Jefferson Curl Injury

Hello all, so I thought I'd share this little part of my journey in gymnastic strength training with the gb community hoping to get some feedback and advice.  As i write this post I am a little down today as i suffered an injury to my low back yesterday while doing jefferson curls.  Now I can see coach sommer already shaking his head with disappointment but let me give a little back story to catch everyone up on my situation.

Now.. I'm sure to get some duh comments here... but to be up front I've had some back injuries in the past few years due to training injuries and overuse.  I did crossfit about two years ago and beat down my body.  I herniated my disk about 18 mos ago and got an epidural last summer which helped with the sciatic pain and allowed me to function normally again.  I started to reevaluate why I trained, goals and I started to turn my attention to more functional fitness, kettle bell work and really trying to balance all aspects of my body - flexibility, strength, mobility, nutrition, etc.

So flashing forward a little... i learned about gb & coach Sommer from the barbell shrugged podcast about a year ago and was interested in gst.  I was also following Max Shank whom has a great well rounded program that incorporates full body strength and mobility training.  So the combination of max's program and stuff I was learning from gb videos and such I was feeling good about my direction.  I finally decided last week to officially purchase the foundation one class and even though I am progressed passed foundation one in a lot of areas.. i decided to not cut any corners and really make sure i master all the movements.  i am on the last step of each exercise.

At 46 years old, my ego has been left at the door years ago.  I just want to train to be strong healthy and feel good.  I learned about the jefferson curl from the Tim Ferris podcast with Coach Sommer.  I started to add the movement (with an empty bar) to my weekly program... 2-3 times a week.  I noticed definite improvements in my flexibility... I've always had tight hamstrings.  i also noticed i was getting more muscle on the sides of my spine.  All good things in my head.  I slowly added weight (as coach Sommer stressed) going up in increments of 5lbs every few weeks or so i was letting my body really tell me by feel when i was ready to move up. All was good for a good 3-4 months.

And yesterday is when it happened... i had progressed to 80# on the bar.... I had no pain up to this point, quite the opposite.  I reached a point in the movement where at the end range i just tried to relax and let the weight pull me down and bam... a pop.  A sharp pain in my l4-5 area and i was done.  Now, 24 hours after the injury i can walk... i can get around but I am in pain.  I feel that I will bounce back from this because of the training i have been doing and my body and core are strong.  The big question in my mind is - should I ever even touch the J-curl again.  Seems like with a history of low back pain this is just asking for trouble.  I am a bit discourage though - after all I thought I was doing everything right.  I was in no pain, i was progressing steadily.  My mobility is the best it's ever been and i was making great progress.  Now a setback.  I'm not throwing in the towel by any means but sometimes you ask yourself "what did I do wrong here?".  Should I have asked my doctor first - my doc told me to not flex my spine in any direction when this first happened.. that seems like stupid advice to me.  Maybe this is the obvious answer - you have lumbar issue ding dong don't do this move.

Anyway... if you've read this far (anyone) thanks for listening.  I am definitely going to continue with my gb training... just not sure the j curl will be part of my future training.  I would love to hear feedback and comments.

Thanks,

Scott

Hello Scott,

Thank you for your post it is appreciated here in the forum. First of all before beginning GST we strongly recommend you get your physicians permission to do so BEFORE you begin GST, this is especially the case when you have beat down your body through high rep lifting AND had an epidural. This is not a reflection a CrossFit methodology. The healthy body also responds completely differently to a body with pre-existing and extreme injury.

Moving right along...

Also I would like to say that the Jefferson Curl is NOT a maximal strength endevor and that 5lbs (like a 4 week powerlifting cycle increase) for example, is too much too soon in the case of your extreme and pre-existing injury. Micro-loading in very tiny increments is the order of the day. In your case I would have recommended starting with bodyweight (zero lbs), or PVC pipe/dowel. What is microloading (as little as 50g).

Let's talk about the Jefferson Curl movement: This is why the Jefferson Curl is not proposed with a deep relax in the bottom of the movement but continual muscular tension, the Jefferson Curl is about curling the spine and in order to do that you need to use the abdominal muscles as stabilizers.

Remember consistency and methodical patience are the core of the Gymnasticbodies philosophy.

Thank for the reply Luke.  To your point on the deep relax on the J-curl... I think i may have released a bit too much at the bottom.  I didn't start doing that until recently trying to maximize the stretch after watching the foundation video. 

I thought i was progressing appropriately based on how my body felt but as you suggest maybe a bit too aggressively.    I meeting with my chiro tomorrow so I'll discuss my situation with him and get his advice.  

Thanks again.

Since the point of discal injury is just the "tip of the iceberg" of accumulated stress over time, the question is also what things you do otherwise at the gym or in your everyday life that places load on the discs? Make a list and try to get a sense of all the disc-loading positions you expose it to (lifting, sitting, etc), and if/when you decide to do Jefferson Curls again, see if there are other things to decrease or add more rest/space between other than just minimizing the load in the exercise.

Hi Scott,

You listened, but you missed an essential detail - patience!  Moving from the empty bar to 80lbs in only 2-3 months is much too fast.  Remember that connnective tissue needs 200-210 days to recycle.  And this is only the first cycle of adaptation.

Your time frame should have been much closer to 12 months for you to reach 80lbs.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Got it Coach, Thanks!

As a reference, I moved from broomstick a couple of years ago to 38kg(around 80lbs) today. Back feels great.

thanks for the feedback Tobias. i need to take it real slow when i get back to it.

@Scott Siegel 115428 How is your back now?

On 11/9/2016 at 11:21 AM, Luke Searra said:

Hello Scott,

Thank you for your post it is appreciated here in the forum. First of all before beginning GST we strongly recommend you get your physicians permission to do so BEFORE you begin GST, this is especially the case when you have beat down your body through high rep lifting AND had an epidural. This is not a reflection a CrossFit methodology. The healthy body also responds completely differently to a body with pre-existing and extreme injury.

Moving right along...

Also I would like to say that the Jefferson Curl is NOT a maximal strength endevor and that 5lbs (like a 4 week powerlifting cycle increase) for example, is too much too soon in the case of your extreme and pre-existing injury. Micro-loading in very tiny increments is the order of the day. In your case I would have recommended starting with bodyweight (zero lbs), or PVC pipe/dowel. What is microloading (as little as 50g).

Let's talk about the Jefferson Curl movement: This is why the Jefferson Curl is not proposed with a deep relax in the bottom of the movement but continual muscular tension, the Jefferson Curl is about curling the spine and in order to do that you need to use the abdominal muscles as stabilizers.

Remember consistency and methodical patience are the core of the Gymnasticbodies philosophy.

 

Adding to the above... go to a chiropractor to make sure your spine is as straight as it is supposed to be.  Expect to be sore after the appointment.