Lower back pain

[Mike5909]

Been dealing with pain in my lower back (mostly left side) for the last few years. It first started hurting on my final deadlift attempt during my 1st powerlifting meet. I felt a slight click or pop (wasn't painful at the time) and it has never been the same since. I've been to numerous doctors and have recently visited a spine specialist, who diagnosed me with slight disc degeneration and herniations and obviously said heavy lifting isnt good for me blah blah blah. I've had a nerve block done which helped for a few weeks and then a nerve burn, which provided no relief at all.

I initially came on this forum for steroid advice because I'm in the midst of my first cycle, but saw this section and figured I'd see if anyone else has been dealing with or has had the same problem. I took dbol at the start of my cycle and the back pains I experienced were borderline unbearable. I felt like my back was going to break every time I got out of the car or did any type of lower back or leg exercise. That bad pain went away after the dbol left my system, and now it's back to the usual ups and downs. Sometimes I can do a heavy squat and deadlift workout in the same week and ill be fine, and other times I'll be in too much pain to finish my workout.

I do a basic stretching routine and try to do extra stretching whenever I can, but do you guys think there is a weakness somewhere? I dont think it's a form issue. Lately I have been adding in suitcase holds just because I have trouble with them and figure maybe its a core issue, but who knows. Can't seem to keep the lower back pain free for more than a couple of weeks at a time.

[Proximal]

I'm surprised there wasn't a course of Physical Therapy involved, highly recommended.

[Mike5909]

I'm surprised there wasn't a course of Physical Therapy involved, highly recommended.

There was, but I can't seem to find a good PT around my area. I've tried a few and none of them were too helpful

[600@50]

I hurt my lower back about 8 years ago just walking down some steps. Got to the bottom at the last step and my back popped. There was no pain initially so I figured it was a good thing. But 10 minutes later I was on the ground and couldn't walk. I had to crawl back up the steps to get in the house. I was in bed for 2 weeks.

Fast forward to today and my back is better but not 100%. I can do light DLs and squats but wouldn't think of going heavy again. I had an MRI that showed some swelling and herniation of one disc. The doc said as long as I was functional that they wouldn't do surgery. So.........I basically just work around it. It's not bad enough to justify surgery. It's not strong enough to work it hard and heavy. I've had a couple of times where I had to rest on foam blocks and a heating pad but it usually gets better in a week or so.

I'm 55 and since I'm on my phone I can't see your profile. I would suggest to avoid surgery unless it gets really bad. If your older just find your limits and stay within them. It's not the end of the world as far as training. It has forced me to concentrate on my bench in the last 8 years or so and recently worked up to a 585 shirted bench at 235 body weight. You can get stronger without hurting your back. Do whatever you can that doesn't hurt and hit it as hard as your body will let you. If this is not the route you want to take you'll have to find a doctor that will listen and hopefully fix you up before you get real bad. The way insurance is nowadays it may or may not cover surgery that is borderline elective. A coworker of mine has a bad back, much worse than mine, and he's jumping through all kinds of hoops for close to 2 years and he hasn't been approved for surgery yet. Best if luck man.

[Mike5909]

I hurt my lower back about 8 years ago just walking down some steps. Got to the bottom at the last step and my back popped. There was no pain initially so I figured it was a good thing. But 10 minutes later I was on the ground and couldn't walk. I had to crawl back up the steps to get in the house. I was in bed for 2 weeks.

Fast forward to today and my back is better but not 100%. I can do light DLs and squats but wouldn't think of going heavy again. I had an MRI that showed some swelling and herniation of one disc. The doc said as long as I was functional that they wouldn't do surgery. So.........I basically just work around it. It's not bad enough to justify surgery. It's not strong enough to work it hard and heavy. I've had a couple of times where I had to rest on foam blocks and a heating pad but it usually gets better in a week or so.

I'm 55 and since I'm on my phone I can't see your profile. I would suggest to avoid surgery unless it gets really bad. If your older just find your limits and stay within them. It's not the end of the world as far as training. It has forced me to concentrate on my bench in the last 8 years or so and recently worked up to a 585 shirted bench at 235 body weight. You can get stronger without hurting your back. Do whatever you can that doesn't hurt and hit it as hard as your body will let you. If this is not the route you want to take you'll have to find a doctor that will listen and hopefully fix you up before you get real bad. The way insurance is nowadays it may or may not cover surgery that is borderline elective. A coworker of mine has a bad back, much worse than mine, and he's jumping through all kinds of hoops for close to 2 years and he hasn't been approved for surgery yet. Best if luck man.

Yea I wouldn't even consider surgery at this point. I'm only 24 years old and when I'm not in the gym the pain is only mild. At the time of the injury (3 years ago) I was lifting with terrible form. The lift I hurt myself on was a 545 lb deadlift, and it hurts just watching the video of that and lifts I had done in training before that. Since then I've found a coach and fixed my form alot, but I'm still paying the price for not lifting with good form from the start. Just sucks not being able to push myself all the time now. My lifts are still inproving but hopefully by the time I'm 30 im not in a wheelchair

[600@50]

By fixing your form you've helped to prevent further injury. I say "helped" rather than "prevented" because it only takes a fraction of a second and your hurt again. If I could give you any advice it would be to listen to your body. If you feel a twinge....stop immediately. Stop for the day and don't push it. I have in the past continued to train through the pain and only made things worse. I've tried just moving on to the next exercise and made things worse anyway. By just stopping for the day I usually are able to get back in the gym on my next scheduled day or at worst just take a few days off.

Try to find movements that don't hurt your back and stay far away from those that do hurt. Increase weight slowly. With some patience you can have a long lifting career.

[Mike5909]

By fixing your form you've helped to prevent further injury. I say "helped" rather than "prevented" because it only takes a fraction of a second and your hurt again. If I could give you any advice it would be to listen to your body. If you feel a twinge....stop immediately. Stop for the day and don't push it. I have in the past continued to train through the pain and only made things worse. I've tried just moving on to the next exercise and made things worse anyway. By just stopping for the day I usually are able to get back in the gym on my next scheduled day or at worst just take a few days off.

Try to find movements that don't hurt your back and stay far away from those that do hurt. Increase weight slowly. With some patience you can have a long lifting career.

Thanks for the advice. I should program more lighter days. I did a meet in March and am doing another in July so I've been training pretty hard. Have a pretty long offseason after that so I'll be able to rest it more often