Lower Back Strain - Not PE Related.

This injury has nothing to do with PE. But I hope someone can give me some good advice on it. I hurt my back yesterday. I was going to move a box and it wasn’t even that heavy at all. I bent my back a bit and tried to lift it a bit before dragging as I felt a sharp needle like pain right in the center of my lower back. Since then I have been having this pain as I sit up or down or in other position as I lie down. I know it is pretty much a sort of muscle strain and not something thats serious. I can tell the difference as many years ago I had a slipped disk in my back.

The thing is, back problems is hereditary in my family. My grandma, my dad, my uncle have all been having problems with their back. So to me it seems logical I will have them. However, I am disappointed that I am just 23 and I am already having these problems. Even though this latest one seems minor, I am dreaded to think what will happen to me when I get older.

I hope someone here can give me some advice if there is something I can do to strengthen my back to lessen the chances of possibilities of injuries in the future. What should I do, if there is anything at all?

General Fitness and good body mechanics when lifting are really the only things you can do to protect yourself from these types of injuries. You can do a simple search on the Internet and find a wealth of free information on these subjects. However, anyone can “tweak” their back lifting something that isn’t that heavy by simply bending or twisting in just the wrong way while lifting. The taller you are the more prone you are to back injury. I’m tall and have done plenty of physical labor in my life and as a result I have also strained my back several times. Sometimes it can’t be avoided. If you truly believe that you have a predisposition to these kinds of injuries then perhaps you will develop the awareness necessary to maintain good lifting technique and limit your risk.

Good Luck.

Try getting a weightlifters’s belt, and put it on when you have heavy lifting to do.

I broke a disc in my back some forty years ago. Now there is no disc left so my back will give trouble at the slightest excuse.

Wearing the belt when I go weight training and do any srt of medium to heavy lifting takes a lot of the striain and so reduces the chance of trouble.

If it is muscle related; then you should do some excercises to help develop the muscles of the back and stomach. But start off gently and build up.

Hope this helps.

Find out what exactly bothers your family. My dad has stenosis of the spine and has to take pain killers that would make Courtney Love envious just to move around. He barely walks up the steps.

I get back aches from being tall and wasting my youth doing monkey warehouse jobs like UPS for many years. I picked up an old tire and never bent my legs when throwing it in the truck while twisting from right to left. I was doubled over and had to be driven home from the gas station by my mom like 8 years ago. I also received a workamn’s comp injury in my back for leaning over. Body mechanics, simple fitness, and caution will take care of most of your problems. Nothing to be lazy about with your own saftery doing anything. Believe me, I know. I was a fucktard with that tire many years ago.

Belts always help, I wore them before leaving UPS. Really worth the money if you constantly do shit like that. No more manual labor for me EVER again.

Try to get in the habit of stretching your back for a couple of minutes when you wake up in the morning to get all the kinks out. This will go a long way to prevent any muscle pulls during the day.

My suggestions:

Keep your abs in top shape, front and sides, they help keep your back in proper alignment.

Also add some Roman chair type exercises.

My lower back was always inclined the type of injury you described until I really concentrated on doing ab work almost everyday. Now it’s rare for me to get back pain.

I do not stop working out when I get one of these annoying injuries. I work thru it, and that seems to help recovery (for me).

Also, I do all my ab/back work using a Swiss ball. I love my Swiss ball.

I hurt my back several years ago moving a heavy welder. Almost all my injuries have happened when I was out of shape, and this was no exception.

Resting didn’t help. It actually got worse over the years and really sucked. The pain was on one side, very low, almost my butt. Occasionally I had pain down my thigh. It wasn’t typical sciatica but something similar. I wondered about piriformis syndrome.

Lifting weights didn’t help at first and only seemed to aggravate it. Stretching alone didn’t help either. Adding deadlifts and weighted crunches done over an exercise ball along with a few simple back stretches after exercise helped a lot. I still get an occasional twinge, but nothing like before. I’m not sure which exercise was most beneficial. I suspect the weighted full range crunches did the most good.

IMO, it’s generally best to avoid using lifting belts. If the belt does the work your muscles won’t. Strong core muscles are key to preventing and recovering from most back problems.

Treat Your Own Back by Robin McKenzie is supposed to be an excellent book.

>Also, I do all my ab/back work using a Swiss ball. I love my Swiss ball.

Yeah, I’m beginning to appreciate my exercise ball. Some people even use them as desk chairs. Balancing on that thing makes you sit up straight. I tried it a few months ago and got worn out after half an hour. I’m used to slouching.

Hobby

You have the classic symptoms of a slipped disk. Or, like myself a broken disk. The pain down the ligament in your leg is a result of the pressure of the disk when slipped moving against the nerves in the spinal cord. If you have a broken disk then it is the gunge in the disk oozing out and impinging on the nerves.

As it has been contiunously painful for several years, I’m afraid it is more likely to be a broken disk. My experience of this is it will be painful until the gunge (which is the cushion of the disk) has eventually gone, but it will still be painful as the bones of the spine then rub together.

I found that sitting in a chair was very painful until I put a pad of something at the back of the seat and sat down so that the bottom of my bum and thighs were parallel. Seats are made with a slight upward slope to prevent slipping off but a ½” or so raise - I use a peice of carpet that I can adjust by folding it in half to allow more or less carpet along the length to give a more gentle slope.

Also avoid those very comfy easy chairs and settees! Or at least have a small cushion in the small of your back.

It might be worth having an op to weld the two bones together where the disk was. But this operation is not any guarantee. Some have absolute relief others get only a small benefit.

I also use something called a ‘Backswing’ I lie on it in a nearly ypright position fix the feet and then swing backwards, until perpendicular - but a somewhat less angle is better.

If this is hard on your feet then a variation of it is hanging by your knees .

I have found this a real help.

An infra-red lamp is some help by relaxing the muscles which tighten up when you have pain.

No, A belt doesn’t necessarilly allow the muscles to weaken. I can feel mine now and they are very firm all the way up my back. I’ve had this particular belt at least 15 years, and another before that.

Hope all this helps in one one way or another

Petit