Herniated Disk

[angelkisssed]

So after MONTHS of training through what I thought, and my chiropractor told me was piriformis syndrome, I finally had an MRI done on my lower back to put an end to this nonsense! Come to find out I have a slight herniated disk in my lower right lumbar region (L5/S5 for those of you that know what exactly that means lol). Talked with my physical therapist/chiro and he said it's no big deal. It's actually quite common, and he said if you take dozens of people with NO back pain and give them an MRI, that nearly 70% of them will show some disk herniation. This eased my mind a bit, but my biggest question to him was, do I have to stop lifting heavy?! I think I'd rather die! He assured me that I should continue with my heavy routine (Wendlers 531) but to lower my weights a bit and work more in the 10-12 rep range. And sent me on my way with a few stretches, a pat on the back and the admonition that once you have a back problem, basically you OWN this back prob for life! :/ Boo to THAT. And if you're familiar with Wendler's program, you know that you don't typically work with lighter reps in that particular rep range very often

So after parusing a few programs I've been looking at Nortons PHAT training program but he still incorporates strength into his hypertrophy work (which is more or less what I should be working in according to my pt). I was just wondering if any of you other ladies have to deal with this sort of "injury" and how you manage to work around it, and train wisely. I do NOT want to hurt myself to the point of having to take serious meds and/or end up in the surgical unit for a surgery that I could have prevented by not being so darn stubborn. I just LOVE to lift. And I love to lift heavy, always pushing my max and making PR's. I've been bulking oh so well (up 10 lbs since July) and while I know a lot of that is water/glycogen blah blah, I know some of it HAS to be muscle because my lifts have been soaring! I finally got my bench up to 115 which I'm super stoked about because my goal was to bench my own body weight. I was 112 when I started lifting again after my back injury (severely underweight due to my injury/lack of exercise/inability to eat due to the meds they had me on for my back) but since then I've managed to get myself back to where I was (120) and now I see 125 a lot more mornings This is a huge relief to me, as I could not believe how in just a month of not being able to work out and eat well just how much mass I lost. It was so disheartening as I've been working hard for nearly 2 years now! At any rate, I digress.

I'm just wondering, like I said, if any of you gals out there deal with this. What do you do on say, leg days? What sort of rep ranges do you find works with a herniated disk, and how cautious should I be? My physical therapist seems to think I'm fine and not to stress about it, and again, lighter weight, higher reps. But will it always be like this? I feel like sometimes if I'm not constantly seeking to beat my previous PR's, etc. that I'm not really going anywhere as far as strength goes. I guess I've been working in the strength range so long now, that perhaps it's time to work in the hypertrophy range a bit more. My goals are to continually build strength/mass until I decide I'm content. Gah. Rambling Thoughts gals?

[angelkisssed]

Today I'm uber bummed. My back feels sensitive, and after a heavy/power upper day yesterday, I'm scheduled for a heavy/power lower day but I just don't think it wise to go. At all. I'm such an all or nothing kind of gal. I don't want to further cause damage and if I go to the gym, I'm only going to irritate something that's CLEARLY already feeling irritated this morning. And all of this makes me sad and all drama aside: something dies inside me. I know I'll have bad days, good days and even better days. But today is NOT one of those days. I feel as though I'm just going to watch all my hard work disappear! Obv bulking is on hold and I fear I'll lose muscle mass and all this quality weight I've managed to put back on. Today? I'm GRUMPY! :/

[thehobbes]

OP! Whoa, sorry to hear about the injury, but all is not lost! I do not have a severe back injury (wouldn't be surprised if I do have some damaged discs by now anyways) but have recovered from a bad injury before. Yeah it sucks, especially when it's made official by an mri, but at least you know what the issue is now. You've been lifting as normal up until this point I would assume (since you said you were doing 5/3/1). Just my own honest opinion here, I would temporarily lower your weights and stop doing anything that especially bothers that injury while you get through the initial PT period, let it rest a bit. You should be able to get back to heavy lifting, just give it a small break for now and take the time to learn what really bothers it, what doesn't, what your stretching routine needs to be, etc. This shouldn't be something that takes you out of lifting permanantly as long as you pay attention to your back and use common sense. Yeah you can probably do heavy squats, but stay on top of your form and don't do something stupid like max out every time. Stretch, if you do already, then stretch MORE! Seriously, stretching all the friggin' time is one of the best things I ever started doing.

You're going to have to figure out what bothers your injury more. I'd probably stay away from anything like good mornings. I cut out a few specific lifts that really bothered me when my shoulder was all jacked up. I stayed away from those things and subbed in other lifts, some I got back to with no problem, there are one or two I just plain avoid now. As long as you can work all muscle groups you'll be fine. Wear a belt if that helps with other things, get your form down 100%, and deload often. Do whatever rep ranges you want to do, but that's something you're going to have to figure out as far as what you can comfortably do. Again I suggest just take it easy right now and get back into your regular routine carefully. You'll be able to tell what's too much too fast, and if an exercise isn't worth doing.

Take a smart approach with your injury and all will be well. Your lifting days are not over and you won't lose all your muscle from a little time off. I took a full month off before and was fine, you couldn't tell by looking at me, and yes my strength did go down but was back to normal in a few weeks when I started again. And yeah, I'm sure your back is feeling it today after doing a heavy/power upper day yesterday! If it wasn't hurting you in the first place you wouldn't have gone in for the mri. Listen to your PT, there are many many people with back issues that get along just fine lifting as long as they don't do anything too crazy. Try taking a week off, it'll probably feel a lot better if you do that and then start back up slowly rather than just continuing full force now.

Good luck!

[oregonchick76]

I had a herniated disc L4 in April from a bad deadlift. I also had SI joint pain. Maybe mine was worse than yours, but I couldn't squat or deadlift from April until mid-August. I'm now squatting again and going up in weight steadily, but I still can't deadlift.

A good rule of thumb in my opinion - if it hurts, don't do it. Yeah, we lift through a lot of pain, but after an injury, I think some pain you just shouldn't work through.

If it's any comfort to you, I took 3.5 months off, and 1 month back into it I've passed my previous squat 1rm.