Back Injury: Discal Herniation

I have always been surprised by the naturalness with which many people have told me that for years they’ve had a "bad” back and talking to them one comes to realize that they have never bothered to check out their injury with a physiotherapist or some other professional who know about the subject, on the contrary have incorporated this injury to their daily lives, where the temporary solution is always to take an analgesic to calm the pain.

The reality is that a Discal Hernia could trigger these back pains and you should not ignore it and fill the body with chemicals to decrease the discomfort. In consultation with the professionals of KINEMED, they told me that in order to understand how a Discal Herniation is formed, we must know that each vertebra is formed externally by an Anulus Fibrosus and internally by a Nucleous Pulposus (as shown in the image), so repeated tensions can cause the Anulus Fibrosus to degenerate, tear, deform or break, thus releasing the Nucleous Pulposus, and that my dear gladiators, is the famous Discal Herniation.

It is important to know that there are many types of hernias and can be generated anywhere on the spine so the symptoms may vary or even not develop completely, however we can start with some physical manifestations that could indicate the presence of a Hernia, for example:

- At the Cervical Spine level pain may be present by tilting the head to the same side of the hernia, also there can be irradiation of pain towards the shoulder, elbow or hand with symptoms of tingling and numbness.

- At the level of the Lumbar Column pain can be present that is felt towards the gluteus, back of the leg, calf and in more serious cases until the foot. The pain can feel as a tingle, cramps and/or numbness.

Causes of a hernia

There are endless reasons that can cause a Discal Herniation, however at a sports level performing repetitive and constant movements, performing exercises with poor posture or even lifting weights that exceed your physical abilities are some of the most common factors. Now that I am training Crossfit, I have seen how many people perform exercises like deadlifts or Olympic lifts with bad postures because they use very heavy weights for their ability or are fatigued from doing the exercises. Gladiators, sometimes it is very difficult for a single Coach to control what 25 people are doing (as it happens in group classes), so it is up to you to be aware of using an appropriate technique when exercising.

Take into account that frequent back pain is not synonymous with Discal Herniation, in many cases it may be due to some muscle or joint dysfunction in the spine, so it is very important to review these types of pain that ultimately are NOT normal.

Treating a hernia in time is of extreme importance to prevent it from growing and generating nerve compression, where it increases the possibility of having to undergo surgery and go through a slow recovery period where it could take, in a critical case, up to 1 year to recover the maximum mobility.

At the therapeutic level the hernias are treated with Analgesic and Anti-inflammatory Therapy, in addition it uses mobility to open the articular space and to release the tension of the disc. Traction Therapy and supervised strengthening and stability exercises are also used.

Gladiators it is very important that we perform exercises to strengthen our back to prevent these injuries from happening, one exercise that I love and can do at home at any time is the Plank (see this post on how to do it), which helps me strengthen the entire CORE area, while toning the abdomen. Next week I’ll be publishing in my social networks a session with several easy exercises that can be done to strengthen the back.

Good luck and remember that a cautious athlete is worth two.

#english