Ask Dr. Sport: "How Did I Get This Injury When I Didn't Do Anything?!"

In the course of human existence, we acquire numerous injuries, some nagging aches and pains, some the result of major traumas like fall, sprains, contusions, and fractures. Recently, a friend asked about a nagging pain in his low back/upper glute (buttocks cheek), a pain that has left him largely incapacitated except for when he absolutely has to fulfill some obligation towards family or work. In short, his quality of life had diminished, and this is from a young man of 22 years.

                 

Rafael Llenas: “[Y]ou were absolutely right, I did the bridges and then I tried it one leg at a time and when I did it with my left leg I was shaking to do just one rep, my left leg is a lot weaker than my right... how does this happen? It feels as if this pain came upon me one day to another, I don't understand how it got so weak over a matter of days, to the point where I can’t even lie down right."

First and foremost, we can divide bodily injuries into two categories- acute and accumulative. Acute injuries are sudden and traumatic- falls, sprains, contusions, breaks. These are the injuries that often lead to us receiving immediate emergency care of some sort, be it from mom with an ice pack from the refrigerator, or from the family physician setting a cast on a broken limb. Accumulative injuries are those that we often call “Chronic,” and are those that happen, or accumulate, over time- sore knees, tight shoulder, or in Rafael’s case, lower back pain. Think “…the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

As I am not a doctor, and therefore not licensed to diagnose ANYTHING, I will say that everything written from this point is simply theory. Although, it has experientially proven to be quite useful information within my personal training business, I can not professionally say that the following opinion is the SOLE reason for the cause of Rafael’s pain. I CAN say that my professional opinion is based upon the peer-reviewed research of Human Movement Science, but until such time that there is licensing for such professionals, I will make no attempt at diagnosis. As is standard in my profession, I highly recommend a visit to your regular physician, and a subsequent specialist if the physician feels that is the necessary course of treatment.

So, assuming that the injury is chronic, and Rafael has stated that there has been no recent trauma, and assuming that the injury is muscular (it could be neural, skeletal, or something else), here is the opinion of an aspiring Human Movement Scientist (HMS).

Habitually, we assume any number of body postures throughout the course of a day. Those postures force our body to maintain specific positions that require specific muscles to activate and hold that position, e.g. leaning on one leg, or wearing a pocket book or back pack continually over the same shoulder. Over accumulated time, those same muscles become over-active, often resulting in the same muscles of the opposite side becoming under-active. If maintained as a lifestyle, those same muscles will become so under- and over-active, that they will eventually become sore from under and over use; the soreness being the body’s way of alerting us to stop our habitual behavior. It is important to note, whether the muscle is under or over active, it is inherently weaker. Why? Because it can not produce an optimal amount of oppositional force to a force acting upon it. Layman’s terms- the muscles ability to work has been negatively affected, and the effect is a loss of muscular strength. That nagging shoulder pain we tend to get in the over-active shoulder often leads to the inability to lift something; the opposite shoulder, which is under-active, doesn’t have the strength endurance to do the work and fatigues quickly. In Rafael’s case, he has been over using the left side glute, and it is now over-active; because it is over active, it can not produce optimal force. As in his comment, when he exercises that muscle as his physical therapist suggested, the leg just tends to get weaker because in actuality, he’s just making it MORE over-active, and subsequently MORE weaker- a vicious cycle.

What should he do? If this is indeed the case, while there are many things that he can do to restore the muscle to its optimal proficiency, one of the major things that he can do, according to HMS, is to perform desensitization and flexibility exercises on that muscle. By doing so, he will allow the over-active muscle to become desensitized, or less-active, thus restoring it back to its optimal activity level. Secondarily, he can strengthen the opposite side glute to restore balance to BOTH glutes, so that they work equally. Lastly, he should practice developing the habit of using both glutes in his daily activities.

There are many ways to address the chronic injuries within our body, this is but one strategy. Naturally, this strategy will vary greatly depending on the specifics of the situation. I would be remiss if I did not say that whenever you have any injury, traumatic or chronic, you should always consult a licensed professional. After you exhausted that alternative, or if the licensed professional recommends it, you should really checkout us Human Movement Scientists. According to Dr. Michael Jones, renowned Doctor of Physical Therapy, we just may be the best kept secret in the Health & Wellness industry today.

Stay Healthy!

Earnest L. Hudson, Jr.

MS, CSCS, CES, PES