So I have been dealing with cervical herniations and nerve root blockages in C4,5 and 6 in my cervical spine. I was injured in a meet last June. Since then I have received an epidural for the pain this past November. I have become asymptomatic with regards to pain since the injection.
As of yesterday my doc does not recommend surgery as it has not hindered my livelihood or day to day activities. It has however effected my training. Because of the nerve damage and blockage, my left arm and its extremities have gotten significantly weaker with pushing exercises. For example I used to love to OH press and gotten up to a 250 strict press, now 155 is about my limit. Benching while nothing special, I hit 325 in a meet and 365 in the gym. Now I struggle getting 5 reps of 225. Pulling has also been hindered, while I haven’t maxed out since the injury pulling 5 plates is a struggle as my grip gives on the left side and the bar comes up unevenly.
I have improved strength wise since the injury as before a flat db press was at most done with 40lbs now I can get up to 70lbs for sets of 10. The only thing that is not effected is my squat which ironically is how was hurt in the first place.
I was wondering if anyone has had the same issues, if progression is still possible in light of the injury and what changes could/should be made because of it. Or maybe my PL venture is done way earlier than I thought.
Fuck, that sucks. No experience but I read somewhere that nerve damage explains why some of the top BBing pros look like they have a missing muscle (such as a lat on one side). Ronnie did have surgery at some point for that reason I believe.
Can’t you “fake” your way into getting a surgery recommended by your doc?
[quote]infinite_shore wrote:
Fuck, that sucks. No experience but I read somewhere that nerve damage explains why some of the top BBing pros look like they have a missing muscle (such as a lat on one side). Ronnie did have surgery at some point for that reason I believe.
Can’t you “fake” your way into getting a surgery recommended by your doc?[/quote]
Thanks for responding, it does suck I was at his office and fully expected to get it done, but I have also heard horror stories of surgery making things worse. Realistically I have to take his advice heavily since I sought out one of the best docs with regards to these kinds of surgeries in my area, so I erred on his thought process.
Unfortunately, I am kind of in a state of flux on what to do next as far as weight lifting goes.
Had a friend with a similar scenario, although he DID have a lot of neck pain. He got surgery; it alleviated the neck pain, but his nerve damage seems to be permanent. He got some of his strength back, but not all. His tricep on the affected side is still visibly smaller two years post-surgery. The longer it is affected, the higher chance of it being permanent. It’s a tough call whether or not to do the surgery. Unfortunately, it’s not a black-and-white answer.
[quote]Dr J wrote:
Had a friend with a similar scenario, although he DID have a lot of neck pain. He got surgery; it alleviated the neck pain, but his nerve damage seems to be permanent. He got some of his strength back, but not all. His tricep on the affected side is still visibly smaller two years post-surgery. The longer it is affected, the higher chance of it being permanent. It’s a tough call whether or not to do the surgery. Unfortunately, it’s not a black-and-white answer.[/quote]
Unfortunately you are spot on, my left arm has definitely gotten smaller because of the lack of nerve impulse. It has gotten better but now where near full strength, more like 65%. Like you said its not a Black and White answer, and speaking with my wife she wants me to have nothing to do with the surgery, and minimizes why I would want to go ahead with it. Which is understandable and honestly if powerlifting wasn’t part of what I love to do, surgery would definitely be out of the question
This happened to my dad. One day we were in the gym and I was spotting him on bench. He hit 315 for a couple of reps pretty easily. The next week we’re benching again, and he gets stapled by 225. Literally. It was an incredibly disheartening experience for him. He wasn’t as serious into lifting as you are, and he basically gave up pursuing strength all together after that point. He still hits the gym regularly, but he has accepted that his days of pushing for higher numbers are entirely in the past. He plays a lot of golf these days lol.
Now I sincerely hope that doesn’t have to be the case for you. I remember for my dad he had very noticeable atrophy in his right pec and tricep, obviously with accompanying weakness. He switched to dumbbell pressing pretty exclusively after the injury. He actively pursued chiropractic and mobility methods to try and alleviate the nerve impingement, and about a year later he was around 85% of where he was before on dumbbell strength. After two years he was closer to 100%, but I don’t know how much of this would really translate to his actual barbell bench, which he hasn’t done in years now.
He didn’t want to do surgery. He has heard too many horror stories and seen shit in person from some folks at his work to be comfortable having a voluntary operation around his fucking spinal cord in his neck.
But anyway, don’t give up yet. Like I said my dad wasn’t even seriously lifting, but with the work he put in he was still able to make a ton of progress back to where he used to be on DB bench. It is a long fucking road. Nerve damage is ridiculously slow to improve. But if you train hard I think you can come back and still powerlift. Also keep in mind my dad was already like 53 when this happened, so ostensibly the comeback should be better for you as a younger man.
[quote]csulli wrote:
This happened to my dad. One day we were in the gym and I was spotting him on bench. He hit 315 for a couple of reps pretty easily. The next week we’re benching again, and he gets stapled by 225. Literally. It was an incredibly disheartening experience for him. He wasn’t as serious into lifting as you are, and he basically gave up pursuing strength all together after that point. He still hits the gym regularly, but he has accepted that his days of pushing for higher numbers are entirely in the past. He plays a lot of golf these days lol.
Now I sincerely hope that doesn’t have to be the case for you. I remember for my dad he had very noticeable atrophy in his right pec and tricep, obviously with accompanying weakness. He switched to dumbbell pressing pretty exclusively after the injury. He actively pursued chiropractic and mobility methods to try and alleviate the nerve impingement, and about a year later he was around 85% of where he was before on dumbbell strength. After two years he was closer to 100%, but I don’t know how much of this would really translate to his actual barbell bench, which he hasn’t done in years now.
He didn’t want to do surgery. He has heard too many horror stories and seen shit in person from some folks at his work to be comfortable having a voluntary operation around his fucking spinal cord in his neck.
But anyway, don’t give up yet. Like I said my dad wasn’t even seriously lifting, but with the work he put in he was still able to make a ton of progress back to where he used to be on DB bench. It is a long fucking road. Nerve damage is ridiculously slow to improve. But if you train hard I think you can come back and still powerlift. Also keep in mind my dad was already like 53 when this happened, so ostensibly the comeback should be better for you as a younger man.
Good luck dude.[/quote]
This is very encouraging thanks so much for this. Same as your Dad, it happened to me albeit more methodically, I started noticing after some extreme headaches after the meat that the weight I was normally getting up I was still accomplishing but it took much more effort. Then Ill never forget the day I was Pin pressing 275, and couldn’t move it all, I have done much more than that and shrugged it off as a bad day, but then the weakness just got worse and worse to the lowest point of not being able to bench 1 plate without struggle.
The idea of your father improving to almost full strength is what I am experiencing just not at full strength, like I said before benching 135 was a struggle I can now hit 225 for 5, so it is improving, I think I will just remain patient.
I pinched a nerve in my neck/shoulder in the summer of '11, and it was rough. If I lifted that arm abovr my shoulder I’d get searing hot spots from my neck to my fingertips, my strength took a drastic nosedive and if I turned my head all the way to the right my left thumb would violently straighten out on its own (no shit).
Took some time off and have dealt with peaks and valley’s strength wise, but am now back to benching 245 for sets of 5 with a close-ish grip at a bw of 175. The biggest thing for me was hammering mobility and abusing the rumble roller. That thing has been a godsend for me. I thoroughly roll my upper back, lats and sometimes neck, and use a variation of DeFrancos upperbody warm-up.
I’m relatively pain free nowadays though I still get tingles and some dull numb spots from time to time. Seriously, look into a rumble roller.
I would postpone any back surgery until that was the only option.
You have your whole life ahead of you. The surgery may fix it or make it worse. Nerves seem pretty unpredictable.
I recently started a new job and the man I am temporarily replacing (could be permanent) had back surgery for pain in his hip and partially down his right leg above the knee. Many weeks later, the pain now goes completely down his leg to his foot and his knee feels 5 times its normal size even tho it isn’t. His quad has dramatic atrophy in comparison to the left leg. He is in his late 50’s if that matters and in now where good of shape as you.
As long as you can still train, that’s a win win situation. It really depends on what you want more to be honest - a long healthy existence dealing w/ the cards you’ve been dealt while still being able to train or risk possible further complications so you can lift heavy.
I feel bad for ya for sure. I can’t imagine not being able to go heavy, but then again; my family needs me to work and provide more than I need to move big weight. I’d just train what I could understanding that it could be so much worse. It could be better; but is lifting heavy for the sake of ego worth the risk?
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
I pinched a nerve in my neck/shoulder in the summer of '11, and it was rough. If I lifted that arm abovr my shoulder I’d get searing hot spots from my neck to my fingertips, my strength took a drastic nosedive and if I turned my head all the way to the right my left thumb would violently straighten out on its own (no shit).
Took some time off and have dealt with peaks and valley’s strength wise, but am now back to benching 245 for sets of 5 with a close-ish grip at a bw of 175. The biggest thing for me was hammering mobility and abusing the rumble roller. That thing has been a godsend for me. I thoroughly roll my upper back, lats and sometimes neck, and use a variation of DeFrancos upperbody warm-up.
I’m relatively pain free nowadays though I still get tingles and some dull numb spots from time to time. Seriously, look into a rumble roller.[/quote]
Thanks for this, I have a roller similar to a rumble roller, but not quite, this has been going on for approximately 9 months, I am just going to take it slow.
[quote]osu122975 wrote:
I would postpone any back surgery until that was the only option.
You have your whole life ahead of you. The surgery may fix it or make it worse. Nerves seem pretty unpredictable.
I recently started a new job and the man I am temporarily replacing (could be permanent) had back surgery for pain in his hip and partially down his right leg above the knee. Many weeks later, the pain now goes completely down his leg to his foot and his knee feels 5 times its normal size even tho it isn’t. His quad has dramatic atrophy in comparison to the left leg. He is in his late 50’s if that matters and in now where good of shape as you.
As long as you can still train, that’s a win win situation. It really depends on what you want more to be honest - a long healthy existence dealing w/ the cards you’ve been dealt while still being able to train or risk possible further complications so you can lift heavy.
I feel bad for ya for sure. I can’t imagine not being able to go heavy, but then again; my family needs me to work and provide more than I need to move big weight. I’d just train what I could understanding that it could be so much worse. It could be better; but is lifting heavy for the sake of ego worth the risk? [/quote]
100% man, I agree with everything you stated. I am still able to train and the strength, while very slow is returning somewhat. I have to keep everything in relative terms, while I am passionate about lifting it is not my livelihood.