Help Needed! Bad Back

[Russ87]

Hey guys,

I thought i would start this thread for guidance and your opinions on my situation as i need advice.

At the Moment..
Im 21 yrs 8 months old, height of 173cm (5'7'') and currently 61 kg ( 134pounds) living in Newcastle Australia.

My Previous Training

I dont have any 'solid' weight training experience. I was doing boxing training 4 times a week and going to the gym 3 times a week using mainly machine weights. I weighed 65kg (143 pounds) with 9% body fat. So i wasn't big by any stretch of the imagination but i was quite strong and in good shape for my size.

My Current Situation:

15 months ago i injured my mid back doing a firemans carry training with my friend (i was having minor back problems before this point and i think this just put me over the edge.....i also had done no training for over a month becasue i had uni exams so my back muscles were rather weak)

Anyway i was in hospital for a few days and after MRI and xrays they concluded (but weren’t 100% sure) that the pain was cause by a bulging disc (D6/7)

After getting out of hospital i went to a physio for a couple of months but there was not a whole lot they could do with me because there was too much inflammation.

After resting for another month i went to another physio who after 1 month of seeing me said there was nothing she could do and told me to go see a doctor.

I then went to a chiropractor for 6 months where they had me swimming and doing some core strength exercises as well as doing manipulations on my back. Over this period my back got no better....maybe even worse.

At the start of this yr i went to see a very well respected back specialist in Sydney. He thought that my main problem is that over the last 13months of pretty much inactivity my back and shoulder muscles had become so weak that they can not correctly support my spine. Also my core strength was shot to pieces. He sent me to yet another physio to put me on a very gentle core strengthening program.

For the past 8 weeks i have been doing shoulder strengthening with exercise bands, doing core work with exercise balls and swimming (500m) 5 times a week.

The main problem is im not really getting any better. I have persisted with every physio and chiro doing exactly everything they tell me and i go nowhere . It seems that most exercise i do stirs up my back and makes it worse without me getting any stronger from it.

I am in pain from this injury almost all day every day and my quality of life if affected from this as i cant play sport (which i love) or even just sit in a chair for more than 10 mins. Im willing to do anything to make my back better.

Now for some advice...

So i was talking to a guy i know (a triathlete in his 40's) who when he was my age injured his back in similar circumstances. He struggled with it for yrs but eventually got to a point where he could lift weights, strengthened his muscles so it is no longer a problem. He knew that i cant lift weights at this stage because my back cant handle it but suggested that i should think about taking some anabolic steroids. He said that it might help me build muscle faster so that i can have some support for my spine.

I have been trying to research steroids as much as i can but have not really found anyone in my same position.

So to you guys...

Do you think that steroids would help me? If so, what kind of course would you recommend?


Thanks for reading this if you made it to the bottom! Any advice will be much appreciated!

[lovbyts]

I have 20+ years experience with back problems, Herniated disk. NO, steroids will not help you and may even hurt you. You may get a false sense of security and strength and hurt yourself worse.

If your disk is Bulging you are a LUCKY man. I have 3 that have been Herniated.
for buldging disk or being inflamed I found 2 things that help. One, prednisone but usually it's for when it's pushing on a nerve but may also help you. the 2nd is ICE. Keep icing it for several days in a row several times a day.
Do NOT over do the Chiropractor. Some think they are a cure all. A good one will just try to keep things in order and tell you to come back if you feel messed up..

[jbm]

No steroids yet for you bro...

[Phate]

steroids won't help and will only further complicate matters

[wingsta]

Hey Russ im in Qld so ahoy form Aus. Be very careful with your back bro especially if your lifting weights, I had a huge back problem when i was young and i started lifting weights to strengthen my back which was now 20yrs a go.

Every now and then if I over do it and back will hurt for a couple of days but listen to the experienced guys on here steroids will not help you in fact they will def hurt you if anything.

One of the draw backs with steroids is you can gain strength before the fibres in your muscles have a chance to grow enough to support the weight doing you some damage if your not careful.

Having trained with a bad lower back now for 20yrs I can only tell you to be careful and train your back slowly and carefully until your strong enough to lift heavy weights without steroids.

Good luck and stay safe mate aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi lol

[rhino1]

Damn id like to chime in but too damn much to read...

[Karo]

Just like your triathlete friend I corrected my back problem the exact same way - by training with weights. It really sucked at first. The first 6 weeks I was miserable in the gym and I had to take a lot of painkillers just to be able to workout. Around the 7-8 week mark I seemed to get over a hump and I started to feel better. I was focusing on those core muscles that support the lower back and just doing a full-body workout. 3 months into it I didn't need pain medication any more and I felt 80% better.
I still have pain that I live with every day but it's not anywhere near as bad as it was 3-4 years ago before I started training heavily. I still have 5-6 incidents every year when something happens in my lower back and I can barely walk for 2-3 days and it takes 7-8 days to fully recover.
If I stop training with weights, even for 3 weeks my back goes to shit and i'm in pain again almost immediately. I travel in Oct, Nov and Dec every year and i'm not able to train much at all. During this time I have a lot of problems with my back. Burning left leg, spasms and loss of mobility etc etc.
Oh and steroids won't help you at all. I'd suggest starting a weight training program like I did and try to get over that hump.

Good luck Bro. I injured my back when I was 20 years old so I have been in your shoes.

[Russ87]

Thanks for all the relpies guys! Will take your advice and keep grinding it out with the physio.....hopefully won't be too long until i can start using weights.

Mabye look at steriods a couple of yrs down the track when my back is stronger

[Breggin]

All pretty good advice so far. Let me add one option: back injection nerve block shots. I have compressed discs L3,L4,L5, and these shots have been great. My doc goes in with 3 needles and an X ray to make sure he has it exactly right. It is like an epidural. He gives me three of these shots in three months. THEN, if these shots work, he goes in and burns the ends of the nerves (still 3 needles but with ultrasound or something) and that kills the nerve pain for a year to 18 months. Bottomline though, you need to SLOWLY strengthen your lower back with ab and core work (not weights). This procedure could make that process bareable though. And no steroids won't help you.

[lovbyts]

All pretty good advice so far. Let me add one option: back injection nerve block shots. I have compressed discs L3,L4,L5, and these shots have been great. My doc goes in with 3 needles and an X ray to make sure he has it exactly right. It is like an epidural. He gives me three of these shots in three months. THEN, if these shots work, he goes in and burns the ends of the nerves (still 3 needles but with ultrasound or something) and that kills the nerve pain for a year to 18 months. Bottomline though, you need to SLOWLY strengthen your lower back with ab and core work (not weights). This procedure could make that process bareable though. And no steroids won't help you.

Ive had this done 2x, 2 sets of 3 over the years. It did nothing for me

[Karo]

I had it done 5 times and it did nothing for me either. However two of my friends have had the exact same procedure and got immediate long-lasting pain relief from it. I guess it comes down to the type of injury and the person.

[TRA]

To begin with, you really need to know what the problem is before you can recover. There are a number of problems that cause back pain. If you have a bulging disk, and that IS the source of the pain, you can become pain free and with proper technique and care, have a long life of lifting ahead. With a bulging disk there is usually a radicular pain, that is a nerve pain that radiates down the leg, usually down the back of the leg. This is due to compression of a nerve by the bulge in the disk.

The disk bulge/nerve compression sets up a high state of inflammation, and then pain ensues. Prednisone will usually only work in the acute stage, withing the first week or two of the onset of the pain. Once the nerve is inflamed beyond that, it is more difficult to calm it down.

The "shots" people are referring to are usually injections that are directed into the space where the disk bulge is occurring. A steroid that acts locally, decreasing inflammation at the site, is injected, usually in a series of 3, weeks apart.

The problem with the injections is they are almost always dependent on the skill of the person doing them. In order to be accurate, they need to be done under fluoroscopy. I have only seen a handful of physicians who are really good at it. Most are anesthesiologists or interventional radiologists.

On the other hand, if you have another problem, like a spondylolithesis (a vertebrae has slipped forward essentially), there is a different treatment involved.

That is why you really need a clear cut diagnosis before you can get the help you need.

I would recommend going to a sports medicine doctor, one that is NOT a surgeon. The surgeons tend to look at things as either operable or not operable, and for the latter they don't have much knowledge--their skill is in the OR.

So find a good sports medicine doc, one that works with soccer/rugby teams, etc. And go from there.