BrockI threw out my back this morning trying to move a entertainment center I got from a thrift shop, I feel so messed up.
A couple years back I had an injury at the gym while doing RDLs, original details are a bit shaky but either going up or coming down on the movement my lower back essentially gave out and curved. This resulted in a pretty audible pop I could feel, resulting in me having immense pain down the middle of my lower back which made it painful to walk, sit and sometimes lay down.
I wound up taking an entire year off of the gym because of this injury, speaking with my family at the time who work in healthcare they essentially chalked it up to a muscle sprain / strain and that I should just relax on the gym and be more careful in general. It's been something like 2.5 years since this original injury and I have returned to the gym and got back to mostly relative strength as I was prior to the injury, granted I still have occasional bouts of pain in exercises that pressure my lower back, notably squats.
With that being said, TurboTabs has provided some pretty sage advice that I will mostly just repeat with my own spin.
- Go to a doctor (not a chiropractor) as soon as possible and try to get into PT. I naively put off going to the doctor for over a year, once I finally did the doctor basically blew off any concern I had, having literally only done an X-ray image as diagnostics, he didn't even recommend PT which shocked me. If you can afford it I sincerely implore you to do so.
- Take at minimum 1 week off of any stressful activity impacting your back, if possible.
- RICE, rest, ice, compression, elevation
- Once you feel comfortable, aim to start doing light bodyweight stretches and movements that activate your back where the injury occurred. One of the biggest problems associated with any injury is that after you injure yourself you tend to become super careful about the injured areas movement and activation that you end up weakening the muscle way more than the injury did, resulting in a higher likelihood of reinjury. Which is why doing PT is important.
- Once you've rested enough and feel safe enough to return to the gym or other activities, be humble with yourself and do not immediately try to workout with the same intensity you would prior. Start from scratch (the bar) and work yourself back up, be slow and deliberate with form.
BrockI'm good with heavy work and this is just such a surprise for me.
I felt the same way following my injury, was only doing 1pl8 RDLs, a weight I was very comfortable with. Keep your head up high and focus on recovery and treatment and you should come out of this very close to how you were pre-injury.