Back injury from jogging?

thereshegoesagain

For the first time a couple of weeks ago I mixed some light jogging in with my treadmill walking. I would walk 3/4 of a mile at 4 mph, then jogged for 1/4 mile at 5mph until I reached 5 miles. I felt great afterwards, no pain anywhere.
I was quite active the rest of the day, deep cleaning my car, housework, etc., still without any pain.

The next morning I was in fairly extreme pain in my lower right back. I took anti inflamatories and prescription pain killers and on the 2nd day, I took half of a muscle relaxer which knocked me out for the day. I took half a muscle relaxer for 3 days, spending almost all of it in bed.

Slowly it got better and I began walking again at 3-3.5 mph, first for a mile and each day building it up until today I walked 5 miles at 4 mph with a light incline.

I would like to try jogging again, but am afraid of injuring myself again. I'm not sure if the injury happened while cleaning or if it was the jogging.

How common are back injuries from jogging?

zilkah

DId you pull a muscle? I'd make sure your jogging form is okay. Check your posture, your shoes, etc

I currently cannot jog but my spine is a little messed up in alignment right now. Ive been chriopractorless for a few months and it's starting to really flare up again. Mine is a bit different though, I can't handle the impact over and over so my back does not tolerate high impact anything right now.

meritage4

sounds like it could be your SI (sacral-Iliac joint). See a physiotherapist.

canadianlbs

hello i'm no kind of proof of anything in your own life, but i just tried out a little super light jogging myself. like, 5 second jog out of 1 minute walk. horror story the next day and it felt very much like an s.i. issue.

for me whatever went wrong got 85 % fixed when i bit the bullet and got down on the floor with a styrofoam ball and went over my iliopsoas muscles with it. these are the hip flexors that live on the 'opposite' surface of your pelvis, i.e inside it, basically. they were unbelievably, insanely, call-on-dead-gods kind of tight, just festering with trigger points. but it honestly did resolve an enormous amount and then the rest of it seems to have worked out over the week that followed, with very cautious but very conscientious physio/mobility thingies of various kinds.

please do understand i can't recommend or suggest you do this, since i don't know anything about your own back and i'm not a medical pro in any way. and you should be very careful working on psoas muscles in particular since they lie 'deep' to the rest of what's in your abdominal cavity. but i can certainly attest that the impact of jogging seems to mess me up in a pretty big way, even though i can walk without problems for miles. so you're not alone.

TavistockToad

try running again... if it happens again then its likely your form, in which case see a physio

MeanderingMammal

thereshegoesagain wrote: »

I would like to try jogging again, but am afraid of injuring myself again. I'm not sure if the injury happened while cleaning or if it was the jogging.

From what you've described I'd suggest that it's extremely unlikely that you did this by running. Five repeats of 400 metres would be unlikely to cause any residual problem that you wouldn't have noticed at the time.

That said, I'd have suggest a physio appointment, but as the pain has gone away that's less relevant.

Try running again, and see how it feels.

sijomial

You may have aggravated an existing condition with your running rather than running being the direct cause.
Osteopath or Physiotherapist exam would be a good idea.

I'm very prone to SI issues, manipulation followed by specific stretches (and avoidance of certain triggers) works wonders - as does losing weight!

mgalovic01

When you jog, try to land on your toes. This will cause your calves to absorb more impact and take stress off your back. Also, you may want to try sleeping on your back and sides, not on your stomach. I noticed when my back is sore sleeping on my stomach is just too much of a strain for it. It causes it to remain firm and thus recovery is slowed down. These two are good therapy exercises: 1) https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://themoviebros.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Lower-Back-Exercises.gif&imgrefurl=http://themoviebros.com/lower-back-exercises-no-equipment-needed/&docid=XtH1K3DTCnLQWM&tbnid=nAJlf-ITRHVeGM:&w=400&h=296&bih=319&biw=519&ved=0ahUKEwiAzKqq_onQAhXE7SYKHXEHBj0QMwiUASgtMC0&iact=mrc&uact=8
2) https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.whyiexercise.com/images/exercises.for.low.back.pain.cat.and.camel.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.whyiexercise.com/exercises-for-low-back-pain.html&docid=T_enWRpNkxpg-M&tbnid=ST_VXJPqGHcW_M:&w=450&h=356&bih=319&biw=812&ved=0ahUKEwim9bGa_4nQAhXGQCYKHZeiB144ZBAzCDMoMTAx&iact=mrc&uact=8
Hope that helps.

thereshegoesagain

Thank you for all of your advice and suggestions. Reading up on the sacraliliac, it sounds like that may be the culprit.
4 years ago I had a spinal fusion and was told I have a slight curvature of the spine, but incredibly strong bones for a woman of my age, 58 now. I dont know what that throws into the equasion
I do almost an hour of stretches and core exercises each mornomg, many of them ones that mgalovic01 suggested but there are a few shown that I'll try this morning.
I've lost about 90 lbs with 5 to go for me to be in a healthy BMI range and it's been a real *kitten* trying to lose those last few pounds.
I think that I'll try jogging again today, paying more attention to my form. Wish me luck!

Skipjack66

After reading that you've had a spinal fusion, I'd highly recommend you see a physiotherapist. You may have a hypermobility or instability in the segment above or below the fusion - it's very common to develop this over time after fusion. Running may not the best, I'd be sticking to swimming and power walking where you're not jarring your spine. Get an assessment so you know what is safe for you. Good luck.

thereshegoesagain

Skipjack66 wrote: »

After reading that you've had a spinal fusion, I'd highly recommend you see a physiotherapist. You may have a hypermobility or instability in the segment above or below the fusion - it's very common to develop this over time after fusion. Running may not the best, I'd be sticking to swimming and power walking where you're not jarring your spine. Get an assessment so you know what is safe for you. Good luck.

Will do. I love swimmimg and swim laps a couple of times a week. I was hoping to add jogging to my repertoire, but will stay with walking and swimming. Thank you.