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QUESTION:
I'm having some back pain. It's located in the middle of my back.
I've noticed that when I run I get some pain in each stride but not a
lot and it does NOT shoot pain down toward my legs or butt.
The pain seems to be deep in my back under the spine. Or at least it
feels that way. I've also noticed that if I lift my weight off my
butt with my arms when I'm sitting in a chair that I feel some pain as
the spine is stretched and again (but more intense) as the spine
compresses as I put weight back onto my butt.
I've had some similar pain about 10 years ago that was caused by
sleeping way to much (I was in college and sleep was easy to come by)
on a terrible dorm room mattress. Lately I have been sleeping between
8-9 hours a night and more on weekends as my wife is pregnant and
sleeping more now than she used to and I'm doing the same.
Questions:
What are the possible causes of this type of pain?
Can I keep running and still get my back to recover?
If my sleeping quantity is causing this will reducing the amount of
sleep I'm getting correct the problem if I continue to run?
What sleeping position is the most beneficial for people with back
pain similar to mine?
ANSWER:
I herniated a couple of discs in my lower back 10 years ago doing
construction work. Every doc or chiropractor I saw said to QUIT
running, well, I didn't. If you can get your MD/GP to write you a
script to get physical therapy, there are a whole mess of exercises for
you to learn and do the rest of your life to strengthen and stretch the
muscles to your pelvic girdle that supports your back. Also, if you
have much of a beer belly gut, drop it, as this will pull on & off
balance the back muscles. Oh, yes, ICE is great stuff! Actually have a
cooler of ice and a six pack of beer. After a run, drink the beer and
put the ice on your back, NOT the other way around!
It seems most back injuries do occur in the lower back or higher towards
the neck (I've had both.) But I've never heard of a middle injury as you
describe. I do get some muscle soreness there occasionally, but nothing
disk related.
Sounds like maybe a CAT might be in order from your doc.
I went to a chiropracter yesterday that works with runners. He was
able to adjust it a bit and noticed that some of the muscles around
the problem area were swollen.
He was confident that after another adjustment on Friday that I should
be running pain free by the end of next week. Yes I am taking all
this with a grain of salt. But, for $25 a visit including the x-ray I
can't complain too much.
The x-ray did show that one disk in the area in question was slightly
twisted and that another in the sam area was slightly tilted.
He seemed to think that the sudden start in running, then the
shoveling of snow a week later, along with the extra weigh I'm
carrying was just enough to strain several muscles in that area and
allow the joints in question to drift out of place a bit and worsen
the problem or something along those lines.
I did sleep better last night after the correction but I was still
uncomfortable during the run. I'll see how it goes today over lunch.
As long as it doesn't get worse I'll give it a week to test the
chiropracters theory.
During that time I'll try to ice my back after runs.
BTW... coughing, sneezing, or pushing too hard while on the "throne"
(don't ask) cause considerable back pain after my daily runs.
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