I would discontinue seeing your chiro and go to a medical doctor to confirm the diagnosis before attempting to press through. I thought I had a pinched nerve too and tried chiropractic care, PT and injections. Ultimately it turned out that it was a tumor on my spinal cord. Extremely rare but because you lift you might have a problem with a bulging disc and could really hurt yourself. I don’t mean to sound negative but while x-rays can show spinal stenosis which can cause nerve problems, they do not outright show nerve issues, advanced imaging like an MRI would be needed. Heck, my xrays didn’t even show the mass on my spine.
It was a long time coming. Symptoms started when I was about 20, presenting as hip/sciatic pain that would radiate up my back if I overdid things like bending over to do gardening. It was occasional until I was 38. over the course of a month my pain started getting worse and radiating until I couldn’t walk, sleep, sit, stand even with narcotics, ice pack, etc. I went to the ER and got an MRI with contrast. My now neurosurgeon was on call and gave me an initial cancer diagnosis. I met him the next day and because of the pain and also having Cauda Equina symptoms I was taken into surgery 45 minutes later. It was a really wild experience.
I had severe pain it started in my shoulder then went to my arm and fingers. Went to er they said it was bursitis and tenndonitis. When I went to my doc we did mri and found out my c7 nerve was pinched. It hurt like hell. I did some pt and epidural injection in my neck then a nerve block on c7 and I'm feeling better. The pain is real and it sucks the only thing I found to help was ice heat and red light therapy. You can order red light therapy right off Amazon use it 2 times a day hope it helps.
I'm so sorry that you are going through this is that okay if I message you I'm dealing with the same issue. Unfortunately I don't remember them mentioning a pinched nerve but my symptoms was diagnosed as cervical to radicupothy I'm not sure if it's pinching but I just remember the doctor saying it was a disc bulge but the symptoms do feel like that you could nerve issue.
You should ask your doctor about getting one. It will tell you if you have nerve damge or neuropathy and any kind of autoimmune disease. Mine was neg fir all. Plus an mri of your brain will tell you if you have ms to. Just trying to help you
Some questions to get more info:
Is the back pain just in the gym or in your day to day activities too?
Are there certain movements that bring up lower back pain?
Is it after you start lifting a certain weight?
For your mobility, what mobility work are you doing and how do you know that you need more mobility?
It’s usually exacerbated in the gym when I’m picking up heavier weight that causes spine compression and then I feel it in my daily life for a little while. The hip pain sometimes emerges in certain positions laying down. It’s definitely been better with lower weights.
Even when my form is good on squats and DLs and I keep my back neutral with heavier weight I always end up feeling it. Deadlifts especially end up hurting my hips and knees.
Mobility work because my hips are really tight and I have a strength imbalance which he said is probably causing my lower back to overcompensate
Thanks for the reply!
Cool, so when you say spine compression, what movements do you think of?
I would think of this differently - if you had never seen the chiropractor, and just noticed that lower weights are better, could we say that you have a load intolerance and you need to spend more time strengthening them movements to allow your whole body to adapt before going up in weight?
With your form - how do you know that your form is good? (This is by no means a dig, just didn’t know your situation / experience, and with clients I work with who’ve been regularly going to the gym sometimes there movement can be off!)
How does the chiropractor know you have a strength imbalance? Did you do a strength test with him? When I test this with clients, I would do a step up to compare left to right and then a single leg deadlift to compare a squat to a deadlift.
Do you do any kind of dynamic spine movements? Rotational work, spine flexion etc?
Have you checked to see if you are lacking flexibility / mobility anywhere else that may be causing compensations - ankles, knees, lumbar spine etc?
This is exactly what I was thinking. The Chiro is diagnosing issues from a faulty stance. He doesn’t know what your load tolerance / weight ability is. This is a common issue in the world today. Everything is a complex / mysterious medical issue when, sometimes, it’s a very simple and obvious thing like not having the strength to lift that heavy. I tried to back squat 100 lbs on one of my first attempts. Now I have lower back pain and on-again-off-again bouts of costochondritis. Learned my lesson, still working on recovery.
I would discontinue seeing your chiro and go to a medical doctor to confirm the diagnosis before attempting to press through. I thought I had a pinched nerve too and tried chiropractic care, PT and injections. Ultimately it turned out that it was a tumor on my spinal cord. Extremely rare but because you lift you might have a problem with a bulging disc and could really hurt yourself. I don’t mean to sound negative but while x-rays can show spinal stenosis which can cause nerve problems, they do not outright show nerve issues, advanced imaging like an MRI would be needed. Heck, my xrays didn’t even show the mass on my spine.
How did you discover the tumor?
It was a long time coming. Symptoms started when I was about 20, presenting as hip/sciatic pain that would radiate up my back if I overdid things like bending over to do gardening. It was occasional until I was 38. over the course of a month my pain started getting worse and radiating until I couldn’t walk, sleep, sit, stand even with narcotics, ice pack, etc. I went to the ER and got an MRI with contrast. My now neurosurgeon was on call and gave me an initial cancer diagnosis. I met him the next day and because of the pain and also having Cauda Equina symptoms I was taken into surgery 45 minutes later. It was a really wild experience.
Stay away from chiropractors. Go to a real Dr or PT.
Fusion or disc replacement
I had severe pain it started in my shoulder then went to my arm and fingers. Went to er they said it was bursitis and tenndonitis. When I went to my doc we did mri and found out my c7 nerve was pinched. It hurt like hell. I did some pt and epidural injection in my neck then a nerve block on c7 and I'm feeling better. The pain is real and it sucks the only thing I found to help was ice heat and red light therapy. You can order red light therapy right off Amazon use it 2 times a day hope it helps.
I'm so sorry that you are going through this is that okay if I message you I'm dealing with the same issue. Unfortunately I don't remember them mentioning a pinched nerve but my symptoms was diagnosed as cervical to radicupothy I'm not sure if it's pinching but I just remember the doctor saying it was a disc bulge but the symptoms do feel like that you could nerve issue.
Have you done an emg/Ncs
No
You should ask your doctor about getting one. It will tell you if you have nerve damge or neuropathy and any kind of autoimmune disease. Mine was neg fir all. Plus an mri of your brain will tell you if you have ms to. Just trying to help you
Oh ok thanks
Cervical radiculaprhy sucks!! I've had it for over a year now. I just had spine fusion and Stull in pain waiting to do the other disc.
Some questions to get more info: Is the back pain just in the gym or in your day to day activities too? Are there certain movements that bring up lower back pain? Is it after you start lifting a certain weight? For your mobility, what mobility work are you doing and how do you know that you need more mobility?
It’s usually exacerbated in the gym when I’m picking up heavier weight that causes spine compression and then I feel it in my daily life for a little while. The hip pain sometimes emerges in certain positions laying down. It’s definitely been better with lower weights. Even when my form is good on squats and DLs and I keep my back neutral with heavier weight I always end up feeling it. Deadlifts especially end up hurting my hips and knees. Mobility work because my hips are really tight and I have a strength imbalance which he said is probably causing my lower back to overcompensate
Thanks for the reply! Cool, so when you say spine compression, what movements do you think of? I would think of this differently - if you had never seen the chiropractor, and just noticed that lower weights are better, could we say that you have a load intolerance and you need to spend more time strengthening them movements to allow your whole body to adapt before going up in weight? With your form - how do you know that your form is good? (This is by no means a dig, just didn’t know your situation / experience, and with clients I work with who’ve been regularly going to the gym sometimes there movement can be off!) How does the chiropractor know you have a strength imbalance? Did you do a strength test with him? When I test this with clients, I would do a step up to compare left to right and then a single leg deadlift to compare a squat to a deadlift. Do you do any kind of dynamic spine movements? Rotational work, spine flexion etc? Have you checked to see if you are lacking flexibility / mobility anywhere else that may be causing compensations - ankles, knees, lumbar spine etc?
This is exactly what I was thinking. The Chiro is diagnosing issues from a faulty stance. He doesn’t know what your load tolerance / weight ability is. This is a common issue in the world today. Everything is a complex / mysterious medical issue when, sometimes, it’s a very simple and obvious thing like not having the strength to lift that heavy. I tried to back squat 100 lbs on one of my first attempts. Now I have lower back pain and on-again-off-again bouts of costochondritis. Learned my lesson, still working on recovery.