Is Low Back Rehab What I Need?

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Deadlifting about 6 weeks ago and felt a pull in my left lower erector area. Felt like the muscle gave way some (tore?). I put the weight down and took a few minutes. The slight pain was acute to the area, no shooting pain down the leg or anything. Continued a bit of my workout. Some definite initial discomfort but nothing bad, even pulled 405lbs for 1 about 5 min later. Decided to not do anymore.

Since then its obviously been irritated. Ive reduced my working weight, sets and reps in an attempt to get things back in order. No pain with it at this point, never really had pain I could just tell it was irritated/inflamed. The main thing is that the next day or maybe two days after ive had a bit of tingling in my left foot under my toes. Ive experienced this some before with similar strains, so my sciatic may just run near this and since it is inflamed it is pushing on the nerve?

6 weeks later and the tingly is still there in the mornings when i get out of bed and sometimes after i sit for a while (like at work) or do something explosive like jump/sprint etc. No pain in my lower back at all, though its a little tight. I can lift and im about 75% back to normal, but Im wondering if the tingling is something I should be concerned about? And, if the lower back rehab maybe would fit? Since i don’t really have pain im not sure how best to proceed.

Thanks.

2

Hi, thanks for the post and questions! My general recommendation would be to continue training as you are, increasing intensity incrementally each week. The presence of tingling doesn’t automatically equate to injury and needing to run a specific rehab program, especially if you’ve seen improvement in your back pain and numbers on the lifts. This might just be a normal process of your individual progress after an acute episode of low back pain. Furthermore, sciatic-like symptoms (or radiculopathy) is not always caused by a mechanical “pushing on the nerve”, especially since muscular strains are anatomically distant from the nerve roots in the spine. Just like your low back pain, I would use the tingling symptoms as a guide for progressing your current training, while being aware that the presence of tingling doesn’t make it a more serious symptom to pay attention to vs local back pain and that being patient with the process will improve your long term outcome. Let us know how you progress and if you have any other questions!