Hello All,
For reference 45 yr old male, very active.
2 weeks ago yesterday while deadlifting I felt a nasty pop in my lower lumbar (I know I know, why are you deadlifting heavy at 45.. won't be. Ever. Again). Took me to the ground instantly and then it quickly set in that something was wrong. I was supposed to get on a plane the next morning to go meet my wife and kids at the beach and early that morning I made the call that there was no way that was happening. Called the wife (that was fun) told her I'd move the flight to that night to get to a doctor that morning. I have a buddy who is an anesthesiologist/pain management doc who got me in to see me right away. At this point my right leg from hip flexor down outer quad, to knee cap was numb and dead.

Immediately after seeing me and an exam he was most certain that I herniated the L3. In the interest on getting me on that flight that evening he put me on prednisone, Lyrica, and Meloxicam in the hopes to get it to chill out. If that wouldn't do the trick he'd give me the spinal epidural injection when I got back. This was June 18th. I managed to make it to my gate at Iah nearly giving up and going home.. from the 18th till when we returned on the 21st it progressively got worse. Barely able to walk and radiating pain down my right leg set in. On the 21st when I returned the muscle spasms in right quad set in and he immediately called in a muscle relaxer (Robaxin), my body laughed at that stuff. Monday morning the 23rd I went in for the ESI. My L3 was pretty inflamed so he hit my L4/5 in hopes that I'd get coverage into the L3 and if not he'd comeback a week later and do the L3. That ESI was gnarly but relatively painlesss considering how much radiating pain I was in.

Over the next week, my radiating pain and muscle spasms did go away but hip flexor, quad and knee pain has been awful and still have numbness in left side of right knee. Walking still a challenge. And I am only comfortable in a seated position. Have not been able to sleep on back, stomach or right side. Left side is tolerable but not for long.

Yesterday (7-1) I went in for another ESI. This time the L3. This was the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life. Took me an hour to get my bearings afterwards. Quickly understood why he didn't want to hit the L3 last week.

As of this am, I do feel different, my pain is there but I didn't wake up with level 8 pain and need to spend an hour trying to get functional.. today I woke up at about a 6/7. I have an MRI scheduled for next week and hopefully I'll be able to follow through with that appt. As of right now I cannot lay on my back or stomach at all so hopefully by then I will.

Well that's the background. My question for y'all is: we know it's an L3 herniation, any of you that have gone through the same injury, what were your experiences?

TIA
Jarrad

Been thru a couple of bouts with L3 issuws. Never needed surgery. The more severe took about 6 weeks for the inflammation to subside, and when it did, it was like magic over the course of a few days - once the compression let up, symptoms resolved quickly. Had a couple of other bouts where it was more like 2-4 weeks. I still have occasional numbness in sensation on my thigh, but no pain.

Daily stretching and core strength routine has helped me do a much better job of avoiding recurrence. But be careful with doing too much before inflammation subsides; walking and light stretching may be your best bet for a bit. I'd recommend seeing a good PT. Keeping it loose is very important - can't just lie or sit around, but you have to be careful not to aggravate it.

I bought a Tonal 3 years ago and have customized my exercises so that I don't compress my spine. I'm 51 and those days are over - the risk vs reward of heavy compression is not there for me. Still do heavy, but heavy + compression, nope. Only takes one oops. The pain + being away from doing the things I live for weeks/months, not worth it. But the Tonal is extremely helpful for still getting a good, heavy workout with some creative ways to work muscle groups without compression. Supposedly i'm stronger than 70% of all male tonal members, so not too shabby even with my somewhat compromised routines

Read the book The Back Mechanic by Dr. Stuart McGill. For immediate relief (immediate meaning in the upcoming days), start doing spine decompressions and back bands on the floor (think cobra pose). A pull-up bar works well, you just want your feet touching the floor to support you so you can relax your body and let your body hang and decompress your spine (a minute or two). Follow that up by laying on the floor on your stomach and pushing your torso up, keeping your hips and legs on the flooor, arching your lower back. Hold for 15-20 seconds and repeat a few times. If that is too painful initially, just lay on the floor and prop yourself up on your arms / elbows as high as you can and just lay there 5 or 10 mins. Do this multiple times a day initially, if you can. It will help relieve pressure in your lower back. It may take a few days to a week to feel an improvement.

You're probably going to have a lot of tightness in your hips and hamstrings. Work on gently stretching those without any kind of forward bending.

Read the book and start implementing the basics.

Lastly, nothing inherently wrong with lifting heavy at your age. I'm 48 and still do heavy deadlifts and squats. I'm careful though and know my limits and methodical with form. Reps are also slower at heavy weights than they use to be, intentionally.

thesleepstation said:

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Hello All,
(I know I know, why are you deadlifting heavy at 45.. won't be. Ever. Again). T

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This is probably not the direction you should go...as counter intuitive as it seems.

And how heavy is heavy?

Obviously, work with your health care professionals, but what jtraggie99 is saying does seem work for alot of people. The Back Mechanic is good stuff.

The key...KEEP IT MOVING. If you baby it it for too long, you are going to have even more issues.

My one rep is 515 for measure…. I was just warming up to this.. was in middle of 5 reps at 345 when this happened.

Yeah, I get some of the theories out there, and for some, they are probably great. But as I went thru my 40s and entered my early 50s now, there's also a "I know my own body" factor. For me, I'd say I'm more in tune now than I ever have been and have a good feel for where more risk/benefit lies. What works for me lifting-wise may not be as ideal for others, and vice versa

The advice to keep moving is important though. Walking. Light stretching. That's where a good PT right now would come in handy to help you find the margins of what will benefit you vs what might set you back and prolong the inflammation. Step 1 is to get that inflammation down but doing so while moving so you don't get all tightened up and locked up back there

Well, the mid-5's are definitely heavy enough. Weird on the 345 though...That should be absolutely nothing for you.

How are you feeling now?

And what do you think happened? At that weight, you may have jerked the bar (because its nothing for you).

Tbh I think I was in a hurry through my earlier warmup.. freak thing and it caught up to me while I was building.

I can sympathize. My worst bout mentioned above was at age 40, but as I went thru my 40s, the "freak things" where something happened unexpectedly when I was simply doing something I'd done a million times became more recurring. The stretching and core work and my routine has helped curb it back the other way. But staying dedicated to it takes some discipline.

4 days after ESI #2, I've got SOME relief but not as much as I expected I guess. I cannot shake the nerve stuff in my right knee and quad. Standing is pretty brutal and knee still feels on fire. Hopeful for some big steps forward in next couple of days:\… feeling pretty dejected at this point.

Are you also doing back mechanic stuff?

Have you tried doing super light deadlifts or Rdl just to try and get some blood pumping back there?

I was in the depths too when I hurt mine. Weeks where I could not walk from my car to my office without stopping to alleviate the nerve pain in my thigh. But again, after 6 weeks the inflammation subsided to where the pain essentially disappeared within a few days - just needed it to subside enough to free the nerve. Walking, light stretching, then ice it. Rinse and repeat.

I started icing numerous times per day in 10-15 minute sessions, and while possibly coincidence, that seemed to help trigger improvement. Some will advise heat, but that seemed to just aggravate things for me - more blood flow more inflammation. So movement followed by ice became my go-to and I've used it with success ever since whenever I encounter an issue with my back

I have been able to little to none of that. My goal is to get on a stationary bike and attempt some low bar hang tomorrow.

Waking would be better than a bike, if you can do that. McGill even recommends that, 3 times a day for 30 mins or so if possible.

Yeah, my go-to's on the stretching are some gentle cat-cow, downward dog, child's pose, and cobra (cobra can be particularly beneficial). Again, go easy and ice after. Then walking a few times a day and again, more ice after. Loosen then calm.

I had a similar situation but it doesn't sound quite as bad. Back Mechanic is a good rec and I also did a 12 week round of peptides(BPC-157 and TB500).

I got them from a guy who buys in bulk from a research lab and I think they helped a ton. It was either an incredible placebo effect or they're legit.

Good luck on that today. Let us know how it goes.

I also will co-sign the walking thing. A little 2 mile walk, nothing crazy, followed by some heat can really help loosen things up back there.

Ugh. Not the thread I want to post on, but here goes.

I started out with pain on the inside of my left knee about a month ago. Then I started also experiencing pain and tightness in my hamstrings. I have also noticed a bit of foot drop, as in almost tripping when my foot drags a bit. But I just shook this off since it was so infrequent. After a very busy weekend, I woke up at 12:30 last night with sharp pain going down my butt, and down my left leg. Knee is still very painful. I barely slept and was up stretching and taking meds all night.

I did get a shot in my knee about week into the pain from my ortho buddy and that helped but only a little.

I am beginning to think it may be lumbar related rather than my knee. I'm trying to get an appt. with an ortho. My buddy is a hand surgeon so it's not his area.

I was at the beach a week ago and couldn't walk a full mile because of the pain. I thought I could fix everything with stretching and time, but it's getting worse. I can do a full 30-45 minutes on the Peloton with no issues and no pain. It's with walking and especially going up and down stairs.

Well today, I got on a bike erg and did intervals (slow pace) of a couplet of 10 cals followed by a 100m walk for 5 sets. also accumulated about 6 mins total of bar hang.... Right leg nerve action still a bit spotty and if I had to guess the nerve pain through quad and knee is about 40-50% better than what it was when I had the second epidural last Tuesday. My main goal for today and tomorrow is to get loosened up enough to not have to reschedule my MRI scheduled for Wednesday. Thanks for all that have chimed in, it has been very helpful.

Have you had any MRI/CT yet? Also did you get the back, knee or both? Curious because I am looking to get one.

I also ordered that back mechanic book and will be starting that immediately.

Ive only had imaging from the anesthesiologist when he did the epidural injection(s)... But he could see location and problem. Also doc pretty confident based on my symptoms that L3 is the culprit. essentially confirmed by me when that needle went into my L3 lol. I have an MRI Wednesday if I can lay on my back for 30 mins by then.. If not I'll reschedule for next week. Trying like hell to be able to do the MRI as scheduled. Also, ive only done the back ESI.. The knee pain is nerve pain caused by the hernia in the L3 resting on the nerve. Im finally starting to get the relief in my knee since the L3 injection last week... The week before I got an L4/5 injection and got no nerve relief at all out of it. We did the L4/5 injection first even knowing that L3 was the problem. essentially doc thought wed get enough coverage going in there to get relief. Plan was from beginning if we didnt that wed come back for the L3. When I had the L3 injection It was pretty clear right away why he wanted to spare me that early on lol.

I think there are some open MRI where you don't have to lay down. Hope all goes well.

Well, had my MRI and confirmed L3 L4 herniations with a bonus possible nerve root cyst. Having another MRI with contrast to get a better look at the cyst/lesion sometime this week or next.

Nerve pain has gotten better and I have been making progress, but it has been slow. Probably overall about a 50% improvement in nerve issues since the 2nd ESI. Started doing extremely light RDL's and was able to step up to a jerk block this week.