My fitness has deteriorated over the past few months because of recurrent back pain.

It’s not a structural issue, so PT gave me exercises to do to work on my core strength, upper back/pec mobility, and hip mobility.

What’s holding me back right now is the fear of the pain reigniting. It’s not a sudden, sharp pain but a gradual one that shows up hours after lifting. It’s more mid-back, more lat area. It happens with squats for sure, deadlifts some, and then can happen with pull ups or split squats.

Sometimes it shows up if I sit too long at work. Sometimes it shows or I’ll feel it strain when I pick up my daughter, push the lawn mower, or move a piece of furniture.

PT said to resume lifting, take it easy, watch for back pain, and wait until I am doing the rehab exercises consistently with better mobility before getting back into doing anything heavy.

But considering last week I felt the pain again after doing body weight split squats, I’m having a lot of hesitation getting into the gym.

Any advice here? I can’t go to the PT regularly because it’s expensive and so I’m trying to rely on my extensive history with lifting to get me through. I know there’s not much y’all can offer but I was wondering if anyone ever had anything similar and how they managed to fix it so that lifting can resume.

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Posted by LSUfan20005

Member since Sep 2012

9137 posts

Posted on 11/24/24 at 7:48 am to StringedInstruments

quote:
It’s more mid-back, more lat area

Embrace this if it’s really the case, so much advice you’ll receive will assume lumbar/sacral cause. Any chance you are overextending in those split squats?

1.). Really focus on thoracic mobility and the extension. Warmup with rotational work, dead hangs, hanging scap retracts, etc.

2.) Use a mobility tool daily to open it all up. Really like the backpod for this. Also lie on your side and use something to open those lats.

BackPod

“Prehab” guys have some great routines, you can find many on social but they have a paid app as well.

A good warmup addition:

Spider-Man Warmup

This post was edited on 11/24/24 at 7:52 am

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Posted by StringedInstruments

Member since Oct 2013

20481 posts

Posted on 11/24/24 at 8:05 am to LSUfan20005

These are good. I appreciate it. It just sucks because even after doing extensive warm ups and mobility routines and even when I feel good, it’ll show up. Hours later. So I don’t even realize I’m causing pain in the process of lifting.

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Posted by Lesmeez

Member since Jul 2017

40 posts

Posted on 11/24/24 at 12:06 pm to StringedInstruments

I dealt with an L3 nerve root radiculopathy over the summer. The only presentation of pain I got was pain in my left hip (which is s/p hip scope labral repair in 2013) when laying prone or on the bench doing bench press. Felt like my labrum was torn all over again. Never bothered me doing actual work outs, walking around, doing everyday activities. Just flared up during those times of extreme extension of my hip. (Yes back pain can refer to the hip.)
Saw my orthopod and he prescribed PT.
We focused on core stability exercises and things to help with extension/flexion of my back. Had to take a few weeks off from any lower body strength. After about 3 weeks of doing the PT, the pain eventually started to subside.
When I finally got back to lifting, I made sure to do my back exercises pre-workout and then the core stability things post-workout.
It took about 2 months to finally not feel that “twinge” in my back/hip. Anytime it starts to creep back in, I make sure to not increase my weight and do some of my PT exercises.
I saw my therapist twice a week but did my PT exercises everyday, even on rest days. Even if you can only see a therapist one day a week, make sure you do your therapy exercises everyday.
Not sure this helps, but just my two cents on what I did when I had something similar going on.

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