About 4 days after an injury event (sharp hip pain with radiating ‘electric’-feeling pain during a set of squat warm ups), I developed sudden onset of drop foot symptoms in my left foot. After the injury, I actually started my workout from scratch, and was able to hit my intended sets without pain, as well as the 3 workouts following until symptoms began. They began as a feeling of DOMS like pain in my left tibialis anterior, with some left hip and hamstring tightness, however no other pain above the hips including bladder/bowel dysfunction. The main symptom showed as the moderate inability to dorsiflex the forefoot and toes, especially when the left knee is fully extended.
I spoke with a clinician who referred me to my PT/RMT after confirming no bowel/bladder issues or low back pain. My RMT did some manual therapy around the hip and leg but nothing really came of it, so I booked an appt with my MD. My doctor did physical tests to confirm the drop foot, and had me do a toe touch and lean-back (both successfully and without pain) before diagnosing a herniated disc between L5-S1. He told me not to lift in any way that compresses the spine, and gave me a script for bloodwork to rule out a diabetic cause.
Throughout this I have been able to lift without pain, and live and walk without much inconvenience as my foot/toe mobility continues to increase in very small increments daily. I have added weight to all my lifts (including squats and deadlifts of course), and have been successfully working through the legacy 4 day hypertrophy template. My form is symmetrical, I am staying within prescribed RPE, and other than a weird sensation during some lifts due to not having the antagonistic dorsiflexion at the ankle (mostly present during front squats and deficit deadlifts) there has been no negative effect on my lifts or life in general.
I was hoping you could reassure me that I am correct in continuing to resistance train as I am, but I also had a specific question: Considering this MAY be a disc herniation, am I okay to move onto the later programming of the legacy 4 day hypertrophy program that includes singles @ 8? If you don’t recommend it within the next few weeks, I may just run weeks 1-4 a second time before trying my hand at relatively heavy singles.
Hey @Unc - sorry to hear about your situation but I gotta say, you seem to be managing very well; which is awesome to read.
Anecdotally, I have folks be physically active to tolerance in these situations (inclusive of resistance training) while symptoms are resolving. There are no contraindications in this context based on your situation at this time (hate to hear the advice of not to lift in any way that compresses the spine that was provided to you previously but very common unfortunately). Regarding singles at 8, it’s difficult to give a concrete answer here. My usual premise in these scenarios is to train to tolerance while symptoms are resolving and you are returning to baseline (see Charlie’s blog: https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog…e-the-process/). With this in mind, it would not be something I’d program for folks in your situation just because I am usually trying to mitigate chasing numbers during the recovery process.
Wanted to provide an update if anyone finds this or is experiencing a similar situation:
I ended up finishing legacy 4-day hypertrophy, skipping the singles @ 8 on squat and deadlift (kept them for bench and seated press which I do because of low ceiling) and instead following the same progression (though shorter) as weeks 1-4. Throughout, all sensation of weakness or instability in my left foot has gradually reduced to the point that it is no longer perceivable to me. I am now running through this program a second time, and will test what I feel to be my complete recovery by doing the singles as I now feel confident, and if all goes well I plan to move to Strength III once I’m finished up this program.
I cannot express enough gratitude for the guidance BBM provides and the methodologies you promote in active recovery.