# Erectors injury



## Luscious Lei (Mar 10, 2015)

Something like 6 weeks ago, I did my usual DL work set.

DLs are the first exercise I do during my back WO these days, until recently I was doing chin-ups first and DL after (chin-ups and DLs are the bread and butter of my back WOs) but I changed the order a couple of months ago.

I always warm up properly, starting my DL sets as light as 135. I'm far to be as strong as you freaks, I start to feel heavy at 405 and my working sets are 3x5 at 450. I don't max out anymore due to several warnings from my crumbling body, so I never lift anything I can't rep for at least 3.

So I do this working set, struggle to grind the last reps on the last set, and my form was def off, not crazy bad but not perfect that's sure.
I move along and finish my WO. A few hours later I start to feel a pain in my lower back, like an intense DOMS. Of course I knew it wasn't normal, I don't feel DOMS before the day after the WO, so I thought I might have been a bit hard on it but expected it to fade away by the next day.

The next morning I don't feel anything until I lean forward to reach for the toilet paper roll. A very sharp pain in my lower back burst, the kind of brutal, sudden pain that cut your breath short. Something was def wrong, and tying my shoes this morning has been one of the hardest thing I've done this year.
I wasn't feeling anything until I stretched the erectors (i.e leaning forward).

Talking about it in the chatbox, Ecks tells me that I prolly pulled my erectors. I take good note of it, and in awe, listen to Jol who tells me that it's a long recovery thing. My lower back hurts all week and I skip the squats, doing only leg press on leg day, some kind of half reps since I keep the back flat on the backrest and therefore can't go too deep. After a couple of day the diffuse pain subside and I can clearly feel that the erectors themselves feel OK, the pain come from the insertion to the pelvis. Still listening to Jol at this stage, I skip DLs as well during the next back WO.

The week after, so week two after injury, I do some very light squats (175), just a few sets. The next day the pain is still there but hasn't increased. Following back WO, I do a few sets of DLs at 225, with very slow reps. Just like with the previous squats sess, the next day the pain hasn't increased. The pain at this stage fade away so slowly that it is doesn't feel like it's improving at all, to gauge the improvement I must compare the pain at least one week apart.

So week three I feel like I can keep squatting and DLing if I ramp the weight up very slowly and and keep the reps very slow and controlled. I do a few sets of squat at 225 and still feel "fine" (fine = pain still here but not increasing). Following back WO I do DLs at 315. On the third set I don't really feel pain but like a tightness and cut it short with the DLs. The next day the pain has def increased very seriously. I'm not back to square one, but feels like at the end of week 1. Lesson learned, Jol was right.

So here I am. It's been three weeks I don't DL at all, and don't squat anything heavier than 225. The pain is still there, mainly in the morning, it's really not much but it simply doesn't fade out. It feels like the stuff is simply not healing. Sometimes I even wonder if it's not a disc issue but it doesn't feel like it.

My WOs suck balls. I can't do any of my fav back exercises since they all engage the erectors: DLs, T-bar rows, etc...My back WOs look like if I was trying to beat the chins up record. I'm doing a lot of Kroc rows, and use the rowing machines that have a rest pad on the chest so that I don't have to contract the erectors to keep my back straight. For legs I do long squat sets at 225 to exhaust the legs as much as I can and then I do some leg press and leg extensions. That's pretty much all I can do. I'm thinking about doing front squats only since they keep the back pretty straight.

Ecks, Dan, Jol suggested to roll my back, which I do as much as I can. However, it is not the muscles that are damaged, but the tendons that attach them to the pelvis, it is very low on the back, just above the glutes, and there's pretty much nothing but bones in there. It helped a bit at first but I feel like it's not doing anything anymore.

I'm at the beginning of a test/NPP/Dbol blast but due to the injury I've just started to pin test, I've delayed the NPP/Dbol since the last thing I need is a sudden increase in strength that would aggravate things. It is an awful pain in the ass, sometimes the pain goes up a notch the day after chest WO, it seems that small things like picking up dumbells from the floor is enough to mess with it.

So here are my questions to my knowledgeable UG fellows:

- does it sound like what I think it is, a tendon strain?
- how long do these usually take to heal?
- anything I could do to speed up the process besides rolling / lacrosse ball?
- any cool exercise ideas for back/legs in the meantime?
- will nand help? I don't think it will but input are welcome
- I just received a lifting belt (Inzer FTW), will it help?

And of course anything else that you think could help.

I also sincerely thank the people who have given me advice in the chatbox (even if I didn't follow them like the stubborn fool I am)


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## mickems (Mar 10, 2015)

Lei, although I don't have any answers, I feel for you bro, and I hope you heal quickly and get back to it. I'm sure you'll get through this, you're a stubborn fool after all.


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## snake (Mar 10, 2015)

Lei I feel for you, I really do. Set backs suck and when you just get going on a run, those high hopes end up in the basement.

1. Jol knows his shit so there’s little I can add but I would keep up with the NPP. They rave over the healing properties of NPP so it may cut the recovery time down. It’s what I am doing right now.

2. I don’t know if you’re a peptide guy but TB500 and BPC 157. I don’t put much stock in either but I doubt it will hurt; well maybe in you wallet.

3. Best for last; I do love my inversion boots! You need to at least try inversion, just please be careful the first time.

If you’re anything like me, an injury can be mentally devastating. Training provides for some of lives greatest highs but the lows can be traumatic. I know this is hard but try to stay positive, or at least realistic. I doubt it’s not the end of your lifting career so give the injury its due and move on to bigger and better things. Take my advice, I’m not using it.


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## Luscious Lei (Mar 10, 2015)

Just to make things clear I'm not challenging any input given by Jol and Ecks, just digging for extra info, tips, etc...

Actually it is precisely because Jol told me that it is serious stuff with the potential to become a chronic injury and to prevent me to lift heavy for ever that I take all these precautions. I can deal with a fair amount of pain and except the first few days right after the injury, the pain is more a discomfort than anything else, without Jol's advice I would prolly be trying to push through. But the last thing I want is to make it worse and to be fuuked for good.

Regarding the TB500, it's not the bucks, but more the availability and the scary things I've read about fibrous cancer that prevent me from using it.

Now on the mental side, I won't lie, I was all amped by this blast, thinking about how far I would push my lifts and how weight I would put on, and here I am now, unable to perform my favourite, most efficient mass and strenght building excercises. When I go to the gym I do my best to look in the other direction so that I don't see the platform lol.
On the other hand I try to remember that I'm doing this sport to have fun, feel good and look great, not to get depressed and crippled. I try to see the positive aspects of it, that it is an opportunity to try new things and to polish my form, but basically I'm on the Zyzz routine and it sucks lol.


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## Want2lift (Mar 10, 2015)

It's not nerve pain is it?  Something possibly irritate your sciatic?  Very common when dealing with disc issues.


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## ECKSRATED (Mar 11, 2015)

Leonidas is it on one side or in the middle? I forgot. Pictures with some whores would help tremendously.


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## Luscious Lei (Mar 11, 2015)

It doesn't feel like a sciatic nerve issue at all. It is in the middle although the rigt side feels a tad more sensitive than the left one.


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## PillarofBalance (Mar 11, 2015)

Lei in all seriousness can you take a pic from behind and put your index finger exactly where the pain is?


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## PillarofBalance (Mar 11, 2015)

The reason I want to know exactly where is because I don't think this is your erectors. I think it is your sacroilliac joint... Yes folks. Lei blew out his SI. Post up and make friends.  This happened to a training partner. He was complaining of the same pain. Came in to squat anyway a few days later.  405 on the bar and went to rack it. Missed one of the hooks and it tilted him just right. He managed to rack it then just hit the floor after dislocating the sacrum.

Came back for a meet exactly one year later and hit like a 100lb squat PR (with my coaching of course  )


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## ECKSRATED (Mar 11, 2015)

That's the reason i asked pob because my brother pulled his sacrum and coccyx 4 times in the past 7 months. Had him switch to sumo and he's been good since. But now likes eating butt.


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## snake (Mar 11, 2015)

PillarofBalance said:


> The reason I want to know exactly where is because I don't think this is your erectors. I think it is your sacroilliac joint... Yes folks. Lei blew out his SI. Post up and make friends.  This happened to a training partner. He was complaining of the same pain. Came in to squat anyway a few days later.  405 on the bar and went to rack it. Missed one of the hooks and it tilted him just right. He managed to rack it then just hit the floor after dislocating the sacrum.
> 
> Came back for a meet exactly one year later and hit like a 100lb squat PR (with my coaching of course  )



I've had my go-round with the SI joint. Nothing too extreme but it still made me to layoff squats for a few weeks. I will say with my limited experience, a SI joint problem goes misdiagnosed more than anything I have ever seen or heard. I have had mine shot up under imaging, not fun! That inversion I recommended really stretched that joint out for me so please give it a try Lei.

By the way POB, thanks for the story. I twinged when I read that.


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## automatondan (Mar 11, 2015)

PillarofBalance said:


> The reason I want to know exactly where is because I don't think this is your erectors. I think it is your sacroilliac joint... Yes folks. Lei blew out his SI. Post up and make friends.  This happened to a training partner. He was complaining of the same pain. Came in to squat anyway a few days later.  405 on the bar and went to rack it. Missed one of the hooks and it tilted him just right. He managed to rack it then just hit the floor after dislocating the sacrum.
> 
> Came back for a meet exactly one year later and hit like a 100lb squat PR (with my coaching of course  )



I agree with POB.... It sounds a lot like it is right at the SI joint... Thats a tough spot to work... Honestly dude, you may want to go get checked out (like an x-ray, or MRI)... Or go see a reputable chiropractor... There's not many out there, but if you find a good one, they can fix a lot of stuff. Same thing with a really good massage therapist (not the ones you are used too!) Im sorry bro, I hope you get this sorted out. Hang in there.


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## Luscious Lei (Mar 11, 2015)

Damn, you guys are good...

POB, it's difficult to isolate the precise pain location because although it is in a bony area it feels "deep". However the center seems to be right on the dimples, and radiate a few inches below and above from there.

I've checked  the SI joint dysfunction symptoms on Wikipedia and they list:

"Mechanical SIJ dysfunction usually causes a dull unilateral low back pain"---> Not my case, the pain is dull indeed but on both side, at the beginning it felt worse on the right side but for some reason it now feels worse on the left side, might be in my head though.

"The pain is often a mild to moderate ache around the dimple or posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS) region"---> Yep, that's me

"The pain may become worse and sharp while doing activities such as standing up from a seated position or lifting the knee towards the chest during stair climbing"---> That's me again, the pain worsen when I walk for a while, as well as when I make the first steps in the morning or when I stand up after seating for a while. I don't feel pain when I climb stairs but feel it when lean forward in a seating position, i.e bringing the knees closer to the chest. I don't feel the pain when I lean forward standing up, to feel it in a standing position I have to lean forward and round my lower back (which I can't do much since my lower back has the flexibility of a cinder block)

"Pain is typically on one side or the other (unilateral PSIS pain), but the pain can occasionally be bilateral"----> as described above

"When the pain of SIJ dysfunction is severe (which is infrequent), there can be referred pain into the hip, groin, and occasionally down the leg, but rarely does the pain radiate below the knee."-----> nothing like this, even when the pain was really sharp on day 2 it was localized on the lower back only

"Pain can be referred from the SIJ down into the buttock or back of the thigh, and rarely to the foot"---->not my case 

"Low back pain and stiffness, often unilateral, that often increases with prolonged sitting or prolonged walking"-----> that's me, as described above but is bilateral

"Pain may occur during sexual intercourse; however, this is not specific to just sacroiliac joint problems"---->pain during sexual intercourse is felt by my partners only and has nothing to do with my SI joint, it's just me being an asshole


What would you guys recommend? Do you think I can just lift through the pain? For some reason I never feel pain when I lift, just a tightness, the pain comes a few hours after the WO and peak the day after, but it is very manageable, I don't feel anything until I lean forward or round my lower back. Or do you think I'll turn it into something serious if I keep monkeying it? Do you think it's worth going to the clinic?


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## PillarofBalance (Mar 11, 2015)

I think it's worth getting checked out by a doc.


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## DieYoungStrong (Mar 11, 2015)

PillarofBalance said:


> I think it's worth getting checked out by a doc.



They don't have docs where he lives.


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## PillarofBalance (Mar 11, 2015)

DieYoungStrong said:


> They don't have docs where he lives.


*witch doctor


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## snake (Mar 11, 2015)

Lei, 
Try this; lay on a table , face up with only your legs hanging over. The spot that bothers you, your sacrum should be on the edge of the table. Now pull one knee up to your chest and let the other leg drop straight out. Anything? Then do it again, just this time relax your knee that you are dropping. Anything now? Hopefully this replicates the pain. Another good test will require someone else. Lay on the floor face up, have someone bend your knee 90° and apply downward pressure directly into the hip, driving your femur downward. They may need to really push down but this is another good check. With both of these, do them one knee at a time. You may have to adjust back and forth to find the right spot on these tests.

My SI problem was strictly load bearing. I got pain on the deload, putting the weight in the rack. I will say, sitting at work does me no favors. That joints not very mobile.


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## Luscious Lei (Mar 12, 2015)

Thank you all for the input, I'll go to the clinic and let you know how it went.


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## Athena (Jul 27, 2017)

Luscious Lei said:


> Thank you all for the input, I'll go to the clinic and let you know how it went.


So how it  actually ended? I am afraid I gotta join the club


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## ECKSRATED (Jul 28, 2017)

I miss lei.


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## widehips71 (Jul 28, 2017)

ECKSRATED said:


> I miss lei.



Whatever happened to him?


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## ECKSRATED (Jul 28, 2017)

widehips71 said:


> Whatever happened to him?



He drowned in bed with 42 prostitutes. Poor guy


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## Athena (Jul 28, 2017)

ECKSRATED said:


> He drowned in bed with 42 prostitutes. Poor guy




That's happy ever after.  The end. If he's not resurrecting soon, do you happen to know who here had same misfortune with back, so I could go stalk someone else. Thanks!


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