Lower back pain after shooting practice

[Lososaurus]

I can only imagine it's caused by shooting practice.

I had a beerleague and pickup game earlier this week and my back was fine. Only after a morning sticktime yesterday did my lower back really start to hurt. The main focus of the sticktime was shooting the puck( and puck protection/possession, if that matters ).

I shoot right handed, it's on my right side, a muscle around one's belt-line( just at the top or just above one's hip ) near the spine.

I've taken some ibuprofen hoping to dull the pain.

Does anyone have advice to prevent it or how to treat/deal with it?

 

[Thepandamancan]

Are you stretching/warming up properly for that? I know I can jump into a game cold if I take it easy on my first shift or two, but for something like practicing stickhandling and shooting my arms and back hurt if I don't do a little stretching before hand.

A great thing to take after a workout is something with glutamine. It helps with the muscle growth/regeneration that you feel afterward as pain/soreness. Look for this thing you can mix in your water called Everlast Recovery.

 

[savage18ss]

I can only imagine it's caused by shooting practice.

I had a beerleague and pickup game earlier this week and my back was fine. Only after a morning sticktime yesterday did my lower back really start to hurt. The main focus of the sticktime was shooting the puck( and puck protection/possession, if that matters ).

I shoot right handed, it's on my right side, a muscle around one's belt-line( just at the top or just above one's hip ) near the spine.

I've taken some ibuprofen hoping to dull the pain.

Does anyone have advice to prevent it or how to treat/deal with it?

Is this something you don't normally do? I remember the same exact pain, except on the left (left handed shot) after pick up/practice but this was when I was first starting to play and my body wasn't used to the movement. Usually lasted a day or two but it went away the more I practiced and my body got used to what was happening.

 

[Pez68]

I can only imagine it's caused by shooting practice.

I had a beerleague and pickup game earlier this week and my back was fine. Only after a morning sticktime yesterday did my lower back really start to hurt. The main focus of the sticktime was shooting the puck( and puck protection/possession, if that matters ).

I shoot right handed, it's on my right side, a muscle around one's belt-line( just at the top or just above one's hip ) near the spine.

I've taken some ibuprofen hoping to dull the pain.

Does anyone have advice to prevent it or how to treat/deal with it?

Could have pulled that muscle. I did that a few months ago, and it is EXTREMELY painful. Coughing and laughing hurt like hell.

To prevent it, you need to stretch those muscles out before shooting practice. Hip rotations, holding your stick on your waist behind you, and trying to touch your toes with the ends of the stick, are typically what you would do to stretch out those muscles.

 

[Jarick]

The general advice is dynamic stretches before activity and static stretches afterwards. I'll admit I don't do the dynamic stretches as much as I should, but for back pain I found doing back bridges (Google them) helped out quite a bit. I do get back pain after a lot of shooting too.

 

[robmneilson]

Hopefully it's not a herniated disc. I had the same symptoms which turned into numbness in my foot and muscle weakness in my right leg.

Put moist heat on your back (for only 15 minutes) and do some stretches that are good for your lower back. Stay mobile, I stayed bed ridden for a day and it pretty much just made it worse.

 

[Whiplash27]

If it doesn't go away, get it checked out. However, you should definitely do exercises to strengthen your lower back to prevent these kinds of things. Deadlifts, Hyperextentions, etc.

 

[BadHammy*]

If you're properly transferring your weight, the left side should hurt too. In fact, it should probably hurt more if you shoot RH.

 

[ponder]

If it doesn't go away, get it checked out. However, you should definitely do exercises to strengthen your lower back to prevent these kinds of things. Deadlifts, Hyperextentions, etc.

Definitely. Obviously don't do deadlifts until you feel totally healthy/healed, and if this is a serious problem definitely ask your doctor first, but deadlifts performed properly strengthen your low back like nothing else. Before I did deadlifts I'd get these little back pains every so often after hockey, but now that I regularly do deadlifts my back is strong and always feels fine.

 

[Copeland]

If you're properly transferring your weight, the left side should hurt too. In fact, it should probably hurt more if you shoot RH.

Care to expand on just *how* we should be transferring our weight? I find myself just shooting with my wrists, forearms, and back (right side), which is obviously not right but is the only way I can figure without some help...

The instructor who oversees the ball hockey games I've been going to fails at actually teaching you anything...

 

[Lososaurus]

Looks like deadlifts, seated rows and proper stretching is in my future.

 

[Kritter471]

Also make sure to stretch your hamstrings, butt and groin. All of that stuff is interconnected. I know most of my back pain when I first started skating was directly related to tight hamstrings.

 

[Lososaurus]

Also make sure to stretch your hamstrings, butt and groin. All of that stuff is interconnected. I know most of my back pain when I first started skating was directly related to tight hamstrings.

I have to admit, I didn't stretch before this practice. I usually stretch out pretty well. Figured since there wasn't a lot of heavy skating involved, big preparation wasn't all that necessary.

 

[ponder]

Looks like deadlifts, seated rows and proper stretching is in my future.

With deadlifts make sure your form is good, otherwise you'll just hurt your back more, and don't start doing them until you're sure your back is 100% fine. Deadlifts are a FANTASTIC exercise, but also super intense, and you really need to make sure you're doing them properly. A great book that really hammers home proper deadlift form (as well as proper form for bench press, standing press, squats and power cleans) is "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe, it's basically my weightlifting bible:
http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-Mark-Rippetoe/dp/0976805405

 

[Jarick]

Care to expand on just *how* we should be transferring our weight? I find myself just shooting with my wrists, forearms, and back (right side), which is obviously not right but is the only way I can figure without some help...

The instructor who oversees the ball hockey games I've been going to fails at actually teaching you anything...

 

[Whiplash27]

Thought I'd add in another point on the dead lifts.

They go a long way in developing gripping strength.

When you do dead lifts, there are two common hand grips of the barbell. One is both hands overhand grip (--X------X--)and the other is having one hand underhand grip and the other overhand ((--Y------X--) or (--X------Y--)). Please don't attempt a double underhand grip (--Y------Y--).

I would definitely recommend using the first grip for your lighter lifts. Warmups, maybe some extra sets after you've finished your heavier lifts, whatever. This will force you to use the weaker gripping variation where you can actually handle it, and will help your grip get stronger.

When you do your max lifts, definitely use the 2nd grip variation because if you don't, odds are, you won't be able to lift the bar without dropping it.


On top of that, when you do max lifts, don't try to be super man and go for high rep sets. 1 rep sets on really heavy dead lifts are perfectly fine and normal. Do higher rep sets on lower weight.