This post is from J.D., the quiet half of Get Fit Slowly.
It’s been a good summer in my personal world of fitness. I’ve lost thirty pounds (and have about twenty to go), cycled about 700 miles, and have built a lot of strength through Crossfit. As you might expect, I’ve coped with a variety of minor injuries, most of them due to my own clumsiness. How many times can one fellow crash his bicycle?!?
Last Monday, though, I woke with a sore back. There was no real cause for this sore back; sometimes I just wake to find I’ve slept wrong and my back is sore. No big deal, right? It’s not like I have a history of chronic back issues. Just sometimes I get a sore back for a day or two. So does my wife.
So, last Monday I woke with a sore back. I drove to my 6:30am Crossfit class and did my normal warm-ups. In the middle of these, I kicked up into a handstand. (This is a skill I’ve only recently mastered, and I’m excited to try it whenever it comes up in warm-ups.) I kicked up into one handstand and was trying for a second when >zing!< There was a sharp pain in my already sore back. (Note: The pain is in the lower back, on the left side.)
Cody, my trainer, noticed that I was wincing in pain and asked what was wrong. I told him my back was sore, and he immediately told me to stop with the handstands. He also told me to lay off anything involving my back, including my beloved sit-ups. (I usually do fifty sit-ups every morning just for fun.) At the end of last Monday’s workout, he had me ice my back and recommended I ice it throughout the day. (Which I forgot to do.)
All last week, my back was sore. The soreness diminished throughout the week, and I did my best to not work it. I took Tuesday off from Crossfit, for example, and when I attended classes later in the week, Cody always substituted exercises that were less stressful for the back. This weekend, I made sure to just take it easy and not work my back at all.
As a result, I woke this morning to find my back felt fine. I drove to Crossfit, ran a mile, and then did today’s warm-up, which comprised pull-ups and kettlebell swings. Then, just for kicks, I decided to do a frog stand. (A frog stand is where you balance all of your weight on just two hands while resting your knees on your elbows.) I did okay, but when I moved to stand up >zing!< There was a sharp pain in my back.
Again Cody noticed that I was in pain, and he had me stop warming up. Since today’s workout included twenty minutes of my beloved sit-ups, he substitute some hanging tucks. (I hung from the pull-up bar and tucked my knees into a chair position.) He also had me do push-ups instead of burpees. And at the end of the workout, I iced my back for five minutes. Again Cody has recommended that I ice my back throughout the day, and this time I don’t think I’ll forget.
Still, I’m frustrated. Injuries are always frustrating, right? But at least when an injury has an acute cause, it’s easy to understand how and why you were injured. When my IT band was causing me woe two years ago, I understood the source of the problem. When my wrist was hurt this spring, I knew it was because I’d crashed my bike. But this back thing? I don’t know why it’s there.
And regardless of how an injury occurs, it’s always frustrating that you can’t do the exercises you’re used to doing. In this case, it’s very clear that I’m going to have to back off my normal workouts. “We’re doing back squats tomorrow,” Cody told me before I left the gym today. “But I’d still like you to come in. We’ll find something else for you to do.” sigh
So, I guess my questions for you folks are:
- Have you ever hurt your back like this before? How did you make things better? Did you just give it time? Did you go see a chiropractor? Should I rest completely? Or should I keep working out, but do whatever I can to avoid putting stress on the back?
- How do you cope with injuries? When you have a good workout routine going and you hurt yourself, what do you do? Again, do you just take time off? Or do you find some sort of alternative to do instead? Mentally, how do you cope with not being able to do the things you enjoy and look forward to?
I feel like I’ve made great progress this summer, and now I have something of a minor setback. I’m not giving up — not by any means! — but I want to know the best way to proceed so that I can keep working toward mastery.
Help me, Get Fit Slowly — you’re my only hope!
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I really relate to your frustration. I have intermittent lower back problems that also bother my leg muscles (sciatica I think). It is also worse on the lower left side of my back. This acts up from time and a couple weeks ago I was barely able to stand up after my usual 40 mile Sunday bike ride. I find regular doses of an anti inflammatory (Advil) along with rest and careful stretches usually get me past it. My doctor and yoga teacher both recommend a stretch for the lower back where you lie on your stomach on the floor and lift your upper body up on your elbows for five minutes keeping your lower back relaxed.
I did hurt my back like that in yoga last year. I did some massage and stretching, but actually tried to rest and ice it mostly. For me, there is no way around injuries except to rest, rest, rest. I find that I come back stronger even after taking many days off completely. Of couse with the stress fracture I couldn’t run for 2 months, but I could do cross training after about two weeks. Even taking two weeks off completely, I got my fitness back very quickly. Have faith. Don’t push it. You will not lose anything by giving your body a break and letting whatever is going on heal.
An update since I wrote this yesterday: When my wife got home last night, she insisted I take a week off from all exercise. I thought about this for a while, but then agreed with her. I’ve been going full-tilt all summer, with one 10-day break in May when Mac and I traveled to Alaska. I e-mailed my trainer to tell him I wasn’t going to come in for a week, and he replied to say that he agreed whole-heartedly. He’d like me to do some stretching and foam rolling and icing while I recover, but otherwise, he’s fine with me not doing any exercise at all until next Tuesday. I’m the one who is most reluctant to do this, but if both my wife and my trainer think it’s a good idea, I guess I’d better listen, eh?
Hey JD,
Your situation sounds a lot like mine, so I thought I would share it with you. Last spring(2009) I did a lot of exercising (P90X) to get in shape for my wedding. I lost about 20-25 pounds, and went from doing 0 pullups to about 25. I was in the best shape of my life at 31. Sometime just after the wedding in May, I started to get a pain in my lower back left side. A lot of it would come about when I was in a seated position for long periods of time, but other times it would be if i just adjusted an arm or leg in a certain way. Around the same time I started grad school, and started exercising less. The pain persisted, and I went and saw my physician, you recommended a physical doctor, who prescribed me physical therapy. I went and saw the therapist for 9 months. He was great, and we tried lots of things, but in the end, while the pain situation improved, it never went away. Finally the doctor suggested a steroid shot in my joints. I went with it, and the process was not enjoyable. Sadly, it only gave me about 24 hours of relief. At that point I had given up on the doctor and tried a chiropractor.(coincidentally, I’m now doing crossfit too and one of our trainers is also a chiropractor) Anyways, it took a few weeks until I started to notice that my pain was going away. Around the time I started seeing the chiropractor I started exercising more again as well. Our gym offered a kettlebell class, so I was going to that 2 days a week. Then I started crossfit, and now I am at a point where I only go to the chiropractor once a month, just as a means of “insurance” to make sure nothing gets out of whack.
Good luck!
JD – A lot of CrossFitters experience a minor back injury at some point. Some things that they might not tell you when you start:
1. Every 6 months you need to take a whole 7 days off from doing any exercise, the recovery is good for you.
2. Once you start getting better at CrossFit, you need to take an easy week every 4th week, which means more rest days than usual and no need to PR on the strength stuff.
3. Are you doing the 3 days on 1 day off schedule? You should be resting every 4th day.
I’ve learned a lot of things from this guy: http://www.barbellsandbacon.com/
I’ve only been exercising regularly for about the last 8 or 9 years; prior to that I was actually disdainful of exercise in general, and very much in denial about how out of shape I was.
After getting into running for a few years, I started to have trouble with my foot; I’d pushed myself into running too far and too fast and injured my plantar fascia tendon (plantar fasciitis). I ignored it for a while but it got really painful, especially in the mornings, so I started to treat it with regular, twice-a-day icings, stretches, and lots of ibuprofen. Oh, and I cut back on hill work and cut back on miles, and added bicycling for a while (a few months) until I was pain-free. It comes back from time to time, but having the right shoes helps.
The last couple of years, I’ve been working on paying off my debts (thanks to Get Rich Slowly, among other sites, for the inspriation!) and so I neglected buying new shoes every year. So I’ve been running in the same shoes for far too long. I ran my second-ever half marathon this summer in old shoes, so it’s no surprise that I started having pain in my knee during and after my runs. Then I ran a 5K race on Mt. Tabor, followed by a steep trail 10K three days later! NOT GOOD FOR KNEES.
I did not let this go too long before treating it the same way I did my plantar fasciitis: ice immediately after a run and a couple of times a day, heat pad in the evening before bed, lots of ibuprofen, cutting back on miles (and even taking two whole weeks off from running entirely), and most importantly, new well-fitting shoes! I also found some exercises to strengthen my quads, which is good for me in general and which weakness exacerbates knee problems.
I think the most important part is learning to not go out and run at all while I was healing. I made sure to do other exercises (I found some aerobic workout videos on YouTube to work out t0) so that I could maintain my overall goal of staying in shape and losing weight. Even now, I’m cautious about too many miles and too much hills.
I would take a week off but do core exercises so the muscles continue to work out a bit. Such as the ones on this site: http://www.bigbackpain.com/back_exercises.html#backstretchingexercises
Or just walking in a pool and swimming around a bit helps as well.
I’ve had back pain for YEARS. I was a nurse for 8 years which certainly was a big cause but also being HUGELY overweight didn’t help. I get massages at least once per month and my therapist says my back is “jacked up”. I had to go to a different therapist last month and she asked if I had been in a car accident. I never have been in one. Lovely.
Recently I’ve been playing a TON of racquetball at the gym. Two weeks ago I probably played about 10 hours that week. And hurt my back from all the reaching and twisting. It’s been very painful and I had a friend who was in town that asked if I ever tried an inversion table. That made me remember when I had a herniated disc in my neck and my physical therapist did cervical traction and it felt great! Through exercise, traction and massage I was able to avoid surgery. So I thought I’d try the table thing. They cost about $350 on up for the better ones so I went to Craigslist and found one for $200 that had only been used twice. The poor guy who bought it got nauseated for 4 hours both times he tried it.
I can’t even begin to tell you how amazing my back feels now. I honestly have not had this little back pain in at least 15 years. I use the table twice a day…once in the morning and once at night. By the third day I was just shocked. I can only tolerate about 1 minute at a time, but I LOVE it. I sleep better and I wake up without pain. Seriously think about it.
I had a similar experience recently. I was doing chest dips when something pinged in my back. I’ve been involved in triathlons for about three years previously so I have a weird mindset whereby I tend to try and power through my random aches and pains, but this was a little different. I radically cut back on my training. I only did a few gentle runs, no strength training (always surprises me how often my back is involved in various exercises). I stuck to it by telling myself that a week or so of minimal activity now would be better than prolonging the hurt. I’m now beginning to up the ante again and so far so good.
I hope everything works out well for you.
First thought – see a doctor just to be sure you haven’t really messed something up. Second, definitely take that 7 days off. Third, the stomach/forearm stretch is great, but see if you can get someone in physical therapy to show you just a few exercises/stretches. I’ve been doing 4 stretches consistently every day since I injured my back 2 years ago (reaching into the dryer). If I go even a few days without the stretches-bad news. With them, I feel great and no more back pain. They take less than 10 minutes a day.
J.D.,
Sucks I know. It’s taken me a while to heal from my achilles strain/pull. I don’t enjoy running but it’s something at which I’d like to get better. I found myself frustrated by the seemingly long wait to start running again. It’s been a couple of months but I think I’m to the point where I can start to add a little bit longer distances.
Also, I wanted to point out the benefits of having such an attentive person like Cody guiding you through the rigors of CrossFit. He’s very good at noticing those “tweaks”, remembering them, and scaling the activities so that you don’t aggravate them and heal appropriately. I can’t imagine trying to accomplish these workouts without his help.
I’m going to say you NEED to see a doctor. Even if it turns out to be nothing serious, you need to make sure of this. I had back pain off and on for weeks, weeks turned into months, and finally I went to see the doctor – I had a herniated disc. You need to find out if your injury is temporary or more involved (I can’t do anything about my disc, it remains herniated years later and I get relapses from time to time).
So, I went to the doctor this morning to see about my back. He poked and prodded and then twisted me up like a pretzel. (Seriously: He tried about five or six positions, all of which involved me twisting this way and that while he yanked on various body parts.) In the end, though, nothing really hurt the back. Except sit-ups. And the action of standing from a seated (or lying) position.
After all of this, and after hearing my story, he asked me, “Do you do a lot of sit-ups?” I told him that I try to do fifty a day, five days a week. “And when you do these sit-ups, does your body have a tendency to shift?” I admitted that it did; when I do sit-ups, I always end up at a 30-degree angle from where I started.
“I think you’re doing too many sit-ups,” he said, “and when you do them, you’re working harder on one side of your body than the other.” He wants me to ease off on the number of sit-ups I do, he wants me to do them less aggressively, and he wants me to focus on maintaining balance. (He wants me to remain balanced not just with sit-ups, but with *all* of my exercises.) Overall, though, he’s not really worried. This isn’t any big deal, he says. I just have a muscle spasm and it will go away on its own. It’s nothing to worry about. (If I were a competitive athlete, he’d even let me practice and compete with the sore back.)
In the short-term, he wants me to alternate hot and cold on the back, ending with cold for about 15 minutes. He also wants me to stretch. And I’m supposed to stick to the week off that my trainer Cody and I have agreed upon. Also, no ibuprofen or naproxen.
After the doctor, I went to my scheduled massage. Pamela poked and prodded my back and then really laid into it. As a result, it feels great now, two hours later. Pamela also gave me a page with about a dozen back stretches, so I’ll start working through those in the evening.
And that’s it. I’m glad it’s nothing major!
Ah, injuries. Nothing until I turned 40, and then everything started to fall apart. Right now I’m dealing with a frozen right shoulder, which has been bothering me for over a year and has gotten progressively worse, so I can’t lift weights or take yoga or really do anything for my upper body except stretch. And I’ve never experienced pain like I do when my physical therapists take my arm and pull it over my head. Arthroscopic surgery is an option, but my orthopedic surgeon insists that it’s not necessary… unless I don’t get better.
At least I can still run, and lately I’ve taken up spinning, but I really miss the weights!
Not knowing or completely understanding the cause of an injury is extremely frustrating, at least in my case, because it always seems that I’m some kind of special case that the medical world has never seen before. I don’t know why it is, but more often than not when I go to the doctor for whatever ailment I’m experiencing , the root cause can never be identified and we end up just guessing at treatment options. While they typically end up working in the long run, it sure would be nice to know what caused them in the first place.