need help - lower back pain

[noflyingcars]

Folks, I have a lower back pain that is really worrying me.
It's not something I can't sustain, but I'm afraid of having an herniated disc.

- I went to the gym last Saturday, did normal things (squat, military press, bb row). After the exercise I was feeling great, no pain/ache at all.

- I kept on feeling good for all Saturday and all Sunday.

- on Monday I woke up and I had a dull pain in my back, the height is about when the lumbar becomes thoracic, and is on the right side. I feel weak even in the vertebrae of the lower back though.

- I still have this dull feeling, it's not really painful but I feel like I'm blocked.
When I walk I look like cripple, I can't walk smoothly. I think this is affected by the cold (yesterday night I could barely walk on the street, then in my room I was feeling better).

- I can move my back around, I can do planches on elbows and feet and even press-ups, and the dull feeling doesn't increase nor decrease.

- I've had it for 2 days now.



Guys, do you think I should seek medical attention, or it's just a big DOMS that will go away in a couple of days?
I know I can't be diagnosed over the internet, all I'm asking is: if I had broken a disc would I have felt it right away, and being able to move - or my symptoms are more likely to be a DOMS ?


thanks in advance

[agsuper]

I would get it checked out by an orthopedic spine specialist.

[braindx]

I would get it checked out by an orthopedic spine specialist.

I agree.

The one other thing it could be if it is up on the lower thoracic is a subluxed/dislocated rib. But that would be pain slightly off to the side.

If the pain is on or in the spine that's bad. See a doc about it.

[noflyingcars]

Thanks guys.
I went to the doctor this morning (general pratictioner). She was confident that it's just a muscle pain, an inflammation on the lower back muscles. I was given painkillers, and told that I can go back to the gym (going lightly) as soon as the pain disappears.

But last night was actually terrible, the blocking feeling had disappeared but I got a sharp pain at (or near, I couldn't tell) the L2/L3 vertebrae. I had a terrible pain in every position, in bed, on a chair, standing, etc. I was pretty sure I've broken a disc.
I can resist pain, I don't mind ...but I was scared ****less.

But the doctor told me that if you slip a disc you feel it straight away, and you're not even able to walk, and definitely not able to do push ups.

I'll go to have a visit in a osteopathy clinic to check the spinal posture/alignment as soon as the pain goes away. My fear is that I might have a leak of the fluid of a spinal disc - a degenerative damage - not only because of this incident, but because being tall and lean I've always had a weak back (I started bb because of it). I seriously doubt they'll have me doing a MRI, so even an orthopedic wouldn't be able to tell if I'm having degenerative damages, I suppose...

[agsuper]

Thanks guys.
I went to the doctor this morning (general pratictioner). She was confident that it's just a muscle pain, an inflammation on the lower back muscles. I was given painkillers, and told that I can go back to the gym (going lightly) as soon as the pain disappears.

But last night was actually terrible, the blocking feeling had disappeared but I got a sharp pain at (or near, I couldn't tell) the L2/L3 vertebrae. I had a terrible pain in every position, in bed, on a chair, standing, etc. I was pretty sure I've broken a disc.
I can resist pain, I don't mind ...but I was scared ****less.

But the doctor told me that if you slip a disc you feel it straight away, and you're not even able to walk, and definitely not able to do push ups.

I'll go to have a visit in a osteopathy clinic to check the spinal posture/alignment as soon as the pain goes away. My fear is that I might have a leak of the fluid of a spinal disc - a degenerative damage - not only because of this incident, but because being tall and lean I've always had a weak back (I started bb because of it). I seriously doubt they'll have me doing a MRI, so even an orthopedic wouldn't be able to tell if I'm having degenerative damages, I suppose...

I would see an ortho not a GP. You are right the mri will let you know the severity of it.

[braindx]

I would see an ortho not a GP. You are right the mri will let you know the severity of it.

Yep, visit an orthopedic doc.

[hockey1234]

Well, if you want to help your lower back pain, this is what helped me:

For the lower back pain: I was diagnosed with a degenerative disk in the L-3 or something area (lower back), and they couldn't figure out what else was wrong... anyways, I was told to strengthen my core, and knees.

For the core: "anything that does not cause pain" is what I was told. The idea is to work your way up to being able to do almost anything. Also, wearing orthodics, and seeing a physiotherapist (which I found useless, but anyways).

I ended up going to see a personal trainer that my hockey team had seen before and I think that made the biggest difference. This trainer actually gave me at least 6 new excercises every time I saw him instead of just watching me train like most do. (The doctors will tell you to try physio first. They don't mention a personal trainer, but I asked the doctor and he said that would help if physio wasn't working.)

Knees: pretty much everything I said above. I would suggest getting a BOSU ball from Fitness Depot. For around $100, there are endless excercises for both legs and the core. If you PM me, or request them, I can send them to you. Also, an elliptical helped me with my back and knees well.

Hope this helps!

[mc-]

forgive me for reposting something from a previous post, but it seems relevant here:

site of pain mayn't be source of pain it really pains me to hear all these stories about back pain:
me, like most folks with low back stuff - compressed l4/l5, long history of chronic back stuff.
chiro, pt, accupunture. shots and surgery offered - na thanks.

like a few here, a lot of money for treatments that would hold for only a short time getting off the table.

Yoga therapy worked a bit better than anything else; kettlebell swinging really helped but still chronic flare ups.

As a last ditch effort a colleague hooked me up with a mobility/movement specialist. This person also looked at vision and balance stuff, not just muscle work. The experience was huge and transformative.

Like many people who experience the benefits of an approach, i started to learn more, and get certified in the approach: how to understand movement and our neurology. since then i and colleagues have worked with TONS of athletes with the same low back issues you've described here.

getting to the nervous systemThe approach always seems to have immediate benefit.

A couple of reasons:
o it works with the nervous system - the body's governing system (what runs joints and muscles)
more on that here: http://www.begin2dig.com/2009/10/mov...l-path-to.html

o it is active rather than passive: you are moving yourself rather than being manipulated, which fires of thousands more signals in the body to learn new patterns than manipulations so benefits stick.
related: http://www.begin2dig.com/2009/09/b2d...hat-is-it.html

o it works in large part on threat reduction: the latest work on pain says pain is an action signal. it means change something. finding the right thing to change is part of the assessment process. i've yet to work with anyone who hasn't had immediate and significant pain reduction (or elimination) and that only improves as they continue to do the work FOR THEMSELVES.
related: http://www.begin2dig.com/2009/11/why...ough-pain.html

low back: location of pain receptors for ANY pain event? Here's something else about low back stuff. Lots of folks have compressed disks or degenerated discs, or scoliosis and have NO pain - so is the site of pain the source of the pain? maybe not.

Here's why: here's what we know about the back: it has the highest ratio, in the low back, of nociceptors (the nerves that detect noxious stiumlus) than any other area of the bod, and the lowest number of mechano receptors. In other words, the back is a huge pain cry waiting to happen. Our other joints have more mechanoreceptors than nociceptors around them, so good movement can often come through louder than pain. In the lower back, the least pain is gonna be more amped up.

The back is also the big X of the body - things cross from the right side on the lower body up to the left side of the upper body. So the low back again is a HUGE junction for LOTS of information.

rewiring the back over time to be THE pain receiver Finally, and this is amazing, we learn pain; our brains can re-wire where pain happens. big technical term: we can sometimes with chronic pain get what's called neural chunking or central wind up. In other words, ANY pain/stress signals from anywhere start to manifest in the low back - that's become our response zone. That doesn't mean it's not happening; just that the brain/nervous system is now routing pain signaling through that super sensitive place. and it has been super sensitized.

It's because of all this neuro-chemical soup (to use david butler's analogy) happening that sometimes looking for issues in a back joint is not going to "unwind" the pain issue.

So to all you folks who have tried everything and are frustrated and in low back hell?

alternative ACTIVE approaches may i recommend considering an active/neurologically sensitive approach?

Best approach: see a movement specialist
If you pm me and let me know where you live, if i know someone close by, i'll be happy to recommend them. Likewise, if not, i do video consults, too.

secondary approach: get a joint mobility program into your life. Moving each joint through a range of motion is an amazingly good way to talk to the nervous system.
here's more on why
http://www.begin2dig.com/2009/09/b2d...hat-is-it.html

and if you scroll down to "dig in" there's some recommended places of guided packages for that, eg the "level 1" kit.

The best part is, really, when you have an understanding of how pain works, and how the nervous system works in terms of proprioception, vision and the vestibular sysetms, there's a path to start unwinding that. AND YOU DO IT FOR YOURSELF so it sticks.

The big take away is that especially chronic low back pain is more than 9 times out of 10 not about the joints - pain is way more interesting and intriguing it seems than that, but it does make sense that the low back is where so much chronic pain gets filtered, eh?

hope that helps.

mc