Tag Archives: low back pain

How I Screwed Up My Back…..and What I Did About it

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As anyone who reads this blog or knows me can attest, my back has been a mess in the past. But I guess that’s what happens when you dislocated your SI joint playing football, herniate three discs, and tear almost 2/3 of the quadratus lumborum muscle (Re: the big nasty that holds the place together) 10 years ago. It pretty much ruined any chance I had of going pro. But I’m not bitter.

Now I’d love to say this was a made-for-tv movie where Kurt Cameron played my life story of overcoming adversity to battle back from a devastating injury to return to glory, but let’s face facts: I still have pain on pretty much a daily basis, and will probably develop arthritis at an early age as a result of it. I’ve tried getting back into playing competitive sports, but every time I get into a game, there goes righty, giving way and making me spend the next few weeks trying to walk without looking like I’m 60 and in need of a walker.

Now hope is not all lost, people. I can still do a bunch of cool stuff and move well in certain directions. The ones I have the most trouble with is any type of explosive rotation work or change of direction movements, which basically make up the majority of any of the fun sports out there. It’s come to the point where I know what I have to do to make a flare-up get better, and also how to prevent them (Re: not be stupid), but every now and then I have to start at square one and build it back up after doing something I shouldn’t have done, or after sitting for too long without a rest break, etc, etc. So I’m going to go through some of the things I do to help my back get back in shape, as it took me a number of years to figure out what worked best for me, I thought it might help fast-track someone who is in the same boat.

Now before we start looking at the exercises and progressions I used, I have to say that the vast majority of back injuries are going to resolve themselves, and in the case of disc herniations, as long as there’s no extruded fragments in the central canal, the timeline is about 6 months. Ask anyone who has had this type of injury and see if the thought of spending the next 6 months in pain and limited mobility sounds appealing and they’ll most likely answer you with a swift kick to your left scrotum.

So there has to be something to do to speed up the process. After reading countless books on the topic, I came up with a sequence that seems to do the job pretty well for me, as well as for the few clients with acute and sub-acute disc herniations I’ve worked with.

Step One: McKenzie and Positioning

Depending on the spine, most disc herniations are posterior-lateral in nature, meaning the nucleus moves through the annulus rings towards the back and one side of the spinal cord. This will cause the disc that normally angulates to the front to now angulate to the back, changing the persons’ posture into more of a hunch or slouched over posture, complete with posterior pelvic tilt. One of the best ways to counteract this is with passive positioning into extension and allowing the muscular spasms to reduce guarding of the vertebrae and discs, and allow the nucleus a chance to recede back into the disc, therefore reducing pressure on the spine and lateral nerve roots.

By spending about 5 minutes at a shot in this position, it allowed the muscles to relax and the disc to move anteriorly as much as possible. From there, performing a kneeling cat-camel stretch to try to reposition the spine and pelvic was the only thing that would allow me to stand and walk during a work day until the pain reduced enough to start doing some form of active mobility and re-training of the abdominal muscles.

Step 2: Don’t Stretch the Tight Muscles

The first thing that tended to cramp up on me was my hamstrings and glutes. the Last thing I wanted to stretch out was my hamstrings and glutes. As I’ve discussed in a previous post, stretching these during back pain will essentially reduce the stabilizing effect of these muscles for the spine, and increase the risk of having the vertebrae buckle and become further injured.I had to try to get some level of stability into the spine and supporting muscles to take the pressure off the hamstrings and glutes to help them settle down, so I started working on core stability.

To regain some of the mobility of the hips and upper spine while protecting the low back, I started going through some mobility drills.

Step 3: Get Back Gradually

After a week or so of doing this daily, my back will normally feel good enough to start moving and lifting light weights, and eventually progress into heavier weights. I use a simple system of deciding whether I can move on to light weights or heavy weights. For light weights, If I can move through the full available range of motion, with or without pain, I start doing light weights. When I can move through the full available range of motion pain-free, and can do light weights with no loss of function the following day, I can start doing heavier weights.

My last major flare-up came last March, when I went to the NSCA conference in Las Vegas, and took a seminar with Todd Durkin, believed I was Superman, and went full speed into foot work drills. Of course, I tore up the carpet in that place, and I can assure you Todd never saw a 240 pound Canadian do a carioca like that. I was like freakin Fred Astaire wearing Under Armour in the absolute sexiest way possible!!!

But then I felt the disc slip, and was on the shelf after 10 minutes.

Epic fail for me.

It took 2 months and a half-dozen chiropractor appointments and massage therapy sessions to get me to sit up and roll out of bed in the morning without shooting pain. I’ve never been one to complain about soreness or pain, and I think it drives Lindsay nuts some times, but there were definitely days that were close to unbearable.

That was in March. This was in November:

and this was December:

I decided to take some time off from heavy heavies for a few months to make sure I don’t over-stress the area, and will attack it again in March. My goal is over 400 pull from the floor, which in my mind will be a major victory over my injury in less than a year from the last big tweak.

Hopefully this helps one or two of you out there. This is one of the reasons I love working with injury rehabilitation clients, because I have an understanding of what they’re going through, how frustrating it is, and how amazing it can feel to get over an injury and start to “feel normal” or as normal as possible again. Let me know if you’ve overcome any serious injuries in the comments sections, and you might help to inspire someone else who is struggling with a similar injury and give them the motivation to keep on fighting.

Pierced Navel’s: They Look Awesome, but they Kill Your Back

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Every now and then we stumble on a little vignet of info that makes us seem that much cooler to the people around us, and if we were to show it off at a party, would make members of the opposite sex want to engage in reckless activities with us. Today, I would like to share one such earth-shattering bomb of knowledge with you, so that you too can use it to amaze and intrigue your friends and be the life of the party next time conversation spills over into core dysfunction. What? It could happen.

I briefly talked about this in one of last weeks posts, but I met with a client with low back pain and had her take out her belly button piercing to try to improve her cores’ function. It had a dramatic result, essentially allowing her to do a forward bend and get more than double the range of motion before spinal movement occured than when she had it in. So for today I thought I’d shed some light on this commonly forgotten little McNugget of core dysfunction knowledge.

I know this probably sounds like some sort of witches voodoo or Tom Cruise Scientology mumbo jumbo or that I’ve completely gone off my nutter, because quite honestly if there was ever a place to hang a bit of shiny metal that would improve the appearance of said hunk of flesh, it couldn’t be a better place. I mean, come on….

…………………………………………

Huh?? What? Oh, sorry. I just sort a….

Uh……

…………………………………………

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah!! Piercings!! Sorry.

Let’s say we stab a piece of metal through the body. In any situation where a foreign body invades, it disrupts the fascial integrity of the structures around it, and starts to lay down new adhesive scar tissue around the area. This scar tissue gets all sticky and possessive towards everything it touches, sort of like a stage four clinger who has abandonment issues and wants you to call them EVERY 15 MINUTES!!!!

**Why won’t Alicia Keys return my calls? I know she’s gotten them, but why won’t she call back!!??

So when these additional fascial adhesions start to go all haywire they start affecting the function of the abdominal muscles around the area.

Namely, all of them.

Check this action out. This is a photo of the ventral aspect of the abdominal wall, from the center looking out. Betcha haven’t seen the abdominal wall from the inside out, now have you??

That little yellow highlighted area is the backside of the umbillicus, the fancy schmancy name for the belly button. It has some direct fascial connections to the rectus, transverse, and both internal and external obliques, the liver, the testes/ovaries and all sorts of different organs. It’s kind of like the cornerstone of the abdominal wall. When we look throughout the body, in any situation where there’s disruption of the fascial layers, the flexor withdrawal reflex causes the muscles being pulled on to increase their activity, and causes the reciprocal muscles (like the paraspinals, erector spinae, QL and other key offensive linemen of the back) to shut down or at least be limited. In knee surgeries the quads shut down and the hamstrings tend to tighten, leading to a specific rehab directive of getting the muscle activity back to normal. Ditto with shoulder surgery, abdominal surgery, and other fun things like that. Over time, this imbalance between flexors and extensors leads to some form of accumulated microtrauma from muscle imbalances. Sounds like a recipe for some tasty tasty back pain to me!! Don’t believe me? Too bad, it’s my blog, it’s epic, and I can talk about what I want. So nyeah!!! Just because it’s my blog and I can do what I want, here’s a pic of Darth Vader and the Predator about to throw down.

Any questions? Yeah, that’s right.

This is something that freaked me the hell out when I first started thinking about it, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. I mean, I grew up as a clown-puncher lifting heavy shit, pumpin up the gun show, thinking belly button piercings were hot as hell, If you wanted to make the abs work properly you just had to do a thousand crunches and twists and heavy-ass deadlifts and all sorts of stuff like that, right?

Uh……… no.

There’s a butt-load of nerves, muscle and fascial tissue that all works on electrical signalling right below the belly button, and metal can conduct electricity away from those destinations, thus interfering with the abdominal signalling and making the core muscles work like a fat guy’s colon after scarfing a couple of Double Down’s. By putting in a metal belly button ring, it’s like holding a metal golf club on a golf course and wondering why your ass gets zapped by God’s fury over your last double-bogey.      Seriously, use a sand wedge once in a while, ya hump!!

Still don’t believe me? Check this shiznit out.

And then look at this wicked awesome map of the energy meridians in the body, and look at how many of them converge on the belly button.

I’ve done assessments on clients where I show them their spinal range of motion with the piercings in and then again with them out, and in 99.995% of the times (maybe, I don’t keep track) their ability to do a forward bend increases when the piercing is out. Their strength and endurance through extension increases hyooogely!!! And their spinal stability also goes way up, meaning even if it’s not the cause of their back pain, it definitely isn’t helping them out or doing them any favors.

When we add something foreign to the body, there’s a reaction to it, whether it’s a good reaction or bad reaction depends on where it is, what it’s made of, and what it’s purpose is. For the most part, metal objects will interfere with electrical activity within our bodies. I’d love to see a study done where EMG activity is compared between abdominal muscles before and after removing a navel piercing (you hear me out there, Bret Contreras??).

Let’s say you’re getting some low-level low back pain, and you have a belly button piercing. Try switching it for a ceramic or glass model, or just remove it altogether and see what happens. I know when I took mine out it made me feel so good, but now my man-kini just doesn’t look the same.

The Best Exercises You Will Ever Do: 1-leg Cable Squat & Row

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What the hell happened in the NFL today!!?! Randy Moss was traded to the Vikings for a 3rd round draft pick!??! Now all the Vikings need is some O-line presence to stop Favre from breaking his hip on the Minnesota turf and they may actually make the playoffs this year!!

Todays Best Exercise Ever is one I’ve been using for a few years, and the more I use it, the more I like it. Observe:

Cable 1-leg squat & contralateral row 

This exercise is a fantastic way to get hip mobility to increase without letting the spine go into flexion, as the leg in the air can actually have a big role in maintaining spinal alignment. The leg you’re standing on gets a good sizzle from the foot all the way to the butt, and the back gets stronger through activation of the thoracolumbar fascia into the lat muscle on the opposite side. Wicked, ain’t it?? On top of that, it can be a part of a dead lift progression for anyone with low back pain or weakness and increase unilateral leg power if done quickly. Cuz let’s face it, everyone wants more unilateral leg power.

By doing this simple exercise every day with as much weight as possible, I officially guarantee (Note: not a real guarantee) that you will be able to go from this:

to this:

 

Maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, ut who knows? You may want to stand up to a military Junta without your shirt on doing a lat spread for all to see. And you might be a 5-year-old asian boy. I’m not here to judge.

With Thanksgiving coming up in Canada, The Future’s parents and my parents will fianlly be in the same city at the same time, and will finally meet each other. My parents are coming up to attend my cousin Erin’s wedding in Stony Plain, and The Future’s parents are coming up for Thanksgiving weekend. We’re planning to take them all out for a dinner on Friday, as it’s the only night they will all be here without any other family plans or obligations. Even though they are already Facebook  friends (how wierd is that!?!?), I still can’t help but feel like a match maker waiting to hear about the blind date I set up. **Will they like each other? Will they get along and want to be best friends? Or will it break down into yelling and screaming matches with tears and ambulances and what not?** Let’s all just hope for the best and that no one takes a drumstick to the eye. Those don’t heal all that well.