On April 26 I was in a car wreck and hurt my neck, low back and got a concussion. It turns out that I have a herniated disc between the L5 and S1 vertebrae. This past Monday I received a cortisone shot and hopefully that will help the problem. In two weeks I go back for a follow up. If there is still pain, I will get another shot or have surgery. The herniated part of the disc is touching a nerve that sends pain down both legs, but mainly the left. My question is if the shot doesn’t help, how will this affect my sprinting? Am I better off avoiding surgery and suffer the pain? I am concerned that the surgery will limit my flexibility and prevent me from running again. I’ve been told by a therapist that it may even be difficult to do squats or ab work. Any suggestions by anyone or has anyone had this issue before?
MJ,
Try the following stretch for the lower back. As it happens, it is specifically designed to decompress the S1-L5 joint.
Stretch for S1-L5 junction:
- Lie on back in front of a wall with legs held up on the wall
- Dorsiflex and internally rotate the feet, pushing the heels away from the body
- Internally rotate both legs
- Extend arms overhead and externally rotate while dorsiflexing the hand with fingers pulled back, pushing the heels of the hands away
- Flatten spine against floor, with particular attention to the ribs and sternum
- The neck is flat, reach away strongly with the top of the head
- Press lower spine into the floor
- If unable to flatten spine properly, start with hands extended upward and then lower them toward the overhead position until the spine starts to come off the floor.
It might take some practice to get the stretch down. There is a lot to do simultaneously. I suggest doing several holds, starting with the first cue and adding another element with each hold.
Unlike typical back stretches, this stretch does not involve bending at the joint. Rather, the stretch is longitudinal, which relieves pressure on the intervertebral disc. Therefore, it should not aggrevate the herniated disc, and hopefully improve it by allowing proper hydration of the disc as well as relieving local myofascial tension.
Regarding surgery, I am not a physician and I won’t second guess yours, but my father is an osteopath and radiologist and his general recommendation is to avoid back surgery unless you are losing sensation in your legs. From years of doing follow up diagnoses on back patients, his experience is that the long term prognosis for those who get back surgery is no better than those who don’t. Plus you have the other effects of surgery to deal with.
For your neck, try this stretch for the C7-C6 intervertebral joint:
-lie on your back
-bend the knees and pull them toward your chest, just enough to raise the sacrum off the floor (this will put tension at the base of the fascia that connects the sacrum and the skull)
-point your arms along your torso toward your hips and dorsiflex the hands while externally rotating the arms; push away with the heels of the hands, creating tension in the traps
-drawn your chin in and flatten the back of your neck to the floor and reach with the top of your head (this alone will create quite a longitudinal stretch in the neck)
-to take the neck stretch one step further, slightly raise your head from the floor (just enough to break contact with the floor); if you raise the head too much, you will lose the proper alignment of the cervical vertebrae.
This will work in conjunction with the S1-L5 stretch and allow you to release tension at the top and bottom of the spine, which hopefully will affect the rest of the spine, since these are key problem areas.
Thanks Flash, i’ll try these. I have had numbness in the hands and feet since the wreck. The hands don’t concerne me because that will go away once I lose the muscle spasms in the neck. Hopefully I won’t need surgery, but i wanted to get some opinions of those who have dealt with this.
Let me know how they work for you. I’ve only used them for general stretching and myofascial normalization, but they were really designed for therapeutic application.
It sounds like you’ve got a pinched nerve somewhere in the cervical area. I’m not sure if the C7-C6 stretch will specifically decompress the right joint, but it should have a general effect along the neck. If you want to target the C5-C4 joint, do the same thing as the C7-C6 stretch but point the hands toward the ceiling. Unfortunately, those are the only ELDOA stretches I know for the neck.
mj, Don’t get the surgery unless you become incontinent, impotent, lose gross LB reflexes or gross LB motor skill. Many people get better without surgery as Flash alluded to. Once you go under the knife there is no coming back. Scar tissue is a major concern
Good stretches btw Flash.
Don’t run for now. The disks may be further compressed by the vertical landing on each step. Although the doctor/surgeon will tell you the disk will not reduce, there is plenty of empirical evidence that this does occur. It is a long recovery however. Eight months to a year is about the norm.
I had a herniated disc in the L4/L5 region, not sure how exactly it was brought on but man I know what you’re going through… Pain is almost unbearable… I actually ended up opting for the surgery (kind of regret it, but now I’m pretty much good as new)… I tried EVERYTHING to help it before finally going the last resort… That is the key thing, surgery should be the last and final resort if nothing else is improving for you…I had to take my senior year off of track and I had to red shirt this football season and not wear any pads besides my helmet just to give it full oppurtunity to heal up… Came back this season and ran somewhat decently but I didnt PR , but I kind of expected that. The surgery was a microdiscectomy procedure and my scar is only about an inch in length… Of course I still have that in the back of my head that I had a disc injury, but I can squat, do ab work, lower back work, etc without feeling much pain. Hell, I can squat more now than I could before I even had a back problem. It’s probably individual, but I think it was because I was so young that I had a better chance to heal and not feel much post-surgery. Now the real test will come this fall when I suit up again for the first time since my senior year of football (2 seasons ago)… Looking optimistic about it. PM me if you have more questions…
You might want to consider contacting AL Vermeil at his recent seminar he wentoff about how the minute someone herniates a disc ppl want to have surgery but there are other viable options. He mentioned quite a few various ppl 2 contact but I cant remember them off hand, perhaps no2 would have there names
My doctor said that surgery isn’t needed most of the time these days. I just wanted to get some info. before I go back in a week. He is the team doctor for the Univ. of Missouri, so I have confidence in him and have seen him before. The L5-S1 is low in the back (waist line). This is why I was concerned about ab work and squats.
Nothing to worry about unless you have radiating symptoms down the leg. Once the pain subsides you may have an occasional flare up but surgery probably not necessary. The thing is everybody probably has a disc bulge/herniation due to our postures, the amount of time we spend sitting etc. the thing is until it becomes symptomatic (we do something to irritate it) there is no problem.
If you can’t perform a full squat with arms straight above your head, spend some time on flexibility, as far as core training goes its the best thing for a Back problem of any sort.
Gray Cook has some great information on the overhead squat as a test etc.
Wow Flash, I just tried the S1-L5 stretch and I felt and heard several vertebrae shift with an audible crack.
not trying to hi-jack the thread, but since I am suiting up in the fall once again in football (junior college-last time I played full go was senior year in high school… felt symptoms January 2004, progressivly worse until April 2004 of my surgery… regret doing it now but at the time seemed like most logic; have had good results though from it)… 
Anyways, I of course do have some slight concerns as to how I will hold up when I receive a hit for the first time (I play WR)… Any advice as to ensure proper strength and saftey of the back? I bought a lower back bad to attatch to the shoulder pads… Probably just working on low back/ab strength a top priority?? Any help would be greatly appreciated… My above post has more information as well… I think I should be fine, I have been cleared but just to make myself feel at ease (and of course my parents in the stands who will probably be biting their fingernails like crazy on my first game of the season) … I cannot wait, I have waited a long time to return to this sport 
This what I was referring to when I mentioned general effects beyond the target joint. Your back must have been really tight.