Training With an Injury.

[Kellen Bassette]

A little over a month ago I jacked my lower back up pretty good; I've been on light duty with my training ever since. Prior to the injury I had been doing some pretty hard sessions.

Anyways, I got to Thailand this week and have had some serious training planned for this trip for quite some time. Was intending to do 6 days a week, 4 hours or so a day for the next couple months. The plan was to run in the morning, stretches, light workout, solo KF drills and forms; then training at a Muay Thai camp in the evening.

About 2 weeks ago I could barely stand up straight; my back has improved since; but I'm nowhere near finished healing. I saw the doctor yesterday; he says it's muscles, not my spine and I guess I got the ok to train. He just said no sit ups for a month; but I stopped them a month ago when I got hurt.

I seem to be alright with most punches, front kicks, roundhouses, side kicks...but if I do the snap kick, slap foot thing that we always do in Shaolin forms, it kills me. Crescent kicks, spinning kicks, jumps hurt pretty bad too. I'm afraid I may have to forgo the form training so i don't get into bad habits from compensating for my back.

I have no idea how I'm going to respond to bag/pad/clinch work; I haven't done any since I got hurt. I know the smart thing to do is keep resting until I'm better; but I've been so stoked for this trip for a while; I know I'm going to train until I can't.

Anyways, I'm sure some of you guys have dealt with this problem. Any suggestions for working around the injury; or minimizing damage? My current plan is to just strap on a back brace, pop some pain killers and hope I'm not crying when they where off.

Thanks.

[bawang]

how did u hurt ur back man? did u feel numbness or tingling? i hurt my spine in august

[Kellen Bassette]

how did u hurt ur back man? did u feel numbness or tingling? i hurt my spine in august

I don't know exactly how I did it, it was either at work or in training. I do manual labor and had to move some stones that were probably pushing 200 pounds, I only weigh 145..stones aren't like moving weights because they are so awkward and unwieldy...I think I may have twisted wrong.

I never actually felt it when I did it though; my back started waking me up several times a night from pain and got progressively worse. Another possibility; at the same time, I was drilling the Cannon form pretty hard for a couple hours one night; the move where you do the triple arm swing into the sky cannon may have tore a muscle. A week later when I worked that form i couldn't do that move because it really tweaked my back.

[Kellen Bassette]

I was hoping it would be healed by now, at the same time last year I tore a muscle in my upper back, being stupid and trying to do one arm pullups. It acted the exact same way, being worse at night, waking me up and forcing me to stretch several times every night. It lasted just over a month, then healed.

This is the lower back, but has been very similar to what I did last year; and it's been a bit over a month now; I was expecting it to be better.

I never had back problems like this before, I must be getting older.

[bawang]

but did u feel numbness or tingling?

[Kellen Bassette]

No I didn't..but mine was muscle, not spine...may be the difference.

[wenshu]

I never actually felt it when I did it though; my back started waking me up several times a night from pain and got progressively worse. Another possibility; at the same time, I was drilling the Cannon form pretty hard for a couple hours one night; the move where you do the triple arm swing into the sky cannon may have tore a muscle. A week later when I worked that form i couldn't do that move because it really tweaked my back.

Pinched nerve maybe?

I did that shit to my neck once, man that sucked. Took like 6 weeks to fully recover.

Also, my lower back acts up whenever I have tight hamstrings, since paijiao is giving you trouble, how's your flexibility?

[Kellen Bassette]

Pinched nerve maybe?

I did that shit to my neck once, man that sucked. Took like 6 weeks to fully recover.

Also, my lower back acts up whenever I have tight hamstrings, since paijiao is giving you trouble, how's your flexibility?

I wondered if it may be a pinched nerve too...my flexibility is decent, but not great...I can't do the splits, or put my chest on the ground from a sitting splits position, but before I got hurt I could do a back bridge from standing, drop all the way down in the wing stance, toe touches with my wrists, I do a good bit of stretch kicks and "fancier" kicks...kind of middle of the road on that...

[Scott R. Brown]

If it is muscular, ICE, ICE, ICE! and 800mg Motrin every 8 hours. This is a prescription dose by the way and should only be followed for short periods of time, a few weeks to a month or so!

Ice as often as you can every 2 hours, for 20 mins. for the first 3-4 days after an injury. Then alternate Ice and Heat every two hours as often as you can. Icing at the beginning is the most important thing. I have had injuries that would normally take a number of weeks to heal, heal in a few days to a week, just by icing and motrin.

Always heat before training and ice IMMEDIATELY after you are done. It might be better to do multiple short training sessions than one long one.

And try to avoid anything that will re-injure it. Slowly add stretching back into it and light strengthening and range of motion actions after the first or second week, depending upon the seriousness of the injury..

And listen to tgy if he posts anything, since he is a physical therapist, in hiding, I might add!