We talked about important information for athletes in our pleasant interview with dear Ebru Eryener on waist health.
How should we protect our waist while doing sports?
First of all, let's assume that the building disk is the most injured when we say waist. Lumbar disc bursts after 400 newtons is loaded and the disease we call hernia occurs. It is one of the most serious injuries. The occurrence of this injury is dependent on the burden. The vector of the load-load changes depending on variables such as the force arm. Briefly, bending, axial loading and rotation are the conditions where the most load is placed on the disc. Strong muscles, correct alignment and correct movement reduce the load on the disc and the risk of injury is virtually eliminated. Therefore, it is of great importance to load a weight proportional to muscle strength, to do the movement correctly, to avoid rotation at the same time during loading. It should be known that the risk of injury is higher in combined movements (turning, bending and loading).
During sports, I have students who say that my back hurts when doing movements such as kettlebell swing, superman, cat camel. (Although they do the movement correctly) and there are those who are afraid of this pain and do not want to do the movement. What pain is a sign that the back muscles are working in such a situation? And in what kind of pain should we really be afraid?
First of all, the person should not have an alignment problem
How do we know that?
Hunchbacks, one shoulder low, meaning people with poor posture are at risk. In such athletes, standing movements such as kettlebell, swing or superman should not be given at the beginning, first the core muscles on the ground should be strengthened and in the second stage, the posture should be corrected a little and complex exercises should be started.
Although there is no alignment problem in elite athletes, the duration and type of pain is important.
If it does not decrease with rest or does not improve with weight reduction, this should not be done more than a muscle regeneration pain.
Recently, I have encountered herniated disc in many people. Most of them are very advanced in the initial stage, although some do not require surgical intervention. What are the exercises that you would recommend and never do to these two groups? I would be glad if you explain this in a language that most of us can understand, not as described in medical language.
We recommend that patients with lumbar hernia do sports. The back and abdominal muscles should be strengthened and the body-thigh stability should be ensured. We should avoid standing exercises and be content with floor exercises. It should be squat-assisted or it can be on the wall with the ball. If the patient who has undergone surgery has had a closed lumbar hernia surgery as I did, he can go to sports in 3 weeks. You can start on the floor and slowly do the same exercises with healthy people in 3 months. In open surgery, it takes 6 months to return to the gym (sports).
Today, people who work at a desk are experiencing back pain and this has become routine. What can you recommend for people who work intensely and experience these pains?
Desk workers are a complete catastrophe.
There are all of the above. All of them have alignment problem, their muscles are weak, floor exercises must be at the forefront. Since their aerobic capacity is low, such people can be given heart rate tracking and then combined movements. A difficult group that lasted for months, good luck.
There is also a stiffness of the waist that happened to me and that I encountered in a few other people. Why does this situation, which is very difficult and restricts the person to move, occur? Will it cause a hernia in the future? And is there anything we can do to avoid this?
Your situation may be the type of injury we encounter in elite athletes. Generally, stresses are not on the disc but on the muscle groups carrying the spine (such as kettlebell swing, rupture), muscle-bone adhesion site enthesopathies. (Enthesopathy: It is an inflammatory or degenerative condition that occurs in the areas where the tendons attach to the bone.) The most difficult to heal enthesopathies. While in the other group, they can return to sports with exercise restriction and supports, while enthesopathy may last for months. The simple thing to do is to reduce the repetitions and weight of the injuring exercise and try to continue the exercise by preserving muscle mass and joint width, if not, the resting interval should be increased.
My last question is a situation with my mother. One of the vertebrae in the lumbar region is congenitally missing. Would such a situation create a problem in the long term and training?
In the case of sacralization, the load on the disc will increase because the force arm is shortened. In this type of athletes, the back and abdominal muscles should be extremely strong, in addition to being supported by the muscles we call spino pelvic (squat basic movement), soft squats can be done after floor movements. It is even possible to do deadlifts within months. An athlete who does a good deadlift will never get injured. The important thing is that regardless of the weight, it is close to the body axis and the shorter the force arm, the closer the center of gravity to the barbell, the less load on the disc. Balanced grip, opening of the feet is important. If one of them fails, the risk of injury will increase.
It is said that the shuttle and crunch movement causes long-term lumbar hernia. Because the spine has a bending life. And every time we do this bending movement, it is said that we get a little closer to the hernia. I want to know your thoughts on this subject?
Partially correct. With weak muscles, the load on the disc increases and even injury may occur. Disc wall repairs itself in mild injuries. We have a self-regenerating and healing mechanism. However, if the loading is done without full recovery, there may be a hernia from the weakened place.