Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett Forums Back Can I be stretching too much?

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    • #71638
      AvatarEd Chu
      Participant

      Around Thanksgiving of last year I had an incident where I received a box with some weights (about 125lbs), squatted down to pick it up and ‘snap crackle pop’, my lower back started to spasm and off I went to the chiropractor. The problem was that I have notoriously tight hips and didn’t keep good posture through the squat, ended up leaning too far forward and ..well..I ended up in some pain. From that time on (even after the chiropractor helped with the popping sound-it was my pelvis) I have had consistent aching pain from gluteus medius that radiates down the side of my hip toward mid calf (lateral). I have done ROMWOD consistently since, I have gone to the chiropractor and an orthopedic phsyician, had Xrays (no issues with the bones, some mild arthritis in the hips) and been taking Naprosyn 500mg bid. I have stayed active the whole time with some exception: some weeks I will take off from activity to see if this helps at all, but this tends to make my hips tighter and I end up with more trouble with external rotation. I haven’t been able to go to jiu jitsu consistently d/t pain that I get with too much standing (kicks, throws, punching), nor have I been able to grapple (anterior hip area hurts too much the next day). Running helped a lot in the beginning, nothing crazy just jogging 2.5miles-made me feel a lot looser throughout the day. I started to lift again about six weeks ago, doing a lot of prep prior to lifting and after. During a push press two weeks ago I felt the spasm in my lower back come back, and a lot of my symptoms from the original injury came back as well. So I did a lot of the pelvic fault exercises, and used the lacrosse ball but this solved the problem for the day but I felt worse the next day. This week I took off from lifting and ran a few times, but did rom drills daily along with some myofacial release, and also started wearing my orthotics again. My question is: some days my pain is really low, I loosen up toward mid morning (even without any rom drills) and I will do my rom drills at lunch and then my pain is worse the rest of the day. Am I stretching too much? Some other info: I work in psychiatry so I use a kneeling chair 60% of the time while with patients. It’s not really feasible to have a treadmill desk or even a standing desk, because of the population I work with. The pain is mostly in the gluteus medius radiating toward the lateral aspect of the hip, upper mid quad, down to lateral mid calf. Any help would be appreciated.

    • #76466
      AvatarPatrick Thomas
      Participant

      Are you working up and down stream from where you are seeing the issue with your back?
      Where you see the issue isn’t always where it originates.

      The issue clears up until you reach the tolerance of your tissues again. The cause of the issue is still there.
      Resolving the cause or where issue originates will resolve the issue for good.

      Movement is key. Active recovery gets the body moving without stress on joints, muscles, and tissues.
      Non exercise movement throughout the day makes a big different.

      Beginning to use orthotics again changes things at the foundation. Foot position is different from what is has been. You could be making upstream compensations/adjustments to positioning which you may not be aware you are making.

      What is your position like when you are in the kneeling desk?

    • #76477
      AvatarEd Chu
      Participant

      are you familiar with a bench used for meditation. Pretty much sitting saddle legs:

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