Tuesday, August 13, 2013

A bizarre and hopefully minor injury

Saturday, I was mowing my lawn.  Using my lawn tractor.  I hit a minor bump and suddenly felt a pop in my right hip and lower back area.  It hurt immediately.  I was shocked.  How could I get hurt riding a lawn mower?  Yeah, bad things can happen with lawn tractors, but this isn't one of them.  At least not normally.

I felt a little bit better as the day wore on, but I was glad it was a planned rest day.  Sunday, I went out for an easy four miles of running with the dogs.  I could feel the issue in the hip/back, but it didn't really bother me too much.  Sunday evening, my son and I went fly fishing and it was really bothering me.  Simply bending over to pick up something from the ground was difficult.

Monday morning, when I got out of the car after driving to work, it was really bugging me.  I instantly sent an e-mail to the chiropractor I see when needed.  He works at our gym on Monday afternoons, and I was hoping he could at least give me an evaluation about what I'd done, and whether or not it was safe to train.

I didn't hear from the chiropractor all day, so I assumed he was busy.  Last night was a squatting night at CrossFit, so after my warm-up, I started my squats, although with a lower weight than I would have used otherwise.  After my warm-up sets and my first working set, the chiropractor showed up by my side.  He's just read my message and he was free right then.  So, I abandoned the squats and went to his office.

I explained what had happened, and laughed that with all of the training I've done over the years, I never expected a mowing injury to be the one to end my career (I was joking, of course).  He did a couple tests and basically said it was the right sacroiliac joint.  He did an exam and noted an extreme difference between the right and left sides.  I've always had some sort of muscular imbalance between the left and the right - the muscle right at the joint is considerably larger on the right side.  He said this was probably caused by many years of distance running with things not quite in balance.

He did some Graston work on the area, which was fairly uncomfortable.  Then, he did one adjustment and I felt a lot better.  I returned to the workout, and completed three rounds of running (400 meters), front squats (7 light reps at 95#), and 14 burpee pull-ups.  I kept the intensity low and the workout didn't bother me at all.

Today, I'm sore, but I think it's mostly from the Graston work.  I'll try the workout again tonight, although we are starting with Olympic lifts.  Between my recent shoulder issues and this SI joint issue, I think I'll keep the weight really light tonight.

Tomorrow, I'm donating blood, so I'll have a good excuse for a rest day after the donation.

By Thursday, hopefully this issue will be mostly or completely resolved.  But, if not, I guess it will be a good reason for another couple visits with the chiropractor.

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