back injury and getting older

[bigrobbierob]

Hey guys.

I compressed my L3 and L4 about 5 years ago. About every 5-6 months since then it "goes out". Because if the injury, I can no londer do heavy squats or deadlifts. To understand my GP, I have scar tissue in the area that get inflamed and causes the surrounding muscles to spasm and cramp. Surgery is not an option as it will replace scar tissue with scar tissue and therefore not do anything.

It seems things are getting worse. The time between episodes seems to be shortening. I was fine this morning and decided to go for a quick paced walk for an hour....that was enough to make my back hurt.

I have tried yoga to stretch my back to prevent episodes, but it still happens....in fact sometime the yoga will make it hurt!!

So I am looking for ideas. I love working out, but now even cardio causes problem.

I love being a buff middle aged guy...I'm not ready to get soft and give up on life....but the body may make the decision for me.

Holy cow...just realized I'll be 40 in 2 months....

 

[tuberman]

Hey guys.

I compressed my L3 and L4 about 5 years ago. About every 5-6 months since then it "goes out". Because if the injury, I can no londer do heavy squats or deadlifts. To understand my GP, I have scar tissue in the area that get inflamed and causes the surrounding muscles to spasm and cramp. Surgery is not an option as it will replace scar tissue with scar tissue and therefore not do anything.

It seems things are getting worse. The time between episodes seems to be shortening. I was fine this morning and decided to go for a quick paced walk for an hour....that was enough to make my back hurt.

I have tried yoga to stretch my back to prevent episodes, but it still happens....in fact sometime the yoga will make it hurt!!

So I am looking for ideas. I love working out, but now even cardio causes problem.

I love being a buff middle aged guy...I'm not ready to get soft and give up on life....but the body may make the decision for me.

Holy cow...just realized I'll be 40 in 2 months....

Damn you're old.... time to get out the fishing gear... and retire to a nice lake front.....or

Here's some advice I gave earlier to a newbie who just disappeared after a few posts:

A long time ago if you had chronic back problems that didn't clear up with time, your doctor would have likely put you in the hospital, in traction. You would have been placed on a very hard surfaced bed with weights attached to your feet for a week or possibly two. Did this work? You can bet it worked most of the time. Now hospital stays are too expensive and they simply won't use that expensive space for chronic back problems, and insurance will not pay for it either. The idea was the weights pulled the vertebrae apart so the nerves were no longer pinched.

How can you do similar without the old traction method. It's a two step process. First you lay on a hard surface. Soft beds don't work too well. Then you put your knees up, way up, and usually you place multiple pillows or cushions underneath to hold them up for hours at a time. It helps to actually flatten your back somewhat against the hard surface. You have to sleep or at least rest this way for 4-8 hours per day. This has a similar effect to traction as it separates the pinching vertebrae over time.

Second, after the pain has gone way down from release of tension between your vertebrae, you strengthen your ab muscles. One of the main functions of ab muscles is to protect your spine, and you have to get them very strong to do a great job. Don't start this process until much of the pain is gone due to step one. Weight belts prime function is to hold your abs tightly in, and this protects your spine, but it's much better to have super strong abs, then you only need a weight belt for the hardest squats and deads. You don't want to touch those lifts until you improve your spine a lot. (You may already have fairly strong abs, but get them carefully even stronger).

Add to this Dutchman suggests doing rack deads instead of full ROM deads, and to start out carefully.

 

[G12bey]

You'll get 100 different answers for this, you have to find what works for you.

This is what works for me, do a search on Jolie Bookspan, when you read it, it appears to be too simple. All I can say is from being in a similar position to you with scan confirmed herniated discs, after following her techniques I'm 95% and back in the gym, take a look.

 

[jhferry]

I know this is an old bump but exactly what was in the book that helped you?

 

[16dawg23]

i suffer from the same thing bro,i try to wrkout smarter not harder. work the muscle not the wht. i'll do light squats 4x fail. sitting curls(i belt up tight) that helps with that pulling in lower back. leg ext also. i do sumo sqts with an 80lb dumbel in hands. dead lifts are out for, not even light.i've still stayed fairly thick,no ones said "you could use a lil more thickness" yet any way.....so for now im still makeing good gains.it's been over a year work'n this way and yeahi know my gains could be better but there not bad and this ol man(44) has the youngsters beat.....lol

 

[G12bey]

If you google Jolie Bookspan you can find most of it free online, it's basically getting into neutral spine when doing anything. What I thought was neutral was far from it. Also different ways to do an work etc

 

[GeovanniG]

If your looking to solve your back pain, I recommend you go to YouTube and type in, "strengthcamp back pain". There you should see the title, "How to workout with back pain, bulging disk/herniated disk".

There's a great video, watch it, it should answer your questions.