My Solution to Back Pain from Lifting Weights

by Yale
(New York)

When I was in high school (about 30 years ago now), I was doing some overhead presses to get ready for the football season when I heard a pop in my lower back. There was a sharp pain there and I dropped the weight. After that incident, it was painful to walk but even worse to run.

The doctor who looked at me couldn't find anything wrong with my spine from manual examination and he didn't choose to do x-rays. He gave me some stretches and sent me on my way. As time passed, the pain wasn't terrible so I learned to live with it.

But as the years passed, I always had this compressed feeling in my lower back, especially after going running. Finally someone suggested I try going to see a guy who did this type of therapy called Hellerwork. It was a kind of deep tissue massage that was supposed to help with problems like mine... That is, problems where the doctor sends you home because he can't find anything wrong even though you still have pain.

So I went to this guy for Hellerwork (this was when I was living in California) and he found that my pelvis was crooked. This was making the muscles in my back stiffen up and compensate whenever I walked or ran. He did some pretty deep muscle work on me and was able to bring my pelvic bones back into the right alignment again. It was really helpful.

After about 2 sessions, my back barely bothered me at all, and after about 6 sessions I had no pain at all any more. I continued to have some sessions after that (about once per month) for another 6 months or so just to keep things lined up. He showed me stretches to keep my pelvis straight and I've been religious in doing them ever since.

I hope this helps someone!