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Strange back pain, pole taking its toll?
Hey everyone I was wondering if any of you had any advise or experience of this. I’m a pole fitness instructor and teach around 5 days a week Iv been doing so for around 4 years. Iv been lucky not to get any injuries other than the odd pulled muscle now and then, but I’m careful to stretch off before and after class. A few months ago I started getting a minor pain in my lower back which spreads to the right ( near the kidney) when I was in bed at night. This slowly got worse until I’m at a point now where I go to bed and I’m awoken after 4 hours sleep with excruciating lower back pain and lower right side. here’s the weird thing, if I sit up or get up and walk around it eases off and dissapears after half an hour. It doesn’t bother me during the day at all. So I thought perhaps it was my mattress, iv changed it and got a memory foam one… No difference. Iv had my kidneys checked for infection… No infection so it’s definatly back pain. Docs seem unsure why I get this when I lay down so my next stop is the physio for answers. Unfortunately I need to wait till I have spare cash to go see one ( have had no money over the festive period) so I’m looking at at least another few weeks of unbearable pain in bed till I start making money again. Can anyone shed any light on what it might be? Or any tips to relieve it other than having to sit up or walk
About. As you can guess this isn’t feasible at 4am when all I want to do is get a good nights sleep. My sleeping pattern is all over the place because of it 🙁 I’m pretty sure it must have something to do with pole but what??? And how to avoid it in future. 🙁 xx -
24 Replies
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Hey there, I am acing something similar from adding aerial silks to my hobbies. My hands are fine when I'm using them, but when I sleep, I wake up with all 4 fingers on each hand frozen and I have to bend each finger one at a time to get them working. After that, they work fine again?
I went to the physio today and these are some of the things I'm checking. Firstly, in my fingers we think its tendons, not muscles. Maybe yours is similar? She is also checking if I have any indicators for rheumatoid arthritis or osteosarthritis. Lastly I'm going to start taking Omega-3, Glucosamine and calcium-magnesium…
Good luck, I hope you find the solution
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This kind of reminds me of an issue a friend of mine had. He was also experiencing the problem at night and was diagnosed with lumbago. I think he was told to strenghten the back muscles, but as a pole practiser I guess you must already have a strong back. My friend got it from a bad lift but actually these problems can turn up without any specific (or known) cause, so if you have the same thing it does not necessarely have to do with your poling.
Well, I don't want to speculate too much since I'm not a doctor, but I hope you can see one soon and that you'll get rid of this pain!
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A lot of folk have said ” maybe your back isn’t strong enough” or “it’s seizing up in the night” but yeh iv been doing pole for near enough 8 years and teaching for 4 you’d think my back would be super strong? God knows! Felt twinges of pain when I was walking around today too which is new, this has to mean its getting worse I never used to feel any pain in an upright position before 🙁
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I have no idea, but I'm sorry. 🙁 Have you seen a chiropractor? I can't imagine never getting adjusted, mine has helped me tremendously with my back issues.
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Try this out: Stand up straight. Lean forward. Then lean back. Then lean to the left. Then lean to the right. Do you feel a pain doing ANY of those leans???
When I strained a ligament in my back years ago, I couldn't lean to the left, it hurt soooo bad! My lower back would ache soooo bad, sending aches down my butt into my leg and knee. It would get worse at night.
Just a thought. Might not be it, but it is worth a shot.
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btw, if you strained it, I'd contact a physical therapist.
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Hey just tried that definate aching pain in my lower back and shooting towards the right when I lean back. What do you think this means? Xx
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Could be a number of things honestly. You could have a strain like I mentioned. You could also have a pinched nerve/ herniated disk. Go back to you doctor and tell them what you have discovered. This is important!!! You need xrays done to rule out a herniated disk. Physical therapy is in order.
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Jesus I hope it’s not, I can’t afford not to teach pole I own a studio, it’s my life!! I don’t do anything else, docs appointment on tues, ( although here in the uk ill prob be sent away with a box of ibuprofen and told to rest! our health care system can be shocking at times, I’d practically have to have a leg hanging off to warrant an x ray) physio needs to wait week or two till I have money to
Pay for sessions, don’t have any just now gaaaaaaa -
Be persistent! Tell them you WANT an xray! You need to know what is going on. They can't know for sure without an xray. At this point, even if you did have a herniated disk, you don't sound like you are bad enough to warrant surgery, so they would still send you to physical therapy. My sister had back surgery when she got to the point to where she couldn't walk she was hurting so bad. (I think she was 32 at the time, but I am not positive.) Best case scenario though, is that you strained a ligament, like I did. It does suck though, cuz I strained mine 6 years ago and I still get flare ups of irritation in my back. It took at least a year for my back to heal enough for me to not be in pain every night, but I still had back aching every once in a while. With a strain, you should still be able to teach, but you just have to modify the movements. I had to do that when I was bellydancing. I couldn't do deep side bend movements.
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Fingers crossed its a strain and not anything more serious, I’ll definatley insist on an x ray but don’t hold out much hope. One person suggested it could be a strain due to imbalance on my right side ( I have a very bad habit of using my left to invert as im left dominant in poleand know I should try and use my right more) may have weakened the right lower side of my back perhaps.
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Definitley follow up with a therapist and/or physician but a few suggestions to try in the mean time:
Vitamins …as MichelleH mentioned…Triple Flex with MSM (that's a glucosamine – Chodroitin complext) plus Omega 3-6-9, plus Tumeric.
Also try sleeping with a pillow between your knees to straighten out your back alignment (or under your knees if you sleep on your back) as this is a big culprit of back pain developed during sleep.
Additionally some back pain is redirected from hip injuries or imbalances.
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I second sleeping with the body pillow. I have 2 (one for either side of my body.) 🙂
It is a good idea to even yourself out strength-wise too.
Look at your hips in the mirror while you stand in neutral position. Are your hip bones level? or is one higher than the other? When I strained my back, the muscles in my back compensated by tensing and ended up raising my left hip slightly. The physical therapist worked to level them out again. Now my left soulder is slightly higher than the other one (and shortenened) from sitting all the time, so I get headaches all the time. Imbalances are AWFUL on your body.
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I had/have something similar..if I'm understanding your description. I have been training with free weight for over 10 yrs. This pain was an issue that just popped up while very pregnant with baby #3. Has been an ongoing issue ever since. I have found something that worked for me though!! Oh I had my kidneys ect check and it's all good.
I started focusing on conditioning my core including the muscles along the spine. By conditioning, I mean focusing on the smaller sometimes under used, muscle groups. mulifidus ect.
I pay close attention now to maintaining a neutral position of my pelvis.
I started working on my back mobility (helps sooo much)
I bought a new bed.
If I stop paying attention to my posture spine and pelvis and stop doing my conditioning work it comes back!
My favorite exercise is hard to describe (I hate typing out instruction) so if you would like I can meet you in chat sometime and show you what I do.
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Thanks everyone for the advice, that hip bone alignment sounds crazy iv never noticed one higher than the other ill have a good look tonight! Veena that sounds interesting I don’t have a webcam on my laptop though x
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Ok guys so I saw the physio today it is muscle imbalances due to me using one side mostly over the other when poling! They discovered when I stand up I tilt slightly to the left side, my left shoulder is also higher as is my right hip bone, this causing lower back pain on my right side! Pretty annoyed at myself for relying heavily on my left side too much! I will be retraining on my right side from now on to try and balance things out and will be making sure my students do this more too! Just realise how important it is to perform moves and get them strong in both sides .
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That's some important information you are giving us! I'm glad to hear it wasn't anything more serious than that!
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Glad you found out what it was. I'm also glad it wasn't anything like a strain or disk herniation.
I'm all lopsided too (from leaning to the side in my desk in school for years) so now my left shoulder is pulled in significantly (and it triggers MAJOR migraines!!!)
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Think it is pretty important just shows you how easily it is to cause all sorts of problems using one side over the other, it’s gonna be hard to train on my right side especially for inverts! I’m not very good at them on that side but it will be a new challenge! X
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Think it is pretty important just shows you how easily it is to cause all sorts of problems using one side over the other, it’s gonna be hard to train on my right side especially for inverts! I’m not very good at them on that side but it will be a new challenge! X
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This thread has motivated me to invert on my non-dominant side more often. I think I'll spend my entire next few advanced classes demonstrating the tricks only on my non-dominant side. Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
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Glad you had it looked at amber.
Its a good idea englann! Pretty sure my pain was caused by carrying my kids on the same side. I didn't have a pole back then! I don't do everything on both sides but most things. The exercise I mentioned help tremendously.
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I have had the worst of back pians you could imagine. Mone was on the left side though. I had to knock the door on four places to fix it. So I don't know which one fixed it. First point of call was a chiropractor who did some adjustments, then a podiatrist who told me I ws lopsided and gave a inner sole for my shoes to make sure that my weight is balanced evenly on my feet, then a myotherapist who massaged the guts out of my back like he would do on horses he'd treat, finally, and most importantly I came across a Bowen Therapist. I never had heard about it before too. But he fixed me up by the fourth or fifth session just as he promised. My excruciating pain made me a beliver in god. I turned up at the church where he is an elder or something. Then he performed a healing session on me too. Something fixed me. He asked me to stop driving the manual car I loved. He askd me to dring lots of wter less of caffeine and asked me to drink the Glucosamine Condroition 1000 mg with an Orange each day, he also asked me not balance in one foot while wearing pants. All of these fixed me. I'm good now. If you do not have Bowen Therapy in USA come to Australia. You would be amazed at results. You got to trust somebody one day. Just like I trusted him when I could not sit, stand or walk without the excruciating pain I had with sciatica. This guy is amazing. Just trust me. May be all Bowen Therapists are. But I just know him. Ever since I have been sharing my story with anyone. Since I believe that god put that pain on my back and somehow showed me the way to get it cured and showed me how to give up PRIDE. OK. I will stop now. Good Luck if you think I am NUTS.
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For me, and apparently others on here, the lopsidedness comes from using mucles more on one side than the other. A physical therapist is really great in that scenario. I am going right now and they are evening me out. I was literally not engaging on my left side, and I was recruiting muscles all over the place. I am now working on engaging my left, strengthening muscles where I am weak so I don't recruit, and stretching tight muscles that are over active. This has started to decrease the intensity and duration of my headaches. They used to be so bad they were puke status, and they'd last 24 hours at least. Now they last 1/2 a day or less and they are not as intense. I haven't barfed from a headache in months. I still have a ways to go, but this is an awesome start!
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