Threw Lower back out

[Dustymoney]

I was doing bent over back rows on a smith machine since i was at planet fitness and felt a slip on my lower back. I was in instant pain and now 2 days later still haven’t recovered. Is there anyway to tell if it’s a muscle sprain or an actual spine injury? Man I hope it’s nothing serious. Debating going to the doctors tomorrow if it’s not better but hoping someone’s got some experience they can share. Also I got a back brace and heating pad I’ve been using. Alternating cold and hot presses on it and sleeping with the heating pad. Thanks

 

[DieViolent]

You’ll need an mri or ct scan for soft tissues. There’s basically two types of disc issues, one is “bulging” where the disc protrudes out but doesn’t rupture which still puts pressure on nerves and the other is “herniated” where the inner goo blows out the side of the disc. These both generally can get better over time but may be repeat injuries due to the severity and often times inability to stop all back stress. They take a few weeks to heal up to a few months without surgery. I’d recommend getting it checked out now. I’ve been dealing with this since the military (19 years ago) and still have problems. Every so often I’ll have it reignite and “blow out” just bending over for something. Mcgills big 3 is something you can use to alleviate future injuries once you’re strong enough to do some core work. Take the time off, rest is key here.

 

[hypertrophyy]

Welcome to the club bro. Life just gets more fun an exciting now. I wish I could tell you its all sunny beaches and pina coladas from here, but no. Die pretty much covered it. It could be a month or two before things settle down some. Don't do anything stupid that can make it worse until the initial pain settles down, or you can make it worse to the point where you bruise your spinal cord and end up with sciatica so painful you scream your head off and go straight to the ER. If you insult your spinal cord enough, you can wind up with permanent nerve damage in your legs and muscle atrophy. This is nothing to play with. Get to a specialist, get your MRI. Look into injections if needed. They have the potential to help tremendously with pain.

Things to know... once the disc has bulged or slipped. Even if you feel 100%, it can happen again much easier. Start looking into alternatives for squats. If you keep re-injuring the disc/vertebrae it can also lead to facet arthritis and spinal stenosis. At that point, shots will help but the second you irritate the arthritis, the injection usually stops working.

My spine is fairly jacked with collapsing discs and everything i said above. I've never herniated a disc, but my understanding is it can be all this and some. There are a lot vets on this board that have multiple fused vertebrae. They can chime in. I wish I knew all this back when I used to watch Blood and Guts several times a week with aspirations of competing around 300lbs. You don't have to train that nuts to get that big. Train smarter not harder..

Best of luck..