INJURY CITY: The Back Edition

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I am a certified Master Muscle Activation Technique Specialist. These are my opinions, take them with a grain of salt, plsnthnku.

Any kind of injury causes me to take a pause. But any injury involving your back, well. It typically has me taking mutliple pauses. We live in a world where many things collide, but none more so than the fitness industry’s marketing campaigns screaming at you to never stop moving, with the spinal surgeons swearing they’ll “patch you up right quick!” and finally, with the great world of Coca-Cola and all other Nestle products begging you to just keep on sitting on your ass and not moving. Pretty damn confusing, huh? Thought so. Add on top of that an incessant amount of jobs that have you only sitting at a desk for a casual forty hour work week, it’s no wonder that pharmaceutical drugs are domineering all different social classes across America, surgeons are millionaires in the making (maybe even billionaires) and you can barely pick up your toddler, let alone a bag of dog food or your luggage for that vacation coming up next month. It’s so disappointing.

So here you are, doing your best. You’ve joined the gym, you’ve built up a routine, everything is finally starting to make sense. And you blow your back out. Now what? Why me? What do I do? Where do I turn? How does this get fixed? When one strains their back, the temptation is HIGH to lay down on the floor/bed/couch and stay there for a long, long time. The temptation is also high to call the gym and cancel your membership, swearing never to return. I know, a back injury is absolutely no joke. I have worked with many, many different kinds of clients who have suffered very serious injuries to their trunk. It can feel impossible at the worst, and extremely intimidating at best.

So seriously. What do you do? You assess the situation, you monitor, you keep moving (within reason), you find a specialist (if necessary), and you process.

Assess: Assessments from a specialist standpoint always start with a few key questions. One: is my body stuck in any one position? This can be answered by standing in front of a full body mirror and taking a look at your posture, as well as any height differences in your shoulders or your hips (do I feel cockeyed anywhere?) Two: what makes this feel worse? I will usually have a client get on their hands and knees (if they are able to), and look to see if they are able to move through what you yogis like to call a cat/cow dynamic movement (spinal flexion and extension). If you’re trying this on your own, please remember to b r e a t h e through this one, as it might cause extreme discomfort. If it does, make a note of which position it was, and do your best to keep breathing until the pain subsides. Three: does anything make this feel better? I would absolutley prefer your answer to be that you explored walking, riding a stationary bike or even attempted foam rolling, but recognize that not every scenario allows for this kind of discovery. If you are in a situation outside of the gym and can only pop some tylenol, no judgement. You’re doing what you need to do to make it through the moment.

Monitor: It is not uncommon for the severity of the moment to take a day or two to subside. If this is your situation, as the days progress, try your best to add in more walks, or get to your gym for that stationary bike ride. Also do your best to add in some light stretching ( L I G H T ), as sometimes stretching can lead to more problems. During this time, once or twice a day, try to find time to reassess our three questions from above. If the severity of your pain increases, or lasts longer than a few days, I would be reaching out to a doctor or specialist you have a relationship with, to get a better idea of ways to get you out of the spasm.

Keep Moving: Typically, the spasm in your back is gone within a day or two. Hallelujah! If this is you, it’s time to go back to the gym. Should you be RXing the WOD, or using a KB, or deadlifting? Ah, no. Probably not today, but soon? Yes. This is when it is crucial that you are vulnerable and brutally honest with your coach (come on, check your ego at the door), and let them in on what’s been going on. The more information they have, the better they can serve you. Their job is to help make the workout more accessible to you, and to keep you safe while doing so. Movement is paramount in helping your body get rid of inflammation!

Find a specialist: If you are finding yourself stuck in the monitor step of this process, or the gym is really making you nervous, find someone to help you. Period. Your body and preserving it’s longevity is #1 in all decisions you should be making, and if you don’t feel confident in handling your current situation, you should absolutely be finding someone who does. Could that be me? 100%. Could that be your general practitioner? Also 100%. Be wary of anyone who immediately prescribes you drugs and encourages you to sit down and take it easy. They are not on your side.

Process: This is when all of the above steps come together as one to help you figure out what in the hell just happened. Most people can pinpoint a specific moment or action that caused the spasm, but what they fail to see is all of the build up to it. Maybe you’ve been ignoring your body’s demands for more sleep, or a more vegetable and protein packed diet (these things are lame according to today’s society, but today’s society sucks and we wanna outlive those assholes anyways, right?). Or, maybe you’ve been double dipping in the exercise department, pulling a few two-a-days a week and not getting enough recovery time between workouts. OR! Maybe you’ve been ignoring your coach’s cues on how to properly pick something up, and here we are, flailing in the wind. Taking a few moments daily to assess how your body is feeling and progressing out of this scary injury phase is a beautiful habit to fall into. The more you can learn to see and identify within yourself as stressors BEFORE another spasm comes along, the better your approach will be in the gym and all of those other day-to-day activities you enjoy doing.

As always, hit me up to make some magic, folks. Love y’all.

Kisses.