Herniated Disc

In September of 2006, I hit a milestone clean and jerk (160kg). To celebrate, I took a grand victory lap around the gym. I don’t know how long the lap took, but it was enough for my body to have cooled down. For my next exercise (clean pulls), I didn’t think I needed to warm up again. When I went into the first rep, a massive pain jolted through my lower back.

I fell to my knees and could barely breathe. By flexing my abs as much as I could, I was able to get up, get to my car, and drive home. An MRI showed that I had herniated a disc between the L5 and S1 vertebrae. This and similar injuries affect athletes at all levels. Nearly all find a way to recover, return to 100%, and continue growing either by surgery or physical therapy.

or the nine months following the injury, I couldn’t sit or stand for more than a few minutes. My left leg would hurt and go numb. I went to physical therapy, which didn’t help. Two weeks before my scheduled spine surgery, an acupuncturist suggested I follow a protocol (described below). The pain went away in just over a week, and I was fully active within two weeks.

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First, a few words on avoiding back injury in general. Most back injuries happen toward the end of the summer (because of dehydration), and toward the end of training cycles (when we lift the heaviest weights). To reduce the risk of injuring your back, stay hydrated, stretch and warm up the muscles of the back before lifting heavy weights, and regularly work on developing strength and rigidity in the muscles of the lower back and abs. Here are some good exercises:

• Ab strength: too many to list. Google it.
• Ab rigidity: Planks. When doing planks, tilt your hips forward. If you want to add weight, place it on the hips, not on the upper back.
• Lower back strength: Back raises
• Lower back rigidity: back-raise holds

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Ainsleyaikens Joined: March 28th, 2020