Hey all,
I figured this was inevitable. I was on vacation, so I missed about a week of weight training. After we came home Saturday, I decided to do some bench excercises. I've been doing the same ones for 6 months + without any problems. I sat on the bench with dumbells in my lap and as I started to lean back to lie down, suddenly I felt like my spine severed from my hips. That night I thought I was going to paralyzed, I was in so much pain.
Over the next 2 days I exeprienced significant improvement, and felt like I was 70% better. Then this morning while driving to work it started to hurt again. The worst pain is when I sit for a while and then try to stand up (I work in an office). It takes me good 3-5 minutes of walking until the pain subsides. It doesn't hurt when I sit, just hurts when standing up and start moving and when trying to bend over. From what I read, my symptoms do not require doctor's visit just yet.
Anyway, my questions are:
1.) What should I do? Internet offers conflicting advice - hot or cold? Rest or keep moving? Drive to work or stay home? etc.
2.) How long does it take to heal? More importantly, when can I get back to excercising? I worked so hard to lose the weight and get myself into good shape, I don't want to give up an inch. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dumb enough to rush into it without healing first and risk further injury. I'm just pissed because I'm also missing the best mountain biking weather of the year.
3.) Is there anything I can do to prevent this from reoccuring? I stretch before excercising, but it was my chest/tricep day and I didn't think that stretching my back would be necessary - after all, nothing happened in the last 6 months. I'm almost inclined to think that sitting in the car for 7 hours that day had something to do with stiff muscles/back.
I guess this turned out to be mostly a rant. But any suggestions are welcome.
P.S. I'm not taking any meds (Motrin) just because I want to see how this progresses and I kind of want to be aware of the pain.
I figured this was inevitable. I was on vacation, so I missed about a week of weight training. After we came home Saturday, I decided to do some bench excercises. I've been doing the same ones for 6 months + without any problems. I sat on the bench with dumbells in my lap and as I started to lean back to lie down, suddenly I felt like my spine severed from my hips. That night I thought I was going to paralyzed, I was in so much pain.
Over the next 2 days I exeprienced significant improvement, and felt like I was 70% better. Then this morning while driving to work it started to hurt again. The worst pain is when I sit for a while and then try to stand up (I work in an office). It takes me good 3-5 minutes of walking until the pain subsides. It doesn't hurt when I sit, just hurts when standing up and start moving and when trying to bend over. From what I read, my symptoms do not require doctor's visit just yet.
Anyway, my questions are:
1.) What should I do? Internet offers conflicting advice - hot or cold? Rest or keep moving? Drive to work or stay home? etc.
2.) How long does it take to heal? More importantly, when can I get back to excercising? I worked so hard to lose the weight and get myself into good shape, I don't want to give up an inch. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dumb enough to rush into it without healing first and risk further injury. I'm just pissed because I'm also missing the best mountain biking weather of the year.
3.) Is there anything I can do to prevent this from reoccuring? I stretch before excercising, but it was my chest/tricep day and I didn't think that stretching my back would be necessary - after all, nothing happened in the last 6 months. I'm almost inclined to think that sitting in the car for 7 hours that day had something to do with stiff muscles/back.
I guess this turned out to be mostly a rant. But any suggestions are welcome.
P.S. I'm not taking any meds (Motrin) just because I want to see how this progresses and I kind of want to be aware of the pain.