Fighting Back From Injury: Frederik Ægidius (CrossFit Games 2012), DK

November 23, 2012 by Sarah 2 Comments

I herniated a disc in my lower back doing back squats. I lost tension on the way up and fell to my knees with a shooting pain in my lower back. This happened only 5 days out of the Team EUR Vs. Team USA, so the first thought was “this is not happening..It can’t be happening..”. It wasn’t until the next morning I knew this was gonna take a while to get back from.

My mental health is strongly connected to my physical health so not being able to train is very hard on me. With an injury like this it’s key, as with many other injuries, not to get back on the weights to fast, even though you feel like you are ready for it. I’ve already made that mistake once in this rehab period and it set me back a couple of weeks.

I have had issues with my lower back before and strengthening this part of my body is gonna be a key ingredient in getting better. The “don’t fix it if it aint broke” doesn’t apply to training, but you tend to forget to do prehab on your weak links. Crossfitters use plenty of time stretching and mobilizing, but stabilizing is neglected for a lot of people.

Æ’s best advice for someone in the same situation:

Don’t rush it. you can do a lot without doing too much. work on what you can work on and give your body time to rest up. You don’t wanna train hurt for months, maybe years, when a couple of months of training smart, can make it go away for good.

WHAT IS A SPINAL DISC HERNIATION ?

Sometimes called a slipped or ruptured disk, a herniated disk most often occurs in the lower back. It is one of the most common causes of low back pain, as well as leg pain (sciatica).

The spine is made up of 24 bones, called vertebrae, that are stacked on top of one another. In between those vertebrae are flexible intervertebral disks, that act as shock absorbers when your walk or run. A disk begins to herniate when its jelly-like nucleus pushes against its outer ring due to wear and tear or a sudden injury. This pressure against the outer ring may cause lower back pain. If the disk is very worn or injured, the jelly-like center may squeeze all the way through. Once the nucleus breaks — or herniates — through the outer ring, pain in the lower back may improve. Sciatic leg pain, however, increases. This is because the jelly-like material inflames the spinal nerves. It may also put pressure on these sensitive spinal nerves, causing pain, numbness, or weakness in one or both legs.