Injury Management

[Chilblain91]

I recently pulled my right glute from squatting. I approached a physiotherapist for treatment as well and I was told my piriformis was the muscle injured. It has been 3 months already and apart from the rehab I've been doing, my right glute still suffers from weakness especially at the bottom of my squats and the initiation of my deadlifts. Apart from my bench press I am not capable of performing the other 2 competition lifts.

My first meet will be in june and I feel kinda lost right now. Has anyone experienced the same problem before and have any advice?

[Knickerbocker24]

I recently pulled my right glute from squatting. I approached a physiotherapist for treatment as well and I was told my piriformis was the muscle injured. It has been 3 months already and apart from the rehab I've been doing, my right glute still suffers from weakness especially at the bottom of my squats and the initiation of my deadlifts. Apart from my bench press I am not capable of performing the other 2 competition lifts.

My first meet will be in june and I feel kinda lost right now. Has anyone experienced the same problem before and have any advice?

Did you pull your piriformis or do you have piriformis syndrome?

[wannagetbig]

im suffering from this also. I posted a thread on it about two months ago - but it really hasnt improved.

my injury initiated from doing Machine SLDL. Before this, i never had any tightness in my left glute
i can still do squats, however i cannot do Deadlifts (pain at the beginning).

the pain is the worst when trying to do any kind of SLDL

i have been religiously stretching every day, rolling around on a hard ball - but nothing seems to be helping

[Chilblain91]

Did you pull your piriformis or do you have piriformis syndrome?

I checked and it's not piriformis syndrome. I don't feel any numbness or what not. At the bottom of my squat my glute completely weakens. It also feels strained even doing exercises that uses my glute as a stabiliser such as the dumbbell row.

[Francesc9]

I went through the same and at first, I thought it was my SI joint that locked up, it ended up being a disc protusion. I would get an MRI to see what's going on, the faster you find out what it is, the quicker rehab will be.

I'm not trying to scare you, I'm just saying that the kind of pain you're suffering from can be anything really, so I would get ti checked out as soon as possible so you can recover faster.

Good luck

Enviado desde mi MT11i usando Tapatalk 2

[Chilblain91]

I really hope it's not a herniated disc though /:

[Knickerbocker24]

That's a difficult area to assess unless you're a professional. I'd hate to make a suggestion for managing one injury and have it be something else. You may want to try PMing PT Aaron who is a physical therapist and member here. What is your PT saying and how many visits have you had? A good manual therapist may provide some assistance. But, based on what I'm hearing I'd stay clear from anything resembling heavy squats and deads right now. I'd probably opt to go back and work on motor control, stabilization, core activation, and grooving proper movement patterns. But, I know that's probably not what you want to hear. It's expensive, but Stuart McGill's Low Back Disorders is an excellent book.

[Chilblain91]

I've went for only 3 sessions so far and all they did was electro-therapy to loosen up the right side of my erector spinae, glute and hamstring. I have congenital scoliosis (to the right) and my low back's growth is imbalanced - something I really don't have much control over. They also did fascial release and massaged my glute to loosen up the muscle knots and those in my low back as well

I foam roll my glute on a daily basis now along with my low back and stretch them daily as well. Haven't really been doing heavy deadlifts (doing only 50% of my pre-injury 1RM to work on motor control). I was also advised to do light weight squats for now and better activate the muscles that I have been neglecting (right glute and left erector spinae)

[Knickerbocker24]

I've went for only 3 sessions so far and all they did was electro-therapy to loosen up the right side of my erector spinae, glute and hamstring. I have congenital scoliosis (to the right) and my low back's growth is imbalanced - something I really don't have much control over. They also did fascial release and massaged my glute to loosen up the muscle knots and those in my low back as well

I foam roll my glute on a daily basis now along with my low back and stretch them daily as well. Haven't really been doing heavy deadlifts (doing only 50% of my pre-injury 1RM to work on motor control). I was also advised to do light weight squats for now and better activate the muscles that I have been neglecting (right glute and left erector spinae)

How much mobility/flexibility, stability, core and activation work do you do in the course of your normal training? It's common for someone like a powerlifter to spend the vast majority of their time training the global muscular system because your sport encourages you to. However, if this comes at the expense of the others noted it's a recipe for disaster.

For example if one doesn't spend time on mobility/flexibility...just think of a lift like a squat or a deadlift. The spine should be stable and remain neutral, but if the athlete lacks the mobility in the hips and ankles to get into proper position an injury will eventually occur. Also, as you're seeing with your PT visits tissue care is important to maintain normal extensibility of tissues and strength training can chronically shorten muscle tissue. Also foam rolling etc is important to reduce neural input for overactive muscles. In addition, stability and motor control is vitally important so that the right muscles are firing at the right time. If for example your quads and psoas groups are strong and fires immediately, but your glutes fail to fire at the right time and with the right force you will be put in a less advantageous position for your low back...the same can be said really of all the musculature of the core. One needs normal length-tension relationships (muscular balance, mobility/flexibility, tissue care, etc.) and normal force-couple relationships (sensorimotor motor integration, neuromuscular efficiency, etc.) in order to maintain proper joint arthrokinematics.

I hope that's not too much jargon, but especially for someone with your prior condition it would be vitally important to spend adequate time on the basics...grooving proper movement patters, building the stabilization muscular system, working on activation and motor control, maintaining joint balance, and paying attention to tissue care and flexibility, etc. I know all this stuff is the boring part of training, but it's necessary for most folks to stay healthy that want to train heavy long term. I would definately begin to get your hands on as many Stuart McGill articles as you can and invest in either of his two books Low Back Disorders or Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance.

[Chilblain91]

Just acquired both of the Stuart McGill books. Shall have a good read and re-evaluate things. Thanks chris!