Back Spasms

miketpowell said:
What D1 school do you play at that doesn't have trainers and entire medical support staff to take care of you?

That's pretty shitty, I knew some schools didn't give a shit about sports like tennis and stuff. But damn I could never imagine any of my friends that played sports in college (D1 and otherwise) ever having to ask an online forum for advice on injuries.

For that matter I couldn't imagine them having much spare time to play in outside tournments or work so damn that's impresive, you must never sleep dude.
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In one of my earlier posts I said that I've been going to treatments at my college's sport medicine office. Otherwise when we have away games, we have a trainer traveling with us.

The fall session for tennis in D1 isn't that bad. We just have about 5-6 games and that's it. The spring session is the worse though, practically gone every single weekend traveling, and every day I have some sort of practice/workout booked with the team.
 


mGrunin said:
Yea, I have a common story actually. Four years ago I sprained my ankle badly. I just let it heal on it's own and never got it checked out. I couldn't put any weight at all on the ankle for a straight month. Anyhow, 2 months in, was finally able to put weight on it, and I got back to playing intensively again. Couple months later I sprain it again, this time the pain was so fucking bad, I was screaming my ass off. This time around I went to the doctor, and he told me that the sprain I had couple months ago actually tore through all my liagaments in my ankle, and that even though they did slightly recover, they were weak, and I re-tore them even more.
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I did the same thing playing basketball. I lied to my doctor and said I was fine 'cause I didn't want to wear a cast. 10 years later my ankle still aches out of nowhere.
 
I'm too lazy to read everything but I had back spasms freshman year during hockey season. I'm one of the small, speedy, skilled players. Let's just say that's a bad combination when everyone is twice your size. lol

I went to the chiropractor about 10 times and smoked a lot of weed during those months. Weed will help you forget about that shit but if it's really severe definitely go with the pain meds.

Good luck bro
 
Prob just a minor spasm, has happened to me a few times this year. Definitely take a few days off, ICE ICE ICE and profen, and after it starts feeling better in a few days start stretching and working out lightly.

As far as what caused it:

How tight are your hamstrings and glutes? Do you stretch regularly? Warm up adequately each time you play tennis?
 
mGrunin said:
Yea, as soon as I felt my muscles spasm, I got stuck in the fetal position for a good 10 minutes, before I had my coach and a trainer start stretching me out. Had to be carried home though.

How long did the back pain last?
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It was intense for 3 days.. The worst part was when I would try to get out of bed... I couldn't find a way to get out of bed without extreme pain, I was on my knees crawling out of the bedroom lol.
 
mGrunin said:
The fall session for tennis in D1 isn't that bad. We just have about 5-6 games and that's it. The spring session is the worse though, practically gone every single weekend traveling, and every day I have some sort of practice/workout booked with the team.
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I was going to mention this. I know you're competitive but it's probably better to recover now so you're 100% for the real season.

If things don't get better with time and/or you want some heady tools to help yourself:

Far infrared:

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I had a bulging disc from rowing in college, these injuries take a long time to heal and often never really heal. I got an MRI, an epidural cortisone shot, and took about 6 months off from rowing to try to recover "fully". I ended up finishing out the last two years but often find that even today if I work it too hard, the pains come back.

Be careful with your spine. I used to tell myself, I'd rather sit out and miss a season, then not be able to walk/run/exercise when I'm in my 30's.

If you haven't yet, go get an MRI. Good luck.
 
mGrunin said:
Need some help on a lower back spasm. I play tennis competitively, for my D1 college and for my own tournaments. Two days ago, during a practice match, I was serving and during a serve I felt a shift in my spine, and when I landed on my feet, felt my whole back collapse.

From that point, I have extremely limited flexibility in my back. I can't lean more than an inch forward, sitting down is very fucking painful, I can't turn my upperbody to the sides; I feel paralyzed overall.

Since the injury, I've had a chiropractor take a look at the injury, have had several hours of exercises done on the spine & muscles, and have gone into half a dozen treatments at my college medicine office already.

Problem is that there has been no improvement, I just feel stiffer after every treatment. Worst part is that we have 3 games this weekend, so I'll be playing 6 matches. So about 8 - 12 hours of playing. I could just skip and not compete this weekend, but then our team will definitely lose since I win almost all my matches(whenever we actually beat the other school, we win 4-3 at best), and our substitute is garbage.

I need to recover by Friday evening, since that's when the first game is. I'm sure a couple of you here have gone through back spasms; especially if you're body builders. Is there anything I could do to accelerate the recovery process? I've been applying as much heat as possible to the area.

Thanks...
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See another chiro, I have back problems too and some of them are real douches while others can help you a lot in a single session...
 
Could be a herniated disc... go see a doctor and get one of these

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dreamache said:
It was intense for 3 days.. The worst part was when I would try to get out of bed... I couldn't find a way to get out of bed without extreme pain, I was on my knees crawling out of the bedroom lol.
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My husband had to drag me from the car to the bedroom. My back spasmed twice on the way and I would scream, he would drop me (because that was what I was screaming) I would almost throw up from the pain, lay there on the ground and sweat for about 10 minutes until he could drag me further. He literally threw me on the bed because there was no easy way up, of course it spasmed again but then I didn't have to move for hours until the muscle relaxers kicked in.

Protip: don't laugh, cough, or sneeze during this time. You'll think your spine exploded.
 
turbolapp said:
My husband had to drag me from the car to the bedroom. My back spasmed twice on the way and I would scream, he would drop me (because that was what I was screaming) I would almost throw up from the pain, lay there on the ground and sweat for about 10 minutes until he could drag me further. He literally threw me on the bed because there was no easy way up, of course it spasmed again but then I didn't have to move for hours until the muscle relaxers kicked in.

Protip: don't laugh, cough, or sneeze during this time. You'll think your spine exploded.
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When my dad's back went out/spasmed before his bulging disk, he'd lay on his back on the floor and raise his legs on a pillow so that his spine would get level. This usually helped him recover from the pain faster.
 
Update:

Either way, I have to travel with the team. Doesn't matter if I'm going to play or not.
Will I be playing? Not sure yet. The back has definitely gotten better over the last few days, but there is still pain whenever I stretch or try to bend over. I'm just most concerned of the intensity of the pain if I try to serve again. What I will do though, practice a bit before my match and see how I feel. Luckily my first match is a doubles match, so if I do play, won't be as strenuous.

I'll keep you guys updated. Leaving tomorrow at 7 AM.
 
Another update. Since it's been raining hard all day today, our game for this afternoon got cancelled. Leaving me with a game tomorrow morning and Sunday noon.

After I found out that it was cancelled, decided to play some basketball with my team, since shooting requires stretching the back, and serving requires stretching the back. Well, after an hour, feels like I took a few knifed into my back. I literally feel like I regressed 3-4 days. Can't bend over, and can't carry shit on my back without straining myself.
FML.
 
I used to play tennis every day competitively (for college and then in leagues/tourneys). 7 months ago I hurt my knee bending down to get milk. I had knee surgery 3 months after that. Now my knee is worse. I haven't been able to walk more than 10 minutes a day in these 7 months. I'm 22 and I'm essentially disabled now - my only hope is very intense PT to rebuild severe muscle atrophy. Since this knee injury all my other body parts have began to atrophy and I have horrible back pain every day in addition to both knees being painful. Be very careful of injuries, I never thought anything like this could happen to me because I was playing tennis 5 times a week and in amazing shape, and yet things have spiraled out of control with no warning just because I bent down an odd way. Anyways, good luck, I was one of the unlucky ones - just don't stress anything further and you've got a good chance of healing. And as a comment on AM, making lots of money as the primary motivator in life very quickly goes out the door when you're in intense debilitating pain every day for months on end.
 
Basically the last update. In the last 48 hours, my back has gotten much better. I even felt comfortable enough to play a singles match today for my team. I'm nowhere close to 100%, since bending all the way down or stretching for a ball is too much for my back at the moment. Either way, going to keep going through treatments this week, and I'm sure that by next weekend, I'll be able to play in full form.

One of my teammates videotaped me while I was warming up. I haven't played for a week till today (longest I've gone without playing in about 2.5 years I would say). Was hitting fine, but my footwork was total shit as you'll see in the video. Barely moving around; since it was just too much for my back.

Video is pretty shitty, since the teammate captured the video in the wrong camera position, and to make up for the retardness angle, I uploaded it to FB, otherwise on youtube it's tiny small.

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