A pretty bad flare-up after exercise

Hey everyone - I made my first post a week or two ago about my struggle with sciatica and low back pain. One thing I used to do several years ago was Crossfit, specifically enjoying powerlifting exercises like squats and deadlifts. After discovering TMS and recognizing the connection between my symptoms with buying a house, having a kid, new job, etc., I decided to go ahead and get on with the exercise, which I had previously stopped (due to doctor's orders, not fear of pain). I started out with running on the treadmill and swimming and began to feel a little better, even if it was just because I was active again.

However, last week, I decided that I was going to give a CrossFit-style exercise a shot, so I did a very short, intense round with clean-and-jerk (bar from the floor to overhead), deadlifts, and burpees. I didn't make it all the way through because I am hella out of shape, but in the days since, my symptoms have worsened to about what they were at the worst point in the last year. I've tried to remind myself of others' experiences that I've seen on here and elsewhere, that it's not unusual for symptoms to worsen when picking back up, but it's also really easy to think that I've just done these things that I was warned not to do and now I've re-injured myself again. I've run on the treadmill since then, but I'm still in a good amount of pain. Has anyone else had a relapse like this? What did you do to get back on the recovery train?

Thanks in advance!

 

I've never exercised so strongly, but know from reading posts by others who do that pain can become more intense after a real strenuous workout like yours. You don't mention TMS, so I wonder if you're tuning in to emotions that cause your pain. Have you worked on the Structured Education Program or followed Alan Gordon't TMS healing posts? They both can help you discover repressed emotions causing your pain. Of course, first be sure you get a medical checkup to be certain nothing structural is causing the pain.

 

I can only relate to walking workouts and lifting hand weights, so I am in awe of you cross fit peeps! That said, I ma currently dealing with a tight hamstring that really shouldn't be tight. It came on after a routine workout, and now it comes and goes. Yesterday morning, when it was the best it had felt in the last two weeks, it started to nearly spasm, shortly after I started picking up speed on my walk. I debated about turning back, as I was just 1/4 mile from home. Instead, I pushed through by trying to just walk where is hurt but didn't want to spasm. Eventually, l made the whole four miles. The entire day, however, my hamstring hurt and ached, and I woke up with it still aching. Well, I went for today's walk, and I had varying degrees of pain, while walking within my desired speed range. At about mile three, I had a pain level of 1 or 2. Now, I am back home and have pain when I squat to get things, but did exercise hurt me? Nope.

In my case, however, I am convinced that I have TMS. This helps me decide where to go with the pain. Walt mentioned Alan Gordon's program. I highly recommend it!

 

Hi Plumcrazy, I too suffer with right hamstring pain that spasms and tightens with squatting motions or distance walking...it's cleared up for a few months at a time and then returns whenever I try to engage in vigorous activities.... May I ask what part of your leg hurts? Mine is the right side and back of my thigh, sometimes to the knee, which, when I was in PT was told was IT band irritation.. I question it now since I'm currently having a flare up with it.. I also have a history of low back pain...

 

Lunarlass, it is my left leg, center back, full length of butt to knee, basically, I guess. I honestly don't expect it to last, as I deal with things, here, but I will say that along with that, I have had popping and grinding in my lower vertebra--sacral region. That is mostly or often gone, now, but it reminds me that it is still around. It was feeling like the Spondy symptoms that some have mentioned, before. That was the scariest.

 

I understand how that can be really scary. Audible sounds, I get them occasionally in my right hip... Everything on my right side. Lower back, right side, right thigh... Sometimes side sometimes back of it... Just awful... It's like my brain fights back, if I challenge my pain and move more, exercise more, it expectantly flares sometimes for a week or more, then it dies down to a dull, midway roar... But sadly, it's never gone. A little less than 3 years ago, I was symptom free.... I've become obsessed with age related pain being the reason, but people older than I have less... It's just so complicated.
Thanks for listening. I wish you comfort and relief from your pain. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

 

Ohh, I wish you the very same, Lunarlass. We are in this, together. A very telling experience is to just try posting about your physical issues on Facebook, and watch all of the FB friends who are more than happy to recommend their doctors to you. Other posts can get ignored, but pain brings them out of the woodwork. I think there a lot of us out there, at all ages.