I need advice please

[Fu Jau]

About 2 months ago i really hurt my back, it took about a week for me to walk ok and 2 weeks before I started doing any training again. But it still hasnt healed- after 5 minutes work on my left leg, my back is agony. It even hurts a lot to exersize on a rowing machine. I heard of something like a "myofascial' massage, which sounded like it would help, but i cant remember if this is the right name, and I don't know anything else about it. Does anyone know what this is,and how i could go about getting one?

[Cyborg]

Sorry to hear that. I've had back problems for about six years now.

How did you hurt it? And have you been to a professional to have it diagnosed? If you can fix the problem early it will save you both money and pain.

I've had limited success with chiropractors. The same goes for massage therapy. They have their place though, you might give it a try. A friend of mine has had great success with acupuncture.

You may have to lay off of the sports while this heals. Try to strengthen both your back and stomach.

[CraneFist]

Sorry, meaning no disrespect, but if your back hurts like that after working one of your legs for 5 min, man, get yourself to someone who knows what their talking about. Only someone who can physically check you out would be able to know whats wrong and be able to tell you what to do to speed up the recuperation period. Go see a doctor and tell him/her what exactly is going on and they'll fix you up. :)

Of course you can take my advice which is, you just have to kick "through" the pain. Well, you never saw the karate kid give up... :D

[Fu Jau]

Well, when I hurt it, I did go to hospital for xrays, ultrasounds etc, but they didn't really give me any advice about helping it heal. Or maybe they did, but I was in Italy when i did it, so I could'nt understand the doctor anyway. I guess I will go to the doc, but he'll probably just say "Lay off the KungFu", I think.I will just take it easy, maybe check out some acupuncture or something like you said.

[fa_jing]

Myofascial Massage? If it is deep tissue, then you are probably talking about "Rolfing." This is really good treatment, if you find the right guy. Even better: Accupuncture, but you have to find a Chinese guy that was already a doctor in China, otherwise, don't waste your time.

Learn some basic Yoga for low-impact stretching and harmonization of the body.

I was out for over a year with a back injury, before. #1 rule, that I learned: Do not be in denial that you have the injury. I know it is hard to accept.

-FJ

[NPMantis]

Hey Fu Jau,

Please mail me and I'll send you a couple of good articles on back pain, including several good exercises for back problems.

My email is admin@freelondon.org (if anyone else wants them please feel free to mail me too).

Take care bud,

NPM

[anerlich]

IMO most general practitioners are completely useless at diagnosing and treating sports injuries. Even some orthopaedic specialists. I was told "don't play sport or exercise for six weeks. If you have pain, take an analgesic". That was the totality of my treatment.

Get a referral to a physiotherapist or other sports medicine professional if you want to go the Western Medical route.

Chiropractors vary greatly in their efficacy IMO (I've been to quite a few). I had a back injury (spondliolysthesis with L5 slipped anteriorly over S1) which gave me all sorts of trouble through my 20's. SOME chiropractors helped me, some were useless. One of them did rolfing, that fixed some symptoms (specifically, relaxing muscles which were continually rock hard due to impingement on a motor nerve) but not permanently or completely.

I had acupuncture too (yes by a chinese-certified practitioner). It was completely useless in my case, no amount of needles are going to deal with structural problems. YMMV, but don't bet the farm.

I had to go to a physiotherapist to get strengthening exercises which no chiropractor even discussed with me, which led to successful mamagement of my problem, to the degree now where it has minimal effect on my training. These days, I spar full contact, do BJJ free rolling, kick to the head, run 10K's, DL's and SLDL's, even manage to keep up with guys 25 years younger than me on a good day.

Two words: HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. Get second, third, fourth, fifth opinions.

[greendragon]

what part of back? lower ? does it hurt when you stand up/sit down ?

[Fu Jau]

Thanks for all your advice everyone.I've made an appointment with my regular doctor, and I'm going to a Chinese doctor next week. Anerlich and fa_jing, rolfing sounds like the thing I was thinking of, especially as the main problem is my back gets really hard where I had the injury.I will ask the doctor about this. I have been doing yoga for a long time now, but since I had this accident, my back has been much less flexible, because of it getting hard. I guess it will just take more time to get better, and more doctors!