured my back while squatting, it was nothing i noticed at the time but the next day it was really stiff and sore, I went to the doctor and he said it was a sprain. I went through 2 months of physical therapy and it seemed to be a little stiff but nothing major, just this nagging pain on the lower left side. I have a lifting comp. on May 6th so i was doing some squats last week. I had 365 on the bar and when i was in the hole all the pain suddenly shot right through my back and i could bairly move a few hours later. It just feels like this terrible pulling on lower left side of my back. I get a cat scan on monday and have a follow up next week.
My Knee - I had scope done last may, my knee seemed to get better but at the end of last season it started acting up again. It was this pain right in the back of my knee when i squat. I seen the doctor and got an MRI and after PT for PFS and other things that didnt work. The MRI shows that there is nothing wrong with my knee and he recently refered me to a new doc because he didnt know what was wrong.
The only advice I can give you is NOT to go to a doctor. They are absolutely morbidly incompetant when it comes to sports injuries and in all likelihood will just make you worse.
This should not be construed as an endoresement for chiropractic or any type of “alternative” practice. Just don’t go to the doctor.
I agree. The damndest thing about injuries is the great urge you can get just to try and work through them, or not wait for them to heal fully. The only way i can get around this is by replacing the original exercise with a different one which doesn’t affect the ijured site. This way i can just forget about the injury for a few months then when i get stop seeing fast gains from the new exercise i remember that i can go back to the old one.
Cutting out the exercise altogether never worked for me because i couldn’t stop working out.
I can’t diagnose you over the internet. There are so many things that coulg be going wrong right here, that I would not only have to do a thorough evaluation on not only your back/knee but all the components of above and below, as well as thoroughly look at your lifting form. This bit of advice I can tell you. Slow down, and let things heal. You do not want to be a cripple in a couple of years down the line. I am speaking from personal experience that right now you feel invincible, but by the time you hit 25, everything will start to fall apart. This is especially the case for me, when I know how to fix myself! I wish I could have learned to lay off, but I didn’t and now I am suffering the consequences. Just read back issues here and forums to help learn about core stability, proper form, and especially the neanderthal no more series.
I have had unbelievable succes with z-health training. I think there should be an interview shugs has done with the guy behind it coming soon but in the mean time go check out z-health.net.
I’ll check that article out. Thanks for all your help. The hardest part is being in the weightroom and watching everyone else squatting. I’ll just have to bench at the competetion next weekend. I get a cat skan on my back tommorrow so ill have to report on the results. Any one have any alternatives for good leg work thats easy on the back? Thnx again