There and BACK Again, a HERNIATION Story

      First let me start by apologizing about the long delay since the last posting.  Life has gotten quite hectic these last two months in a good way for me that have consumed me like nothing has before.  Big things are happening right as I type this.  But more on that later.  I got inspired to write about injuries, the lowest of lows and bouncing back up to only get kicked right back down.

      Let me take you back to a cold December in 2009 where I found myself rushing to get a lift in before an early morning at work.  Naturally when you are in a time crunch the first thing to get skipped in the gym is a warm-up.  It’s the first thing to go 100% of the time.  Just don’t have the time when we have to rush back home, shower, eat, get dressed and jump in the car to get to work on time.  What I’m about to tell you is embarrassing.  I was “squatting”.  But not with a barbell in a rack.  Put it this way I was working out in a place that only charges $10/month.  There isn’t a barbell to be found in the joint except the one attached to the Smith Machine that is seriously only useful to do calf raises and inverted rows in.  

     Here is the ideal recipe for the perfect disaster in the gym.  Mix equal parts, early morning training session, no warm-up, cold as shit outside, gym membership for $10/month, squat day and poor ankle mobility (at the time).  Got all that?  Throw that in the blender, spread evenly in a pan, set the burner on high and enjoy the destruction of your back…  Naturally I felt a “twinge” in my back, but I didn’t have time to worry about it, I was in a crunch for time.  Set 3 arrived and that little disc between L4 and L5 had to pay the price.  I’d be lying if for a split second, as I was rising out of the bottom (loose definition) of my squat , I thought someone ran up behind me and slammed a dumbbell into my spine.  Don’t worry that didn’t happen, it was just the pain from my disc exploded into my spinal cord.  A normal person in that situation would stop.  However I am far from normal and told myself it’s fine, take a little weight off and finish your last set.  And I did. 

     It’s funny the movement modifications you’ll make when a part of your body is hurt.  Picture the person who has a stiff neck and has to rotate their entire body to see you.   The human body is amazing because it will find a way to adapt.  It’s science.  Now granted I didn’t have health insurance at the time and I just dealt with it…for the better part of 3 years.  I know dumb, but I’m the same kid who broke his wrist in 9^th Grade playing football and refused to go to the doctor.

     Over the next few years I really was limited with what I could do, and I had constant pain.  But I refocused my training, worked on way more core stabilization, mobility, and endurance training and found my back feeling close to 90%.  I was happy.  Until that day that I jumped and twisted and felt a sword get stabbed into my left glute.  Ok not really, but fuck it sure felt like that.  And of course I tried to tough it out.  Worse part was I had health insurance and tried to tough it out for almost a month.

     When I finally went to get help I broke down in the spine specialists office.  I’ll admit it, I cried.  I played college football and college lacrosse with broken bones, muscle strains, joint sprains, you name it, hell I’m sure there was an undiagnosed concussion in there too.  Ok I know there was one…maybe two,.  And here I found myself in a doctor’s office with tears streaming down my face leaning on the table because I couldn’t sit down.  He looked at me and said “I herniated a disc while on the toilet.”  I laughed, but that hurt, but I couldn’t stop laughing.  He’s was a solid dude who helped me immensely.

     After a round of cortisone shots to get the swelling out from around my discs I found myself in the YMCA pool at 5am to walk in a heated pool with people 2-3 times my age and weight!  Humble doesn’t even begin to explain how I felt.  Especially as they started to talk to me and ask me why I was there and genuinely showed concern over the coming weeks.  It was a long journey from those days, the winter of 2010-11.  But I don’t forget them.  Every time I think I don’t have time to warm-up and prepare my body I remember those days waking up to go walk in water.  I remember all the band walks, glute bridges, clamshells and planks too.   Which are a staple in everything I do.

     Now there were obstacles along the way back to do what ever I wanted physically.  But it was in those obstacles of pain and debilitation that I was able to pause, gather myself and refocus my efforts.  And what happened was I being able to recreate myself physically, mentally and emotionally.  Later in 2012 I trained up to do a marathon (wasn’t able to go and do it, sorry Andy & Sarah).  I competed in a few CrossFit competitions in late 2012, 2013 and 2014.  And I did my first Olympic Weightlifting Comp this year after reigniting my love for Weightlifting.

     I found myself roughly 5 years from the incident a few weeks ago.  It was a week of all weeks for training following a not so great week of Olympic Weightlifting, and lifting partner and we found ourselves deadlifting.  The great thing about that day was I walked out of there with a new PR of 500# and my back still feels great weeks later…BOOM!

500 LB Deadlift PR Attempt

     I wrote this to let you all know that injuries happen along everyone’s fitness journey and it’s in those moments where you make the decision to throw in the towel and walk away or you draw a line in the sand to mark where you were and where you are going to get back to and then blow past.  I've never been more gifted physically then anyone, but I'll keep showing up and grinding it out to achieve a goal.  Keep rising and grinding, you're not alone!

Stay classy friends and keep grinding, hope 2015 is a great year for you.

If you're ever in Fayetteville, be sure to stop in and check us out at http://www.gpshumanperformance.com

G