I'm a 40 year old male who has had back
problems for about 12 years now. I have a
very physical job lifting approx
45,000lb/day, 25 -50lb at a time, 10-12hrs
a day. I originally injured my lower back
and was sent to re-hab for about 6 months
and overcame most of the problems. Then
re-injured it twice more over the years,
(same type of re-hab), one was as serious
as the first and the last time wasn't as
bad. I still feel pain in back on the
right side between the hip bone "bump" and
the gluteus.
I stretch hamstrings, at least 3 sets of
5, 1 minute to a side, a day, morning,
lunch, evening, and then some extras
thrown in there when I feel them getting
tight. I also do trunk rotations, (lay
down, bend knees, throw them to one side
and arms the other way, hold one arm at
elbow for a better stretch, 2 sets of 5 ,
1 minute or longer each). Also, a back
stretch,(lay down, pull legs to chest and
hold 1 minute, 2 sets of 5). I do the low
back trunk stability exercise 2 sets of
10 ,(the one where you get on hands and
knees and lift one leg and the opposite
arm hold for 5 secs). After doing a set
each of the above, I sometimes still have
6 inches to go when I bend over and try to
touch the floor, (i'm 6'2" by the way).
I just took a week off work, and by the
end of this period I was feeling only
about 10% of the pain that I feel when I
was working. Obviously, if I got a
different job the problem would probably
go away completely over a short period of
time, but I like what I do and the pay is
great compared to most jobs in this area.
Still, I think about getting a new job ,
selling the house so I can afford to live,
etc.
The one thing I have learned after all
these years is that my hamstrings seem to
be the cause of the pain I feel in my
lower back on a daily basis. If I keep
working and don't do a couple hamstring
stretches every hour, (that adds 40
minutes to my already long day), I get
what I call a micro injury, makes that
spot in my hip/back hurt worse.
I think that I already do enough
stretches on the hamstrings, to the point
they get sore quite often, so I don't know
how to improve them any more than they
already are..
Maybe they are getting overly exhausted
and if I could build some muscle there it
would help?
Is there any hope of making my hamstrings
longer yet?
I really don't know what to try next.
I'm hoping to find a fix for this here,
because i've asked lots of doctors already
and they keep telling me to get a
different job!
Any help on this problem would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
mike
