Take a look at my blog post on quickstarting: http://www.dshen.com/blogs/training/archives/mobilitywod_quick_start_guide.html

i would say that you should get an MRI. X-rays only see certain angles, usually front or side and it is easy to miss disc bulges in other directions. An MRI would be conclusive.

it would seem to me that you have a disc issue, which flares up during spine flexion. the easy thing to say would be to train for neutral spine during surfing but it is probably easy to say and less easy to do in the water.

i would say to work on hip flexion with neutral spine. there are some good banded distractions to help with this, like the hamstring floss with band going out back. i would also work on putting the hip socket to the rear of the socket. it may be biasing forward which reduces flexion capability. hip openers will also help and when you bend over, you may want to practice good squatting technique (ie. not knees in, torque the feet) which will enable to you to maintain a good bent over posture versus encouraging flexion to maintain bent over posture.

breathing is a big factor – people undervalue too much what diaphragmatic breathing does for stabilization. work to achieve belly breathing 24/7 and especially during the excitement of being on a wave. this helps you maintain proper posture with less effort and make it reflexive versus conscious.

as for sitting on the board, you may want to practice rolling your pelvis forward while sitting. if you let the pelvis roll back, this will encourage spinal flexion. you can practice this in a chair. sit, then spread the legs to wider than shoulder position, which is probably about the width of your board. then stabilize, and bend over at the hips. press your pelvis forward, as well as maintaining your spine shape. you may not get very far at first. mobilize a lot and practice this. then when you’re sitting on the board, put your arms a bit forward on the board to support and roll that pelvis as far forward as possible.

Re: tight movers, joint position

the concept is simple. you want proper joint centration for proper movement. this means that each joint must be properly centered in the socket to provide for optimal movement, force creation and force absorption, etc. if it is not, then muscle compensations can occur as well as wear/tear on the joint itself. both can lead to bad things as you can imagine and definitely less than your potential.

each joint as muscles surrounding it. if one set of muscles is not working properly, or has become short or tight, or atrophied, etc., then the joint may not be centrated any more during movement.

in the case you describe at the hip joint, if the hip flexors become dysfunctional and/or tight, then these can cause problems with the opposing muscles, like inhibited glutes as the neurological signal between the two becomes problematic. so tight, always on hip flexors are telling the glutes to never fire. in a normal functioning human, this is the correct response of an agonist/antagonist muscle pair. in a dysfunctional human, it can cause the hip to glide anteriorily as you attempt to flex your femur at the hip and then this can cause impingement.

similar things can happen at the shoulder joint where the shoulders can be biased forward due to tight pecs and pec minor among other structures. this weakens the posterior muscles and over time they stop firing. then you try to press and you wreck your shoulders because now they are attempting to rotate up while not being optimally centrated at the shoulder.

having said all of that, the diagnosis of what exactly is happening with you can be a bit tough. it was why i went to Roop. i hit a wall at the possibilities but he gave me (of course) the one i hadn’t considered – second time he did that to me haha! but he’s the guy with the credentials and experience…

always remember the categories to work on:

1. soft tissue
2. motor control
3. joint centration

go through all the possibilities – test/retest on every one. toss the ones with no effect, keep the ones with some effect. and remember it can take one session to see change, or months. yes the months part sucks.

good luck and let me know if you have questions on the above.

I just got back from seeing Roop and I feel for you.

He told me my iliacus and psoas were way tight and my femur head was poorly positioned for certain angles of flexion. Roop checked a bunch of angles and flexion/internal rotation at hip was terrible. The MWOD things he did to me were:

1. Psoas release with fingers, but i get to do it with KB handle – likely Supernova is too big for me. Can do KB on lacrosse ball, then i can press in with knee up, then while pressing extend leg down.

2. Iliacus release – wow painful with his fingers jammed in there! This one will probably require me laying on a KB handle for likely 10-20 min.

Then he did some Roop magic. Basically he would pick an angle, then put his weight on my knee to push the femur head to the rear of the socket and then move it around. Definitely a lot of painful places where pinching was happening, but he managed to work it nearly good except for maybe the extreme range of IR and flexion. i would not recommend trying this. you could really mess something up. he also tested my labrum and there was definitely irritation there which could have been worse if someone who wasn’t Roop tried this. Did your chiro or PT do this? i have never seen this before. i’m guessing not.

my home prescription is:

smash psoas, iliacus, glutes, TFL (yes my flexor wad is tight too). need to work on psoas and iliacus a lot more.

set femur head to back of socket, but move body over the knee so that you’re like in pigeon pose, bending body over the knee to the outside. only keep lower leg not rotated externally but either straight or slightly IR. this is similar to mob called Hip Capsule External Rotation in BSL. distract with band if possible. sorry hard to describe this one.

couch stretch

he then showed me a variant of shinbox. i sit down with feet about squatting width, knees bent 90 deg. then let one knee drop to the outside, while keeping heel in the same place. try to get as low as possible. then move the knee to the inside while maintaining foot location but try to touch the knee to opposite leg. repeat with other leg. hard as hell for me!

variant on above – do this while squatting which i think i saw in a Daily MWOD once. get in deep squat position. move one knee to touch the other knee or leg if possible.

another practice only with bodyweight – squat down but do it trying to bring the knees together in the center. this practices IR in squatting. never to be used with weight, but just an expression of accessible body position – which i don’t have! ugh!

These video sequences from Carl Paoli can help with the movement/positional part of learning the squat:

http://gymnasticswod.com/content/air-squat-progression-pt1
http://gymnasticswod.com/content/air-squat-progression-pt2
http://gymnasticswod.com/content/air-squat-progression-pt3

Sounds like you’ve got the mobility part down. Now work on the motor control aspects.

i would add that i still would not recommend significant loading and twisting. i would not recommend doing trunk twists with a loaded barbell on the shoulders. that would seem way too risky vs. any potential reward benefit.

if your superfriends say your ankle mobility seems equal, then it is not a soft tissue or local problem but either a motor control or upstream problem.