Lower Back Spasm

Holy hell I'm in agony! Tuesday morning at work, grabbed a coffee, yacked with some coworkers for a bit and then went to my desk. As I was sitting down my lower back gave out. The amount of pain was through the roof, I've snapped my leg twice, broken both arms twice among countless other injuries and this is by far the worst pain. Coworker drove me home and I was having what I can only describe as contractions in the passenger seat. Managed to get myself to bed, this was at 10am.

Spent the day paralyzed with pain and fear of moving creating a spasm. At 10pm I gave in and called 911, fire dept had to come get me out of bed and to the hospital. Xray showed no damage to spine, doc loaded me up with drugs and said I have to get moving asap. 

Well now it's Saturday and I can finally sit up with my legs off the bed. I'm going to dedicate today to trying to stand and get to the bathroom. I'm still having spasms but they aren't as intense or as long so I think my muscles are starting to chill out. 

Anyway I guess the point of this post is a friendly reminder to stay on top of stretching and general core strength. I've been feeling super fit on the bike lately and I think my core finally gave up to trying to stabilize.

You have my sympathy. This has happened to me twice. Both times I got IMS treatment from my physio as that seemed the fastest way to stop the excess tension in my back muscles.

Every morning now I do a good 10-15 minutes stretch/flexibility routine - I'm crippled if I don't get to do it for any reason

Posted by: SixZeroSixOne

Every morning now I do a good 10-15 minutes stretch/flexibility routine - I'm crippled if I don't get to do it for any reason

I'm going to do this from now on %100. This is horrible. I just managed to walk to the bathroom and then I chose to stay vertical and walked around the living room. Couple shocks but not nearly as bad as before, try again in an hour.

Posted by: SixZeroSixOne

Every morning now I do a good 10-15 minutes stretch/flexibility routine - I'm crippled if I don't get to do it for any reason

Yeah man, same thing, laundry list of major injuries, nothing compared to my back going out. First time physio asked me for pain scale, I said 10.

Mine was from an injury, and like clockwork every 2 months afterwards it would go out catastrophically. Physio for fucking years.

Eventually landed on an intense long hold daily stretching program and problem just...vanished.

Focus especially on your hips, keep those fuckers super loose so your back has nothing to grab onto.

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Don't get mad at me Synchro haha. Just anecdotal. Was heavily involved in sports when younger and lifted a lot of weights, so strengthening later in life did fuck all for me. In retrospect my body was definitely more inflexible than weak. Heavy mobility work was nothing short of miraculous, within weeks my back spasming was permanently solved after living with it for nearly a decade.

Great PSA. I've had mild to moderate back problems most of my life, recently went to a physio to get a simple set of exercises. Now I do them 3x week for no more than 15 minutes, and it has made a significant difference.

Sorry to hear about the injury, sucks being laid up :(

I just started a calisthenics routine about 2 weeks ago hoping to stem off some of the affects of the inevitable aging process lol

https://youtu.be/4BOTvaRaDjI?si=tM1diy5qSwd8wEc3

Posted by: thaaad

Sorry to hear about the injury, sucks being laid up :(

I just started a calisthenics routine about 2 weeks ago hoping to stem off some of the affects of the inevitable aging process lol

One of the great things about calisthenics is that they include a lot of mobility/agility work and speed/explosive movements, things that are often missing from a traditional strength training type program. Sprinting and jumping type movement need to be part of a regular training routine.

T-mack, sorry to hear about your back, I know what it feels like. That was a pretty common occurrence for me until I found a physio who helped me (re)learn good posture and movement habits. 

For the last 8 years or so, daily stretching and core, yoga once or twice a week, and I try to swim once a week too. I feel like I get the high intensity / explosive stuff out of mountain biking mostly but in winter when riding less, I do some basic HIIT and weights.

I regret not clueing in to this earlier in life. I had already done some irreversible damage to my spine by my early thirties so despite being in shape I have to be super careful and every once in a while I still slack off and make a wrong move.

Thanks for the PSA.  I haven’t had this happen to me in a while but I’ve been there.  

God I remember calling 911 for my dad when I was a kid for the same thing. He’s a bigger guy and a team of fire fighters put him on a stretcher and carried him out to an ambulance. The screaming. It’s not easy seeing a loved one suffering like that. 

My doctor once told me I need to do regular back stretches or my older years won’t be pretty. Jesus besides biking and walking the pigdogs I do jack. Office job too. 

This thread has scared me. All the best T Mack.  You’ll get through it but it’s sure not fun.

I didn't think putting your back out was a big deal... until it happened to me. I was pulling up off a jump, it seized in the air, and then fully seized when I cased the landing. So painful. Luckily I was back to normal within a week, but I've been focusing on posture and lifting technique ever since.

It's been 6 days for me now, managed to have a shower yesterday which felt amazing. Tried to work today but spazzed in traffic on my way to work which wasn't awesome. Turned around and went back home, now I'm back in bed. I will say I can get up and hobble around now so staying active as possible is on the menu.