I am a masters track sprinter who has been having lower back troubles for the last year. I am 41 year old male.
I have been swimming to give my back time to heal. I have been swimming for about a month.
This week I swam 800 yards in a pool (100ft long) in 16 minutes. Is this any good? Never swam competatively in my life.
I have some real disc problems and I was hoping I could someday be competative in the water if I can't run anymore. I have to be honest, I love running way more than swimming, but I really miss the competition part.
What should I be doing as a rookie if I want to swim the 50 and the 100? What kind of interval training? or should I just be doing conditioning and technique?
Parents
Former Member
I too had the L4 herniated--rather severely. What my guy did is slice open the lower back (a 3 inch scar), and with a laser, flick out disk fragments and other bone detrious that come from the disk bulging. Then he shaved the bulged disk, cut some additional gelatnous disk material, and re-packed the disk back into the spine. When I awoke from the anesthisia, I felt much better--though of course the inciscion hurt. (before the surgery I could not move to my left, when I awoke I could).
I took three months off, went on short term disability. I pretty much took baby steps for about 3 to 4 weeks and walked with a cane. By six weeks I was walking and getting around fine (I hadn't had more than 10 days off from work since my teenage years so I was in no hurry to go back to work). After three months I was back swimming and three months after that I competed in a zone meet, swam free, fly and back and came home with 3 medals out of six events.
Also, what precipitated the sugery: I slammed on my brakes to avoid an accident (no impact) and the jolt of braking threw out my disk. So it's not always some traumatic accident. And when I would injure myself before the surgery it was always something mundane like changing the air filter on my car, cleaning the tub, or raking leaves.
I'd show your MRI to a neurosurgeon and see what they think. That's who did my surgery...and I was fortunate, this guy had worked on MLB pticher's shoulders and other athletes.
I too had the L4 herniated--rather severely. What my guy did is slice open the lower back (a 3 inch scar), and with a laser, flick out disk fragments and other bone detrious that come from the disk bulging. Then he shaved the bulged disk, cut some additional gelatnous disk material, and re-packed the disk back into the spine. When I awoke from the anesthisia, I felt much better--though of course the inciscion hurt. (before the surgery I could not move to my left, when I awoke I could).
I took three months off, went on short term disability. I pretty much took baby steps for about 3 to 4 weeks and walked with a cane. By six weeks I was walking and getting around fine (I hadn't had more than 10 days off from work since my teenage years so I was in no hurry to go back to work). After three months I was back swimming and three months after that I competed in a zone meet, swam free, fly and back and came home with 3 medals out of six events.
Also, what precipitated the sugery: I slammed on my brakes to avoid an accident (no impact) and the jolt of braking threw out my disk. So it's not always some traumatic accident. And when I would injure myself before the surgery it was always something mundane like changing the air filter on my car, cleaning the tub, or raking leaves.
I'd show your MRI to a neurosurgeon and see what they think. That's who did my surgery...and I was fortunate, this guy had worked on MLB pticher's shoulders and other athletes.
