Why I couldn't deadlift much weight.

About three years ago my Oly coach noticed the musculature of my back and commented that it was indicative of using the middle of my back as the fulcrum, not the hips.  This is one reason why I can’t seem to deadlift more than 225 without my back hurting for the rest of the day.  I’ve tried, desperately, over the years to fix this. I’ve been working on core strength, making sure I keep a rigid spine when I lift, and yet things fall apart when the deadlifting starts to get heavy, no matter what.

As I’m getting my back fixed, it’s starting to become apparent as to why that’s the case.  Dr. Fullerton addressed my left QL, and now that it is starting to work properly it is taxing my spinal erectors even more, and they are not happy about it.  I think perhaps they are tight and painful because they are damaged, just like pretty much every other muscle in my back.  I am amazed at how many layers of damage my body has.  One muscle gets fixed, and that makes the others act up.

It’s also an interesting sensation because the pain is becoming more accurate.  As opposed to this blob of pain in my lower and upper back, I now feel my infraspinatus being tight and painful, as well as my spinal erectors.  I mean, I can’t even do more than 30# kettlebell straight-legged deadlifts without setting off my back right now, so deadlifting is out of the question.

Fortunately, I’m sprinting and that (if done properly) will work the hammies and glutes.  I’m also front squatting to work on my quads more and give my posterior chain a bit of a break from the sprinting. Speaking of squats, I can feel my QL/erectors wanting to give out on me when I near depth on the squat. I always could feel my core trying to unravel at that point, but now I have a more direct sensation as to what’s going on.  It’s like I’m seeing my body with a finer resolution.  Hopefully this will all go away with another treatment, and I’m praying that my infraspinatus is just damaged and it’s not the labrum tear that’s causing the infraspinatus to act up. Almost one more month until I can find out. Yay?

Six Weeks out After Third Prolo Treatment

Well it's been six weeks since my third prolo treatment.  I have again been seeing a lot of results/improvements.  When I try to decompress my ears, it actually works on both sides! This has been a huge annoyance and I'm really happy this is no longer the case.

When I used to overhead press, I would feel one of my muscles snap over the other. It was super uncomfortable, and it told me that they were really tight and there wasn't anything I could do about it. No matter how much I foam rolled I couldn't get the knots to release.  Now there aren't as near as many knots.

I also used to crack my neck all the time, and really only on one side. It was the only thing I could do to get some relief (I've been told cracking will sometimes cause loss of muscle tone, which makes sense since that was the only way I could get the muscles to relax a little).

I also no longer have pain in my back/side, the lateral part of my QL. And I still feel muscles in my back working in ways they are not used to. They are starting to work correctly, I can tell because it's getting easier to keep my abs/core tight when I run, stand, lift, whatever.

So a week after that second dry needling session I went back (I mean, a visit is only $25 with my insurance plan) and told him how it tightened back up only after like six hours of relief. I also informed him about some pain in my mid-lower back, like right underneath the rib cage next to my spine.  I chalk this up as the result of becoming more active.  Concerning the infraspinatus, he tried addressing not just the muscle, but the nerves that control the muscle.  This was done by sticking needles in both the muscle and around my spine (c5 joint).  He left them in there, and then had some electrical pulses go through them. the idea is to address and calm down the nerves telling the muscle to fire.  Afterwards I felt.... different, and in a good way. It was much more subtle than when he addresses adhesions. But in this case it doesn't seem like I have adhesions, here I have a muscle that is too tight all around.

While he left the needles in my neck/shoulder, he then addressed the adhesions in my lower back. Dear Lord those were sensitive, and when he was done I felt so much better, I hadn't even realized how much discomfort they were causing.

I decided to do some Pilates that day, and that may have been a mistake. Afterwards my lower back started tightening up. My shoulder didn't feel worse, but I think I pushed it too hard with my back.

Fast forward another week and I'm at the fourth visit for dry needling.  I get the same thing done to my shoulder/neck, and then he addresses my lower back.  Holy hell did that hurt!!!!  Once when he poked me he "Gah!" type sound in surprise as my spinal erectors freaked out.  It was probably the most intense session I've had yet, and that is including the times they kept bending the needle in my groin because the muscles were so tight.

So yeah, here I am today. I've definitely made some gains in healing, but now as some muscles start working again it's revealing that other muscles are not healthy either.  It kind of feels like whack-a-mole: every time you nail one thing two others pop up.

So all kinds of muscles in my back/shoulder are feeling better, but right now my infraspinatus and some spinal erectors are clearly not right.  I imagine the spinal erectors will be an easy fix for Dr. Fullerton when I see him in a little over a month.  However, I'm concerned about the infraspinatus.  I think Dr. Fullerton has already addressed this muscle. And if it proves to be sound underneath the ultrasound then this might portend further damage that needs to be addressed.  My fear is that the instability in my shoulder joint caused by the tear in the labrum is causing my infraspinatus and tricep to tighten up in order to protect the joint.

If this is the case I'm going to be pissed.  Like, really mad.  The torn labrum is the whole reason why I started going to Dr. Fullerton, and he decided that my issue is not really the labrum but all the damage to the muscles around the shoulder.  If I do have to have the labrum treated this means I will have to pay for maybe three more sessions. Not only that, it means I will have to continue this cycle of two months on, one month off for perhaps six months, even more.

I just pray to God that the problem stems from the muscle being damaged, not the labrum.

Concerning the whole one month off, two months on thing, I think this time I was a little too aggressive in coming back.  I only did like three days of rehab before coming back to sprinting, and I don't think my body was ready for it.  I think I'll wait at least a week of doing phase 2 type stuff until I go back to sprinting.  So that means I'll only get like 7 weeks of sprinting every three months, and that makes me sad. But again if this is what I have to do then I'll do it.

Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself once I'm pain free.  I've made this journey such a part of my life, such a part of my self-identity, that I'm not sure what'll I'll turn to next after this whole mess is cleaned up.  I realize I might be worrying about nothing, that I'll always be dealing with this, but I wonder what I'll do when I will suddenly have so much more free time and money to spend.  Also, I'm really interested in what it will be to exercise with a body that is working correctly. How will it feel to deadlift with my spinal erectors working correctly? How will it feel to overhead press without pain in my shoulder/back?  How will it feel to be able to raise my right knee without discomfort?  I'm excited to find out.

So Freaking Close

So after this third treatment of my back muscles things are feeling really good.  A couple of days after the treatment I got my back dry needled to address the adhesions that happen in response to the prolo injections.  That really helped but I still felt something not right, so a week later I scheduled another dry needling appointment and told the PT that I still felt knots in my back, right on the inside of the shoulder blade.  He checked it out and found out that the knots were in my rhomboids. ...I thought this is wasn't news, that I always thought my rhomboid needed to be addressed.  Apparently this was new to the PT because the rhomboid is almost never the culprit for knots in that area.  Doctors will often see that the pain is in that area and say "oh hey, strained rhomboid", when in fact is the upper trap almost all the time.

So yet again my issues are more unique/rare. And this is yet another example of don't just take what the expert gives you. You need to stand up and say "No, I don't think the problem has been solved" and still advocate for yourself.  If I hadn't spoken up I would still have knots in my rhomboid.

So having the rhomboid released, when I walked away from PT office I was feeling amazing, I had no pain in my back at all.  When I swallowed, my left ear decompressed like the right one.  It was so satisfying. It was like an itch had finally been scratched.

But later that night, I felt another muscle spaz and freak out.  It was a muscles that came down diagonally from my shoulder to my spine.  The next morning I was feeling almost the same.  I still could decompress my left ear like my right, but when I tried rolling around on the lacrosse ball I found some knots that would not release no matter what I did.

So one week later I saw the PT again, and when I gestured which muscle I felt tighten up he said that was pretty much exactly where the infraspinatus is and he checked that out in addition to all the other muscles around there.  When he stabbed the infraspinatus omg it was soooo tight.  Getting up off the table I had a real hard time using my arm at all, it was that affected.  Again though, it felt amazing in that my back was no longer in pain.

Now, as I write this, it's been one day since that session and my infraspinatus has already tightened back up.  The only other time I've had a muscle tighten back up this quickly was my psoas when I had the tear in my labrum.  I've been told I have a tear in my shoulder's labrum, so if this is the case I'm going to be pissed.

Why would I be pissed? I'd be pissed because a torn labrum is the whole reason I went to see Dr. Fullerton in the first place.  When I asked him about it he said it didn't seem to be an issue, that all the fraying in the muscles in my back seemed to be the issue.  Well, the infraspinatus proves to be structurally sound then I'm going to give him hell for not addressing it earlier.  I know I was giving myself by the end of this year to be patient with the treatment, but damnit I'm tired of taking these months off of my training.

Speaking of training, I get to go back to resistance training/sprinting in two days, and I'm super excited.  I will be doing like 3 days of the rehab and then it's back to squatting and benching with some sprinting mixed in.

Pictures of Progress

So after every treatment with Dr. Fullerton I take a picture of my back with all the band-aids on it.  I do this for fun, but after looking at the three I see that each treatment has, in fact, addressed a different part of my back.  I am sure there are a few places that the band-aids missed, but I do think it's interesting to document the peeling back the layers of dysfunction that is my back.

January, April, and June

On another note the acute inflammation has died down a bit, so I suddenly feel like I've regressed in healing.  I know this happens every single time, but I really do seem to psych myself out when those old twinges come back, even if it's the slightest bit.  Just have to ride out this "prolocoaster" and in another three weeks I'll be back to exercising like I want to.

Day after Third Prolo treatment for Back/Shoulder

So this is the third treatment of my shoulder/back muscles by Dr. Fullerton. It seems that normally people’s issues are fixed after only just the first treatment so the fact that I’ve had three treatments makes me a bit of a rarity (something I already knew).  I can see why it usually takes two treatments max because everything that he has addressed is so much better than it was before.  The thing is, I have so much wrong with me that he can’t get it all in one session.  I don’t think this is lack of ability on Doc’s part, it’s just we are peeling back layers of issues and I happen to have a Goddamn lot of layers.

Each band-aid covers at
least two needle marks.

He addressed a lot of my QL, the one that made me think I had a kidney infection.  At one point when he was injecting me the area started spasming/twitching.  This is, it seems, is a sign that whatever he’s working on is really needing it.  So hopefully all of the issues with my lower back have been addressed.

He also felt around my upper back and worked on the rhomboids and upper trap area, to name a few places.  I believe some of the injections were directed to the inferior part, beneath the shoulder blade.  As with the lower back, I really hope that he’s done with the upper back as well.

Because most people don’t need a third treatment, they didn’t set out a huge block of time with me.  I told them that might be a mistake when we were scheduling it but they said don’t worry.  Well I’m a little peeved because I was really hoping they could address my hip as well.  Even though Dr. Fullerton was not able to address my right hip, I asked him to at least check it out with the ultrasound and come up with a diagnosis.  That, he obliged me with (and I thank him for that, this was at 7:30pm the day before he was travelling to Greece for vacay).

He checked it out, and pretty quickly came up with a diagnosis: I had some damage to a ligament or tendon right next to my femoral artery and femoral nerve in the inguinal crease.  He looked a little perplexed when he was checking it out, but that could be the face he normally makes when he’s checking something out for the first time (every other time I’ve been face down on the table so I’ve never seen this.)  Right now I really can’t remember the name of the tissue that is damaged. Right now I’m going with the iliolumbar ligament, though when the office responds for my request for info I’ll edit this post accordingly.

He asked me if I was having problems raising my leg, and I told him there was this drill in sprinting class where we have to lift our leg back and forth over a hurdle, and while I was solid as a rock on my left leg my right leg is super wobbly.  He said that’s probably the problem then.

While it’s nice that I now know what the issue is, I’m kind of wondering what to do about it now. Ideally, I would have had the injections performed and I would be back to working out in a month.  But now I have two choices. I can either wait three months from now and get it done and then take another month off, or I can try to get the hip treated ASAP and then end up taking like seven weeks off (his next available is like three weeks from now).

I’m think of holding off. To be honest my hip doesn’t really bother that much anymore now that I have the dry needling, and I am just starting to make friends at my sprinting group. I want to be active in that group, and the idea of me taking two months off really chaps my hide.  So it looks like I will probably have to wait a little bit longer to become 100%. I’ve waited so long, what’s a couple more months right?

11 weeks out from second prolotherapy treatment.

It’s now less than one week from getting my third treatment, so it's been 11 weeks since my second treatment, and I thought to report in. As expected, things are getting better, things that used to work one way (incorrectly) are now working another way (correctly).  For example, when I do over head press now, I don’t feel my back muscles snapping over each other.

But the more things get treated the more stuff I find wrong with me. My lower back (seemingly QL) is really off and I'm coming to realize it's a factor

In what has been going on in my hips. Having a tight QL tightens up my piraformis, and that in turn tightens everything else up.  This may explain why when I’m sitting at the bottom of a squat my left hip is higher than my right hip: the muscles are tight in response to the tight/damaged QL.  I’m really hoping that this session will fix/treat everything.

I started squatting recently, and I wasn’t too excited because usually my knees hurt some.  It’s nothing I can’t handle but I always wondered if it was normal or if it was indication that something was wrong.  Well I think it was an indication that something was wrong because this time around my left knee didn't hurt at all, it felt... natural.  Hopefully I can get this going on with both knees.

This desire has led me to have Dr. Fullerton look at my right hip as well. I thought addressing my left hip would fix the right hip, but that doesn't seem

to be the case.  I'm hoping when the doc looks at my right hip he will see an intact capsule but some frayed muscles around it, since

I spent a lot of time and money fixing the capsule with Dr Hauser up in Chicago.

However, who knows what will happen.  These are the various scenarios I envision:

Everything is fine, tight muscles are responding to other tight muscles, don’t need treatment

Capsule is fine, but there some fraying going on

I have a sports hernia

The capsule is damaged some

The capsule is damaged some and I have fraying in the surrounding muscles.

Going back to the issues with my shoulder/back. although I'm getting better and I feel like my upper back is like one treatment away from being completely fixed, I don't want to go back to being inactive. I've found a sprinting group and I really like that, and I've found a weightlifting partner and am enjoying getting back into the swing of things.  In fact, because of my weightlifting background I have been asked to teach a class on cleans/snatches for the sprinting group.  Looks like they will have to wait about a month, but I think that will be a great time for me to plan and prepare for the class.

So I’ve made all this progress, I’ve made all these friends, just to take another month off.

But if this is what it takes to get better, so be it.

However,  I really don't want to keep having these setbacks. My wife has noticed me leaning out since I've started sprinting, and I want to keep

Going, keep getting faster, stronger, and leaner.

Having said all that,  I know that if I keep going as is, I will just hurt myself further.  Prolotherapy is, for me, the path to becoming 100%.  Just need to keep focus.  My next post will probably be the day after I see Dr. Fullerton, so until next week!

Seven weeks out from second Prolo treatment for shoulder/back

So it's been slow, slow goings but I'm happy to report that I do seem to be making improvement.  I really don't feel my neck being as tight as it used to be.  I don't feel the need to try to crack my neck all the time like I used to (it was bad, like all the time).  I can also tell that my back muscles are starting to behave like they should.  It's hard to describe, but things just feel more... right.

My left QL, the one that once made me think I had a kidney infection, has been super tight since the treatment (I think the muscle responded to the trauma of the injections by tightening up), but still things feel better (especially after getting some soft tissue treatment).

I am in Chicago right now for some personal business, and it gave me the opportunity to go see Bobby my old massage therapist.  He worked on mostly my back and pecs, and at the end of the session he commented that my body seems much more unremarkable than it used to be. Muscles that used to take a really long time to release now release in a much more normal time.  It is good to hear from someone else that they are noticing a difference in how my body is acting, and one for the better.

When I do DB rows, I can feel the very bottom of my lat freaking out over trying to work.  I've noticed that my back is fairly asymmetrical, especially in my lats.  My left side just isn't as developed, and I think that has been because the injuries have been causing improper mechanics.  Now that I'm starting to be able to use my back in a proper way, the lower part of my lat is really getting a work out. I think it's pretty awesome, further proof that things are headed in the right direction.

Things might be headed in the right direction, but I am still unsure as to whether I've fully recovered or not.  I still find myself trying to decompress my left ear and I still have pain in my lower back, so if I had to go see Dr. Fullerton today I would ask for one more treatment, but thankfully I won't have to cross that bridge for another month or so.  Until then, I will keep working out and getting stronger!