Cervical spine epidural AWESOMENESS

[Bigtex]

I am so glad to hear this. I know what kind of pain you are dealing with. I can not stand up for any length of time and more so I have to sit a lot.....one of the reasons I had to retire from my career as a football coach three years ago. I am very limited in what I can do in the gym. For three years it has not been too bad but yesterday it changed. I was doing the Hammer Incline Bench and my back popped. Then the pain started. I was hardly able to walk to the car or up stairs to the bedroom. Today it is slightly better but I am still hurting quite a bit and limited to the EZ chair.

 

[searay]

I am so glad to hear this. I know what kind of pain you are dealing with. I can not stand up for any length of time and more so I have to sit a lot.....one of the reasons I had to retire from my career as a football coach three years ago. I am very limited in what I can do in the gym. For three years it has not been too bad but yesterday it changed. I was doing the Hammer Incline Bench and my back popped. Then the pain started. I was hardly able to walk to the car or up stairs to the bedroom. Today it is slightly better but I am still hurting quite a bit and limited to the EZ chair.

you may have ruptured a disk. if you start feeling pain in your left leg or lft glute in a few days or even longer you def ruptured a disk.

 

[Bigtex]

you may have ruptured a disk. if you start feeling pain in your left leg or lft glute in a few days or even longer you def ruptured a disk.

Searay - I was diagnosed with degenerative disk disease about 3 years ago. As we get older, the disks can show signs of wear and tear. They begin to break down and don't work as well. Most in their 60's have this issue from one degree to another. Part of getting old. No one is sure whether it is genetics or perhaps injury from activity. I was a powerlifter for 27 years and squatted in the mid 900's and deadlifted at 800. I have also worked a jobs where I had to stand up for 12 hours or more most all of my life. So I have most likely abused my spine during my life. My father also had this but never put the body what I have. So it is possible genetics determines the extent of the degeneration and powerlifting did not contribute.

So the disks in my L4 and L5 have flattened out and no longer do what they are intended to do. I also have bone spurs . Some people go through life and just have a few back aches, some medicate for pain and the worst need one degree or another surgery, Mine has gotten not worse or better. I deal with mild pain every day but occasionally I will have a much higher pain level. So far in 10 years of dealing with this I have only had two hard days in the past 3 years. It usually lasts 3 -6 days. One time it was so bad I could not even sleep. This past weekend I could sleep. I did start taking Medrol after it happened and in 12 hours I was almost pain free. I am on day 3 of 6 of the medication.

I do feel pain in the leg, sometimes both and both glutes. The best day, I have a back ache, like I have stood up too long. No numbing, yet. But twisting in weird positions causes pain. No more squats, no deadlifts and I have given up powerlifting for a while. Just workout and try to stay big.

 

[searay]

Searay - I was diagnosed with degenerative disk disease about 3 years ago. As we get older, the disks can show signs of wear and tear. They begin to break down and don't work as well. Most in their 60's have this issue from one degree to another. Part of getting old. No one is sure whether it is genetics or perhaps injury from activity. I was a powerlifter for 27 years and squatted in the mid 900's and deadlifted at 800. I have also worked a jobs where I had to stand up for 12 hours or more most all of my life. So I have most likely abused my spine during my life. My father also had this but never put the body what I have. So it is possible genetics determines the extent of the degeneration and powerlifting did not contribute.

So the disks in my L4 and L5 have flattened out and no longer do what they are intended to do. I also have bone spurs . Some people go through life and just have a few back aches, some medicate for pain and the worst need one degree or another surgery, Mine has gotten not worse or better. I deal with mild pain every day but occasionally I will have a much higher pain level. So far in 10 years of dealing with this I have only had two hard days in the past 3 years. It usually lasts 3 -6 days. One time it was so bad I could not even sleep. This past weekend I could sleep. I did start taking Medrol after it happened and in 12 hours I was almost pain free. I am on day 3 of 6 of the medication.

I do feel pain in the leg, sometimes both and both glutes. The best day, I have a back ache, like I have stood up too long. No numbing, yet. But twisting in weird positions causes pain. No more squats, no deadlifts and I have given up powerlifting for a while. Just workout and try to stay big.

based on the condition of your back you either have a very high pain threshold or very fortunate to not have much more pain than you are having. in my opinion, based on the length of powerlifting yrs and the weights used, I would say you have very good genetics and a high % of the damage done was from powerlifting. but that's just my opinion. take care of yourself brother, the last thing you want is not being able to lift at all or be in big Ronnie C's condition.

 

[Bigtex]

based on the condition of your back you either have a very high pain threshold or very fortunate to not have much more pain than you are having. in my opinion, based on the length of powerlifting yrs and the weights used, I would say you have very good genetics and a high % of the damage done was from powerlifting. but that's just my opinion. take care of yourself brother, the last thing you want is not being able to lift at all or be in big Ronnie C's condition.

Since I was diagnose almost 3 years ago, I have only had 2 high pain episodes. The 1st one was so bad for 3 days I could hardly stand it. Couldn't even sleep. This time I can at least get comfortable in bed but wake up if I have to turn over. I get a very sharp pain. My pain threshold is very high and my wife has to threaten to call an ambulance before I will do anything. Yep, the body starts falling apart after a while and all that abuse catches up with you. Thanks for your opinions!

 

[macgyver]

@Littleguy Wow....good to see that you may find a path to a better place.

Is this anything like facet injections? It is where a corticosteroid and anesthetic agent (nerve block) are injected into the spine. They help diagnose pain origin and also relieve site inflammation.

A year back I got rear-ended and was left with spinal fracture, 2 bulging and one displaced disk L5-S1 pushing on my S1 nerve. I can relate to the pain. "Pain" should not even be the word it is so much more that what I thought of "pain" and I have had broken neck, torn muscles, separated shoulder, broken bones.... NOTHING like the pain from this injury.

I am curious to hear how things go for you. I have a friend who is doing stem cell therapy. I am not sure if that would be an option or not for you. I am waiting to see how he does.

My doc feels that what is left for me is not 'structural', but rather soft tissue related. I have been doing inversion therapy with some good success. I also bought a reverse hyper for the home gym. It really does feel to open up the lower back. If your pain in higher up, that might not help. But decompression helps me a lot.

Best of luck man!

 

[Bigtex]

I finally got some relief for my pain. For the past two days I have been using the Precore Stretch Trainer. The is almost like a traction effect on the spine. I guess it has separated the L4 and L5 enough to release the nerves that i got some temporary relief. I also came home last night and took 600mg of gabapentine. slept like a baby and woke up feeling a lot less pain.

 

[BackAtIt]

Searay - I was diagnosed with degenerative disk disease about 3 years ago. As we get older, the disks can show signs of wear and tear. They begin to break down and don't work as well. Most in their 60's have this issue from one degree to another. Part of getting old. No one is sure whether it is genetics or perhaps injury from activity. I was a powerlifter for 27 years and squatted in the mid 900's and deadlifted at 800. I have also worked a jobs where I had to stand up for 12 hours or more most all of my life. So I have most likely abused my spine during my life. My father also had this but never put the body what I have. So it is possible genetics determines the extent of the degeneration and powerlifting did not contribute.

So the disks in my L4 and L5 have flattened out and no longer do what they are intended to do. I also have bone spurs . Some people go through life and just have a few back aches, some medicate for pain and the worst need one degree or another surgery, Mine has gotten not worse or better. I deal with mild pain every day but occasionally I will have a much higher pain level. So far in 10 years of dealing with this I have only had two hard days in the past 3 years. It usually lasts 3 -6 days. One time it was so bad I could not even sleep. This past weekend I could sleep. I did start taking Medrol after it happened and in 12 hours I was almost pain free. I am on day 3 of 6 of the medication.

I do feel pain in the leg, sometimes both and both glutes. The best day, I have a back ache, like I have stood up too long. No numbing, yet. But twisting in weird positions causes pain. No more squats, no deadlifts and I have given up powerlifting for a while. Just workout and try to stay big.

Those are some impressive lifts, BT!!!!...Were those lifts done in a suit or were they raw?...Either way, still impressive!!!...Also, if u don't mind me asking, what weight class were u in?

 

[BackAtIt]

@Littleguy Wow....good to see that you may find a path to a better place.

Is this anything like facet injections? It is where a corticosteroid and anesthetic agent (nerve block) are injected into the spine. They help diagnose pain origin and also relieve site inflammation.

A year back I got rear-ended and was left with spinal fracture, 2 bulging and one displaced disk L5-S1 pushing on my S1 nerve. I can relate to the pain. "Pain" should not even be the word it is so much more that what I thought of "pain" and I have had broken neck, torn muscles, separated shoulder, broken bones.... NOTHING like the pain from this injury.

I am curious to hear how things go for you. I have a friend who is doing stem cell therapy. I am not sure if that would be an option or not for you. I am waiting to see how he does.

My doc feels that what is left for me is not 'structural', but rather soft tissue related. I have been doing inversion therapy with some good success. I also bought a reverse hyper for the home gym. It really does feel to open up the lower back. If your pain in higher up, that might not help. But decompression helps me a lot.

Best of luck man!

Years ago my pain doc tried the facet injections...Only gave me about 12 hours of relief...We were hoping for 3 to 6 months with a possible 1 year pain relief...Didn't happen for me...

 

[Bigtex]

Those are some impressive lifts, BT!!!!...Were those lifts done in a suit or were they raw?...Either way, still impressive!!!...Also, if u don't mind me asking, what weight class were u in?

Not at all. I was never a raw lifter. Always lifted in equipment and trained equipment which is probably why my career spanned 27 years. My last equipment, John Inzer made me a special double Phenom, also the Inzer Leviathan squat suit right after it came out and a double Max DL. I also used an Inzer erector shirt and the long power pants. I lifted in the USPF in the beginning, later on the WPA/APA and WPF/APF, also set a few records in WABDL. I also participated in two of the WPO meets with Anthony Clark. My records were in the 308's and 275's. Believe it or not my first records were set in the USPF at 198 as a novice. In the 308's I only weighted about 285 so I was definitely at a disadvantage but still got rated #2 in the world in 2001 and #1 in the 275's. Both as a master.

 

[BackAtIt]

Not at all. I was never a raw lifter. Always lifted in equipment and trained equipment which is probably why my career spanned 27 years. My last equipment, John Inzer made me a special double Phenom, also the Inzer Leviathan squat suit right after it came out and a double Max DL. I also used an Inzer erector shirt and the long power pants. I lifted in the USPF in the beginning, later on the WPA/APA and WPF/APF, also set a few records in WABDL. I also participated in two of the WPO meets with Anthony Clark. My records were in the 308's and 275's. Believe it or not my first records were set in the USPF at 198 as a novice. In the 308's I only weighted about 285 so I was definitely at a disadvantage but still got rated #2 in the world in 2001 and #1 in the 275's. Both as a master.

Wow!...Good to meet you, bro!...I feel honored to be able to chat with such an quality lifter!...When I started out (13 years old) all I wanted was to gain muscle (Arnold S was my inspiration, then Franko C and a few others)....I wasn't into "power" yet...As I began to lift seriously, I developed the "power" bug as I refer to it...Now, I only got into recreational lifting, so, I was always going "raw"...My best lift was 450lbs twice on bench and 700lbs on squat once (pinched a nerve on that one)....I can't recall what I deadlifted, however, I know it wasn't as impressive as my bench and squat....

Anyway, I had intended on becoming an competitive power lifter after those lifts at the encouragement of some of my bro's that I lifted with...I ended up getting married at 19 and ruined my whole life...I would work out in spurts then on thru out my grueling 30 year marriage...I weighed between 190lbs and 200lbs when I did those lifts...I was only 17 and at 5'8" tall...I ended up growing a couple more inches later on...Again, it's really a privilege for me to chat with you!...Keep on, Keeping on!!!!!

 

[Bigtex]

Wow!...Good to meet you, bro!...I feel honored to be able to chat with such an quality lifter!...When I started out (13 years old) all I wanted was to gain muscle (Arnold S was my inspiration, then Franko C and a few others)....I wasn't into "power" yet...As I began to lift seriously, I developed the "power" bug as I refer to it...Now, I only got into recreational lifting, so, I was always going "raw"...My best lift was 450lbs twice on bench and 700lbs on squat once (pinched a nerve on that one)....I can't recall what I deadlifted, however, I know it wasn't as impressive as my bench and squat....

Anyway, I had intended on becoming an competitive power lifter after those lifts at the encouragement of some of my bro's that I lifted with...I ended up getting married at 19 and ruined my whole life...I would work out in spurts then on thru out my grueling 30 year marriage...I weighed between 190lbs and 200lbs when I did those lifts...I was only 17 and at 5'8" tall...I ended up growing a couple more inches later on...Again, it's really a privilege for me to chat with you!...Keep on, Keeping on!!!!!

Thank you! I am also impressed with your story. We all seem to have fallen into this sport by fate. Like you, I never thought in a million years I could have been any good at this sport. I had no intention to even compete. I guess I got kind of lucky and seem to be in the same path with some very good lifters. When I started, I lived in Longview, Texas and trained at a small gym run by a then teen named John Inzer. He was already a national teen champion and got me started. Not long after that I ran into Jim Cash and he also took me under his wing. Shortly after that Anthony Clark who was a teen at the time. We were close friends up until the day he died. I also became close with Tiny Meeker who I also watched come up as a teen. Been around a lot of history in the sport who I learned a lot from. Even spent some time with the late Dr. Squat and Louie Simmons. Fred was my mentor for a long time. All inspirations and each a big part of my many years in this sport. I finally give it all up after tearing my quads in maybe 2007 and never looked back. It was a good time in my life but I was satisfied where I had been. The fire was finally gone. I was good on the platform, spent time putting on meets for over 10 years, and served as a national and international judge for quite a few years. I also was on the ground floor of starting Texas High School Powerlifting back in the early 90's. As I look back, I do not regret anything. It was a big part of my life and made me who I am today. However, it is over, all the trophies just collect dust but are full of good memories. From powerlifting, I found my wife and a 2nd career. ZERO regrets! Hopefully you get out of this sport what I got.....less the injuries.