I got my mom to training about 2 months ago, she is in her late fourties. She trained 3 times a week with the deadlift and squat performed twice a week, 3 sets of 5 and the pendlay row once a week 3x5, plus alternating between the bench press and overhead press (twice or once a week). She hurt her back during the deadlift. At the moment of performing the lift she felt something over stretching and hurting a little, DEEP in her back, not the lats, the sensation starts from the lower end of the ribs and it goes all the way up under the scapula. She finished her session anyway, but the next days it started hurting just doing everyday stuff. It’s been 15 days now. It hurts when rotating, and it feels like if something penetrates her back and she feels like if there’s a strange object in there, like a ball stuck in there, however, bending , or doing back extensions lying down or even flexion doesn’t hurt it just feels a little uncomfortable, it hurts only when the movement is done from one side, for example yesterday she tried picking up something from a low table, she bended to the left and picked it up with her left hand and felt the pain in the right side of her back, or sometimes just breathing deeply or sneezing hurts. After this happened, she went twice to the gym, she only did leg press and bench press, it didn’t hurt but she says it feels like it will start hurting if she goes harder … So she finished the last session on the treadmill walking, and now she says she should take time off to let it heal, because she doesn’t feel pain when at rest, only when she moves.
What would be the best thing to do doc?
Congrats on getting your Mom to train. It’s difficult to give advice without consulting her. Have you talked to her about decreasing the load she’s trying to lift but lifting with tolerable symptoms?
This may help guide the path: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdwj5ORPmX0
Hi doc, sorry for the late response, I followed this strategy, and it worked amazingly, even though it was hard to convince her at first, your response and Dr Feigenbaum’s response helped me a lot with this.
First she was still experiencing the symptoms even with the empty bar and reduced ROM, so I had to take out all barbell lifts and just get her moving and doing exercises that don’t trigger the pain, to desensitize her and make her realize that '“it’s not that bad!” and she can still exercise. She did mostly lumbar extensions, and leg press and some isolation cable exercices for the shoulders. And soon we started implemeting the barbell lifts again and dropped all the other stuff. With time all the pain just disappeared, now she’s back training normally again, and got back to her initial weight.
Thank you so much BBM, without your advice I would have surely agreed to her seing a doctor and resting!