Be careful....

[Tin Soldier]

Well yesterday was the worst day of self build so far, and that’s including the day I crushed two fingers into a compound fracture.

 

after moving a 500kg hearth and 200 kg stove last week I tweaked my back carelessly  lifting a bucket of self levelling compound on Sunday... after A rogue sneeze yesterday left me in pain I ventured out to chiropractor only for back to lock In spasm getting in and out of car, the worst pain in my life.

 

i managed to hobble from car to chiro room before it completely locked

 

unable to examine me the next five hours were spent stood on one foot in exactly the same position whilst my wife and chiro tried to beg an ambulance to come.. I literally couldn’t move without pain that had me on verge of blacking out

 

they eventually and reluctantly agreed and one arrived at 2030- hours after chiro was supposed to close, another hour of gas and air and morphine and I made it onto ambulance and off to hospital where a combination of drugs eventually stopped spasm and I was released

 

im at home now but a lot of pain, all because I didn’t lift from my knees. Moral of the story is to be as careful with lighter things as you are with half ton monoliths.

 

im only 35, feel like an 80 year old

[Ferdinand]

I can't think of anything to say.

 

Ouch. And sympathy.

[Tennentslager]

Good advice...get well soon young lad?

[joe90]

Oh bugger, my sympathy, I too had a similar experience lifting a velux when out on a roof, brickies had to lift me off the roof. One of them had had a similar experience so understood. They laid me on a sheet of insulation and he got me to relax, difficult is not the word, but it worked, the spasm is driven by muscles tensing. After an hour they helped me to my van, strapped me into the seat by winding the seatbelt round me tight and I drove home. I still get a spasm now and again but find lying prone and breathing slowly does help. I found a Physio that understood deep massage and that helped a lot, chiro,s are better for joint/bone problems I believe.

[epsilonGreedy]

4 minutes ago, joe90 said:

I found a Physio that understood deep massage and that helped a lot, chiro,s are better for joint/bone problems I believe.

 

 

In a country where medical care is free at the point of delivery I have developed a great deal of respect for medical practitioners who can make a living charging for their services.

[Triassic]

There’s nothing worse than a back problem, the last time I did my back it was weeks before I was right. You have my simpathy. 

[Thedreamer]

Ouch that does not sound good. When I was 'helping' the brickie I pulled a muscle, it got worse during the morning and after lunch I came back to the site with a walking stick. We all laughed and I hobbled back up the access road with my pride in tatters, thankfully I was a bit more useful with the joiners!

 

Later found out that the dense concrete blocks I was shifting around are actually supposed to be a two man lift. 

 

Take it easy and rest up if that's possible. 

 

 

[epsilonGreedy]

27 minutes ago, Thedreamer said:

Later found out that the dense concrete blocks I was shifting around are actually supposed to be a two man lift. 

 

 

This is interesting, do you recall the weight of these blocks?

[epsilonGreedy]

1 hour ago, Tin Soldier said:

im only 35, feel like an 80 year old

 

 

This summarizes each day onsite for me, I arrive onsite feeling 20 years younger and return home limping like an oap.

 

One benefit of my relatively slow build start is that my body has had time to become conditioned for the task ahead. Those 19kg blocks feel lighter after 3 months.

[Brickie]

A good osteopath is worth their weight in gold. Mine’s £50 for half hour & it’s money well spent. 

Used to use a guy (now retired) who had been on Crystal Palace’s payroll in the 70’s. I went in one day after pulling up lifting the mixer on to the stand,in agony & very restricted movement,convinced I’d be lucky if I made it back to work in a week. He wired me up to some electrical contraption which sent signals to the area in spasm & I was back at work the next day. 

As a side effect,I’m sometimes good for WiFi .))

[joe90]

I am nearly an OAP and work every day but my tea breaks get longer and more often. Did anyone see that Ben Fogle prog last night, late 70,s guy living in the wilds, one eye, still extending his Cabin, works every hour of every day.

[ToughButterCup]

Oooowww. 

At a similar age I did a similar thing. To this day, I remember where I was at the time, what I did, and how I did it.

Staying injury free is very hard because we are so outcome-focused. 

 

If you take Cocodamol, drink lots of water.  @Hecateh will be along soon to explain why.

[jack]

You have my sympathies. I had a similar, albeit lesser, back injury during the build due to me lifting something well within my capacity at an awkward angle.

 

I'd encourage you to look beyond chiro to physio. The best ones are worth their weight in gold. Ask around people you know - athletes or builders will both know who's got the midas touch in your area.

 

I do various types of compound lifts at the gym I go to - deadlifts, squats, cleans, that sort of thing (incidentally, got an 80kg power-clean PB today ). We're regularly reminded by coaches that injuries are as - if not more - likely to come from lifting light as lifting heavy. A classic one is picking up the empty bar to put it away at the end of a session, and tweaking your back. Partly it's because you're tired from the lifting, and partly because you assume it's a light weight so you don't square up properly. I managed to re-injure my back returning from the above injury on the first swing of a light kettlebell. I don't think I fully braced, as it was only light and I was only doing a partial swing on the first one. Added another 2-3 weeks to my recovery. 

 

Anyway, all the best for a speedy recovery. As I'm sure you've been told, the best research says that moving as much as you can tolerate is preferable to complete rest at this stage.

[Onoff]

Ah yes, I remember the the tramadol / naproxen combo, bliss!

 

Had my disc go twice over the years. I remember longing for a picture rail to hang onto when I was crawling round the walls. 

 

Walking, walking and more walking keeps the issue at bay pretty much by I guess tightening the old internal "corset" muscles.

[PeterW]

yoga is good for core strength

[Cpd]

4 hours ago, Brickie said:

A good osteopath is worth their weight in gold.

Been there got the badge. Nearly six months of being pretty much bed bound with a major back injury 10 years ago. Nothing was working for me even though a visited the best back people in Sydney, had private medical and did everything right. In the end I read a great book (can’t recal it’s name.....) and it was based on a stretching protocol, this linked with serious meditation and a change of attitude made things turn in the right direction. Within six months I was back to full time stone work and have never looked back. I personally don’t  do the  bending knees thing by habit , never have unles it’s a massive stone...... but just make sure I pick things up without being twisted. This works for me but I am not advocating it as best practice. Hope you get yourself sorted out. 

[Onoff]

3 hours ago, PeterW said:

yoga is good for core strength

 

Big fan of the ginger one!

 

[jack]

2 hours ago, Cpd said:

I personally don’t  do the  bending knees thing by habit , never have unles it’s a massive stone...... but just make sure I pick things up without being twisted. This works for me but I am not advocating it as best practice. Hope you get yourself sorted out. 

 

Core bracing and a neutral spine is what's important. With a bit of training, it's possible to safely deadlift surprising weights with nearly locked out knees.

[Thedreamer]

7 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

This is interesting, do you recall the weight of these blocks?

 

The blockwork and foundations are the only part of the build that I'm not involved in for ordering materials.

 

But I believe the six inch dense concrete blocks are around 26kgs.

[Pete]

26 minutes ago, jack said:

 

Core bracing and a neutral spine is what's important. With a bit of training, it's possible to safely deadlift surprising weights with nearly locked out knees.

My knees are as bad as my back!!

[Ed Davies]

2 hours ago, Cpd said:

but just make sure I pick things up without being twisted. This works for me

 

Me too. Good advice I was given by somebody who'd done a lot of lifting in various jobs (engineering for a water company and storeman in a furniture factory), and done his back in a few times in the process, was don't lift and twist, lift then twist. I'm also a bit bad with the bend ze knees protocol but don't have too much trouble so long as I'm straight on to whatever I'm lifting.

[Onoff]

Best advice I can give is get some other idiot to lift "it"!

 

Edited September 26, 2018 by Onoff