Things have not been going well for me. I got some great therapy on Tuesday. My ROM instantly improved in my back bend, and I could touch my shins. After that I felt great, then a day later I started noticing some “tingling” in my legs and numbness in my right foot. Today, I went to get my physical for football, and I failed it… Tomorrow I’m going to get an MRI, and Wednesday I’m going to a Neurologist. This really sucks because I thought I was ready. I’m going to be missing 2 days of camp! Things cannot get anymore worse for me right now, and this is my SR year, my last chance! :mad: 
Sounds like sciatic nerve impingement. Hopefully you don’t have a disc problem.
I hope not too. Do you have any Idea of how they would fix this? I’ve looked it up, and I’m not finding much info at all.
EDIT- Do you know how they would fix this if it wasn’t a disc problem?
Well it turns out that I do have a disc problem. Its a herniated disc. I went to the Neurologist, and he says that it will take at least 2 months. Thats half the season basically. If I were to play still, I could possibly do some permanent damage to my disc. I can’t believe this is happening to me… I worked so hard to make things happen for my SR year, and I herniate a disc… This was so unexpected. This was all my fault for pushing through the pain this whole summer, not expecting anything serious. If only I were smart enough to get to the bottom of this when I first noticed some pain…
Hey man, I’m becoming a senior next month and Im a sprinter trying out for safety for my HS football. Can you gimme some tips/advice on safety drills since you are a WR to mix in with my offseason track program?
I know I am too late as practices begin the 18th but I might as well put some time in for football with the track stuff.
Thanks man if you can help.
Sure man, I’ll see what I can do. I’ll post it in your journal.
Did you actually get an MRI for the disc or was it just diagnosed?
Yes I did get an actual MRI. Right now I’m getting Spinal Decompression therapy, and I’m taking Medrol to reduce the swelling. The fastest time I’ll probably be back is 6 weeks maybe. The main cause of this problem was probably all the squats I did this off-season, but I made great gains from them at least.
I herniated L4/L5 my senior year, although it was after football season thankfully. It hurt really really bad to the point where I couldn’t sit for more than an hour without being in pain.
Do you have access to a reverse hyper? You can still train with this injury if you are smart about it…
-Bench/Variations
-Chins/Pull Up
-GHR
-Reverse Hyper
-Lunge
-I’d say you can still do front/side pillars so you aren’t performing any flexing of the lumbar spine.
Obviously the lower body training is going to be limited, especially based on pain level and how bad it actually is.
Thanks man, I’ll see if my PT would be okay with doing these exercises. This was pretty much what I was doing this whole summer until I found out that I had a disc herniation on the MRI. What kind of therapy did you have when you had your disc herniation? Everybody always asks me what the heck I did to get a disc herniation at age 17. I always tell them it was my obsession with squats haha. I’m glad that you have some experience of this injury. What was the cause of your disc herniation?
What your “obsession with squats” dont start that old myth.
Well it wasn’t really my obsession, it was my coaches lol. You should see how many squat workouts they made us do during the Winter/Spring Workouts. The coaches also made me do PL, so I was basically squatting heavy 4x per week, along with deadlifting heavy 2x per week. I’m sure that my back compensated for my hamstring injury as well.
You may be right but i wouldnt be so quik to blame the movement maybe its your tech.
Squats and deadlifts on their own, done correctly, do not cause a herniation. Overloading the movement (beyond what you can handle properly) and/or doing them with bad/unsafe technique is the reason for getting injured.
I tried everything- massage, acupuncture, physical therapy, TENS/EMS, ice, Vioxx (old pain med, now banned by FDA), etc… I ended up having a minor operation to fix it, microdiscectomy because at the time I just was in so much pain that I thought it was the best option- however I DON’T recommend going the surgery route until every other option has been exhausted. I probably could’ve gone without the operation, but it is what it is. I recovered well from it though.
And I agree, the squats themselves didn’t cause your disc to herniate. Everyone said the same BS to me when I got hurt “all those squats and deadlifts you did probably did it”. I never knew what the exact cause was, kinda crept up on me. Probably trying to go heavier than what I was ready for, technique wasn’t solid, or a combo of both.
I agree. I remember when I first hurt it, it was from doing a whole lot of box jumps, and by the time I got to squats I was so fatigued that my technique was crap. On every squat I always went below parallel, I didn’t have proper lumbar position when I hurt it.
I agree, I had a disc problem my soph yr of hs and it took 5-6 weeks and i was ready to go, i didnt have access to nothing but ice and elevating my legs.
I had the head Chiropractor for the Dallas Cowboys look at my MRI report. I also forgot to mention that my report said that I have Degenerative Disk Disease, and it was inappropriate for my age(17). He recommended that I should never get under a squat rack ever again. I know I won’t be able to squat anytime soon but I disagree with not being able to do it ever again. I don’t see a college SC coach letting me get away without doing squats.
Aside from that I’m still getting spinal decompression therapy, and doing McKenzie exercises. My numbness in my feet has disappeared finally. My PT isn’t going to let me work out anytime soon either. Its been 2 weeks since I’ve last worked out, and I’m expected to be out for 6 weeks. I’m still having nerve pain while walking so I’m guessing until that pain goes away is when I will do some stuff.
you may be able to do some max strength ems work on your lower body, the keyword is “may”.
I assume that you have that EMS from wisdomking since you recommended it for me. If I were to do some max EMS work, would you do it as synchronous or alternate? And I’m guessing you would have to crank it up to its highest intensity and hertz for 10sec on/50 off for 15 times. Am I correct?