Question
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this and answer, I really appreciate your time!

I'm 22 years old, highly active, and have a history of mild scoliosis that has never really given my any problems.

I had a snowboarding crash 4 years ago where I hyperextended my back and had some dull pain in my lower lumbar spine for a few weeks, saw a primary care doc who just said to rest it and it didn't bother me much after that.

I workout 4-5x per week, mostly heavy weight training with cardio mixed in. About a week ago I went to stretch forward to touch my toes and felt some dull pain in my lower back exactly where it was after my crash. There is no event or anything I can think of where I might have reinjured it. On palpation there is no pain in the muscles but directly on the vertebrae themselves is where it hurts (about 2 of them are extremely tender). Over the past week its been getting worse. After the gym today, there is pain that shoots straight into my tailbone when putting weight on my right leg (like while walking for example). I have no numbness or tingling or pain anywhere else. It hurts most when I lean forward all the way to touch my toes and is more like a deep pain right in those tender vertebrae. Ibuprofen and ice packs help mildly but not much. Any ideas?

Answer

Star Somatics   Hi, Mike,

Your weight training made you especially vulnerable to the accident by making you musclebound.

Please see these articles:

On recovery from injury | http://somatics.com/recovery_from_injury.htm
On Weight Training | http://somatics.com/weights.htm

Your symptoms point to musclebound back muscles (deep to the spine) and tight hamstrings, part of the tension pattern that includes the back.

Here's an article relevant to hamstrings:
http://somatics.com/hamstrings-and-knees.htm
which includes video instruction for freeing hamstrings

and a video that gives instruction for freeing the deep back muscles:
http://somatics.com/video_pages/deep_lower_back_pain.htm

You will probably need The Cat Stretch Exercises program to make that video most comfortable and effective for you | http://somatics.com/page7-cat_audio.htm

Finally, people commonly have wrong ideas about stretching -- and that includes therapists and athletic trainers.  Please see this article:
http://somatics.com/stretch.htm

It may seem like a lot, but you get out of it what you put into it.  It's for proactive people.