Hi BBM Team,
I am a 29 year old male (5’8”; 170lbs) who lifted regularly following GZCL J&T 2.0 and Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 BBB programs from about March 2020 – March 2023. Previous to powerlifting I used hypertrophy templates for a couple of years, and was a college and high school athlete prior. In my free time I enjoy things like mountain biking, back country hunting, and backpacking heavy loads. All to say that I enjoy being active and working out – it is part of my lifestyle and I’m not happy when I cannot workout. And I haven’t been able to do any of these things since early September.
In March 2023 I experienced a lumbar back event doing yardwork. At the time it was spasms, but not completely debilitating. I shutdown my lifting program (5/3/1) and sought out PT. My PT advised I scale back and complete 2-3 months of typical restrengthening exercises. After 2-3 months I saw temporary improvement. I began training for a hunting trip I had planned in August. I completed a several weeks of a kettlebell HITT program and generally felt okay. Professionally I am a biologist and spent the month of July in a canoe everyday lifting heavy wildlife traps. My back was generally fine during July. In August I spent 2 weeks in AK hunting caribou. My back was fine during the travel and backpacking.
In early September I had a second back event while playing chicken in a pool with some friends. I spent two weeks in excruciating pain. Any position aside from laying on the floor was too painful to bear for more than a few minutes. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t put on my own pants, couldn’t walk, really couldn’t really do anything. After consulting with my physician, I had an MRI and scheduled PT. My imaging shows L3-L4 and L4-L5 and L5-S1 posterior bulging discs with an annular tear at the L4-L5 level. The imaging also shows ligamentum flavum hypertrophy and foraminal stenosis at the L4-L5 level.
Based on the imaging, I have been in PT treatment from early September to present day (mid-January). PT treatment got me off the floor and back to a functional life performing work duties in a couple of weeks. However, I have not made much progress outside of returning to a functional life. I still have daily pain that is increased by some daily activities such as driving for extended periods, running, any high impact activities such as jumping and running, and most importantly for this post, weighted exercise such as back squats and deadlifts.
I also have consulted with a spine specialist (surgeon) who suggested and performed two rounds of epidural fluoroscopy steroid injections at the L4-L5 level targeting the disc and nerve. These injections typically provide temporary relief lasting from 1-2 weeks. The surgeon has recommended I stop squatting and dead lifting and avoid any movements that cause pain (i.e. - running & jumping). My spinal specialist has instructed that I do not perform any activities that would compress my injured discs. My spinal specialist has also suggested that I reach back out to the practice if I still have pain in mid-January (it’s mid January) and we could run another round of steroid injections, or discuss a PRP injection.
I find relief performing extension stretches like prone press ups. Flexion based movements such as bending forward to tie my shoes causes some pain on good days, and terrible pain on bad days. I cannot spend any amount of time (>2-3 minutes) bent over performing any task. I tried to do some light bodyweight exercises over the weekend and yesterday (bodyweight squats, burpees, broad jumps, etc.) and am having a bad day today. I have not yet regressed to spending two weeks on the couch, but it feels like if I were to make one wrong move I’d be back to square one. And that is the frustrating part – I want to be back to lifting and running and mountain biking and backpacking. But instead, I find myself still in daily pain and afraid to do anything that might re-injure my back to the point where I was in early September. On the spectrum of recovery, I feel closer to being injured than I do being close to recovery.
So, after months of pursuing treatment through PT and injections, I finally remembered seeing Dr. Austin’s posts a few years ago back when I had Instagram. I read some articles on pain management on the Barbell Medicine website, and came across the Low Back Rehab Program. I’m hoping to get some insight into the program and whether I would be a good candidate. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.