Sciatica

Training Bodybuilding
21

[quote]Dr. Ryan wrote:
Hoosierdaddy,

If you don’t have leg pain, then you don’t have sciatica.

Sciatica refers to pain running down the back of the leg and into the lower leg and foot.

How did you hurt yourself?
Does the pain increase if you cough or sneeze?
Try bending forward 5-10 times, does the pain stay the same, get worse/better or change location?

Bend backwards 5-10 times and answer the same questions.

Lay down on your stomach and do 5-10 press-ups (the cobra postion) and monitor what happens to your symptoms.

How did they rule out a disc problem?

For the time being, click on the Cool Tips archive and go to the Get on a Roll post and follow the directions. That should help with sitting to some degree.

I can give you more info once I know how you respond to the above movements.

Take care,

Ryan[/quote]

I don’t have sciatica? I love you.

I hurt myself playing basketball, when i went up for a layup, hence why I think it has something to do with tight hip flexors (because when I shoot a layup my right knee shoots up)

Coughing: No Pain
Sneezing: No Pain

Bending over ten times: Hurts bad the first time, improves and plateaus after numbers 3 or 4

Bending over backward: Hurts first time, but then not after that

Alternating (Forward then Backward): Hurts everytime

Cobra: no real noticeable pain

Sitting: Constant strong dull pain

He did some reflex check with my knee, my foot, i had to do something else with my body while he hit something. I dont remember what I just remember him telling me that if I had a disc problem something something nerves something something reflex. But he said he was almost defintely sure I didn’t have disc problems.

Ok doc, now what do you think?

22

sorry again, bumping for the hope of Dr. Ryan responding ( i want his response to be public because it seems as if EVERYONE injures their lower back)

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Hoosierdaddy,

Based on the mechanism of injury, I don’t think a disc injury is the most likely culprit. However, the doc you saw doesn’t appear to be well versed on back problems. Disc injuries can result in loss of strength and reflexes, but most do not.

Without examining you it would be difficult to diagnose your problem, but based on the mechanism, it is more likely that you sustained a strain type injury involving the erector spinae muscles down by their attachment in the lumbosacral region.
Spraining of any ligamentous tissue surrounding the lumbar facets or SI joints would need to be ruled out.

Definitely try the towel roll with from the COOL TIPS section.

PM your email or fax number and I will send you some pictures of exercises to try.

Take care,

Ryan

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Although the original poster is not suffering from sciatica, I hope this thread continues so we can spread ideas.

I currently am suffering from sciatica, especially in the mornings. I herniated my L5-L4 disc last November while deadlifting. I feel the pain of the other sciatica sufferers…especially if you are like me and love training and hard-out sports like rugby or wrestling, etc, exactly the things that you can’t do with this injury.

I am currently doing a lot of stretches and ab work to help my rehab, but do a set or two too many, and you actually set your recovery back. It’s a balancing act. I find you can do some upper body weight training, but often my love for training defeats my common sense, and I suffer some more. The tip about the Vit E is a good one and I will try it.

For me, whirlpools etc actually bring the pain on, but a small wheat bag heated in the microwave and placed on the injury site offers some relief. While I am in pain often, I have a positive attitude. I herniated another disc 7 years ago and the pain was much more severe than what I am suffering now. I beat that one, and I will beat this one too.

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I had a mild case of Sciatica last year. It started as a throbbing pain in my right ankle and knee that would pop up whenever I ran on a treadmill. At first I thought it was just shin splints or something similar but the pain got progessively worse and more consistent and it spread from just my ankle and knee to my whole leg and right lower back. I used the “ignore it and it will go away” technique to treat it (not recomended) and stopped working out (just walking was pretty painful at this point) and after a couple of months off I seemed fine.

Then out of nowhere it popped up again (I went to bed feeling completely fine, got up the next morning and almost fell over from the pain). I went to a doctor this time and he gave me some (I think) anti-innflammatories. Those didn’t seem to help much so I went back in and saw a different doctor who told me to try and go 4 days without sitting down and to only lie on the floor. As weird as this sounded I was willing to give anything a shot at this point and it did the trick.

I felt better after two days, but decided to play it safe and stick it out for the full four. So far I haven’t had any reoccurences, but I haven’t done much running since then either.

(as an aside to any medical doctors who may be reading this, how come when I go to the doctor barely able to walk I get a sample packet of perscription strength Ibuprofen and when my cute female friend goes in with an upset stomach she gets 3 months worth of Vicodin?)

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Hello Everyone,
I?ve been a lurker on this site for sometime, of late I?ve been doing a lot of research through some old threads on this subject and keeping up with this one. It amazes me to hear how many people suffer through lower back pain, but it is nice to hear the many stories of people persevering through it. If anyone could possible provide me their thoughts on my current problem it would be very appreciated. Sorry about the length of this post, I wanted to provide enough information.

First off let me say after reading the many posts on this subject I feel lucky in that I haven?t experienced any of the debilitating pain many people get with Sciatica or disc problems. Never the less it has been about a month since my injury occurred and I?m getting rather frustrated. My injury occurred while deadlifting, I was only doing 225 because I was still warming up. I don?t feel I lost my form, but when I was pulling I felt a pull in my back and immediately shut it down. I swear it felt like one of my erectors gave, so at this point I was figuring it was a pulled muscle. I went home and iced it and it didn?t seem to get worse that day, the next morning though was a different story. My whole lower back was incredibly tight, all the way down to both the glutes. I was walking around in sort of a waddling fashion. At this point I wasn?t experiencing any numbness and only a slight shooting pain when I bent over at the waist, but I could push through it and almost touch my toes. At this point I decided to make an appointment with a chiropractor versed in sports medicine.

I got in the next day, by then the pain was about the same, but I had the slightest trace of numbness in my left foot. I was diagnosed with a slight protrusion of the L5/S1 disc. He did 2 movements for my lower back and said to come back in the next couple of days. At this point in time I didn?t totally understand the diagnosis, but he made it sound like it was very common and I would be back to normal in no time. 5 days later I was feeling good, no constant pain or anything, so I decided to get back into the gym and do a few stretches and get some cardio in just to get the blood flowing. During my hamstring stretching I felt a sharp pain for a split second, I rose up and it was gone immediately. I ended up doing some light cardio work with no ill effects, but the next day I was really stiff, not as bad as the initial morning after the injury, but definitely a setback.

I was back in the chiropractors in a few days and he said that bending at the waist puts the most stress on the L5/S1 joint and I should avoid that for a while, instead I should try to stretch my hamstrings by lying flat on my back and putting my leg up on the wall. So again a few days go by and I?m feeling good again so I try those stretches, no pain this time, but the next morning I wake up and it is worse than at any other time. I?ve been back in twice and had some work done and I?m feeling pretty good right now, but it?s gotten to the point of being afraid to do anything because the smallest things keep setting me back. Also it seems that I?ve been experiencing more numbness in my left foot since the second occurrence of pain. Right now I have no pain, just really stiff all the time. I take two advil in the morning and that is all the meds I take for the day.

After reading extensively about back problems after the second time I stretched and made it worse I directly asked my chiropractor what exactly a protrusion was. Is it a herniated disc, or a bulge? He indicated a grade level 1 herniation. I haven?t got an MRI to show anything conclusive. After reading everyone?s posts along with multiple other things every herniation sounds much worse than I?ve been experiencing. I trust this chiropractor because he came with 2 glowing recommendations from my Father who had to go to the hospital for a back problem and another trusted friend. He also has excellent credentials, but everyone is human and can possible mis-diagnose something, it?s always good to get a few opinions.

I plan on doing reverse hypers in the near future; also the towel idea is in the works. I haven?t tried the horse pose or superman movements either. Just the stretching made everything worse so I?ve been very hesitant to do anything.

Any thoughts would greatly be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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I tried some of the exercises recommended by the Renegade J. Davies yesterday. The plank I couldn’t do. It set my sciatic nerve aflame. The side plank was fine, and a tough exercise for 30 seconds! The horse was fine too. I haven’t tried the supermans yet as I didn’t want to introduce too many variables at once, but will give it a try tomorrow.

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MtnMan,
Are you rounding your back when you stretch? If so, stretch without rounding your back.

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I have had sciatica down left leg for 9 months now - L5/S1 disc bulge. The medical advice: wait because if we operate it could be permanent (scar tissue). It is getting better, I only limp a little bit now (rather than Quasimodo style) but its still painful. For months I could only walk 100m before the pain became agonizing. Straight leg raise was about 25% (it means you can get your foot about 6 inches off the floor) Popped NSAIDs like they were fish oil tablets, but was able to move onto normal pain killers before any side effects from the NSAIDs. Will try the vitamin E.

I am not sure there is all that much you can do to help repair the problem. My lower back and abs were already in pretty good condition, so further strengthening didn?t really do much.

The main thing is not to make it worse. 99% of people will get better over time, so all those people who say ‘I did/took this and I got better’ - well, a large number of them were just co-incidences. Probably they had tried 10 other things before hand, but credit the thing they were doing at the time they got better, rather than it just being a natural repair. Physio, for example, will do nothing about the disc bulge, but it may relieve pain caused by muscles tensing up (eg because you are walking funny).

Anyway, my physio happened to also be the physio for some elite (O-level) athletes and did some study for me on weightlifting you can do with sciatica.

The basic message is - do nothing that puts pressure onto your lower back. So anything where you are laying down on a bench is fine (although I had to support my left foot on a block rather than put it on the floor). Anything where you are pulling weights down (rather than pushing up) is fine (eg pull ups, lat pulls - although sometimes this irritates the nerve, it doesn?t make it worse). Preacher curls are fine. Light squats might be fine, but I couldn?t bend my legs in order to do it. Dips were fine. Sit ups possibly, but might irritate - do partial sit ups on the swiss ball. Pec deck (you take what you can get). In theory you can do thigh/hamstring curls on the machine (whats the correct name for these?) but as I couldn’t straighten my leg there wasn?t much point

What can?t you do: deadlifts of any kind. Standing anything - curls, shoulder raises, shrugs. Shoulder/military presses. Cable pull. Seated row. Most stomach exercises involving leg raises.

Cardio: its hard to find things. Cycling was fine for me, although I am suspicious about the bending/bouncing aspect of it. But I pretty much only ride to/from work, 20min each way, so nothing extensive. Swimming, except for breastroke cos the kick is a killer. And, well, thats about it.

You are really stuck doing upper body exercises and limited cardio. No sports. Hardly any walking. And probably a wife who complains about your lack of assistance around the house.

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So about today’s tip of the day…

Couldn’t you have said that weeks ago???

(j/k, i should have known better)