Glute / Sciatica / Piriformis injury, unable to squat or deadlift heavy

[Annihilation]

I have had this glute injury for the past 6 months. Basically I can't do any lower body lifts like squats, deadlifts, any variations of those, etc. Pain can also occur when I try to do barbell rows or good mornings or good morning type positions. When doing the squat or deadlift, there is pain throughout the entire lift, but the pain exponentially increases as I go towards lockout on the squat or deadlift. The pain also exponentially increases when I am warming up. For example, 60 feel nothing, 100 some discomfort, 140 pain, 160+ serious pain.

I have gone to my doctor and had a ct scan on my lumbar spine the results are:
L4/5 disc shows reduced height and a right parasagittal dorsal protrusion mildly compressing the thecal sac.
L5/S1 disc shows a right parasagittal dorsal disc bulge and a disc osteophyte superior S1 endplate is seen to contact the right S1 nerve.
Conclusion:
Right parasagittal L4/5 disc protrusion contacts the right L5 nerve and a disc osteophyte the right S1 nerve.

He is telling me the bulged disc is causing sciatica. But I only have the pain in the glutes, not down my leg or anything.
Next step he says is a steroid injection into the spinal nerve. After that is surgery which would be a last resort for me.


Went to the physio and done stretches which hasn't helped with the pain. There is no pain or discomfort at all when I run, sprint, hill sprint, jump, jump rope, etc.
I am trying to work out what it is, piriformis syndrome is another possibility. I have been stretching, foam rolling, rolling with a lacrosse ball. There has been no results.


Front squats don't seem to cause as much pain but I only go up to around 150kg.

If anyone has had something similar, id be grateful if you could let me know how to fix it, cheers.

 

[Fadi]

I have had this glute injury for the past 6 months. Basically I can't do any lower body lifts like squats, deadlifts, any variations of those, etc. Pain can also occur when I try to do barbell rows or good mornings or good morning type positions. When doing the squat or deadlift, there is pain throughout the entire lift, but the pain exponentially increases as I go towards lockout on the squat or deadlift. The pain also exponentially increases when I am warming up. For example, 60 feel nothing, 100 some discomfort, 140 pain, 160+ serious pain.

I have gone to my doctor and had a ct scan on my lumbar spine the results are:
L4/5 disc shows reduced height and a right parasagittal dorsal protrusion mildly compressing the thecal sac.
L5/S1 disc shows a right parasagittal dorsal disc bulge and a disc osteophyte superior S1 endplate is seen to contact the right S1 nerve.
Conclusion:
Right parasagittal L4/5 disc protrusion contacts the right L5 nerve and a disc osteophyte the right S1 nerve.

He is telling me the bulged disc is causing sciatica. But I only have the pain in the glutes, not down my leg or anything.
Next step he says is a steroid injection into the spinal nerve. After that is surgery which would be a last resort for me.


Went to the physio and done stretches which hasn't helped with the pain. There is no pain or discomfort at all when I run, sprint, hill sprint, jump, jump rope, etc.
I am trying to work out what it is, piriformis syndrome is another possibility. I have been stretching, foam rolling, rolling with a lacrosse ball. There has been no results.


Front squats don't seem to cause as much pain but I only go up to around 150kg.

If anyone has had something similar, id be grateful if you could let me know how to fix it, cheers.

I'm a bit surprised you can even go up to 150kg in the front squat. Granted there's less emphasis placed on the gluteus whilst front squatting, but still, the gluteus are not totally exempt from contributing a certain percentage to the force applied during that lift.

Moving on, my recommendation to you during this difficult time is as follows: aim your focus on maximally stimulating your muscle fibers through the metabolic stress pathway, or cellular fatigue if you like. You do this by pushing your muscle fibers to their metabolic limits through performing some high rep sets of between 25 to 50, reaching muscular failure, and waking up the giant we're all interested in; your type II white fast twitch high threshold muscle fibers.

Basically, what I have done was to offer you a different path that would lead to the same destination had you been uninjured. The other pathway would have been the maximum stimulation of your muscle fibers through some muscle tension overload, leading to some deep muscle fiber damage, leading or signaling muscle growth. That overload path is out of bounds for you until you recover from your injuries, which the high rep metabolic stress pathway would help you with (due to the amazing blood supply they'd have to offer all your tissues, muscles and joints and all in between).

Hope you have a speedy recovery Champ. Take care now...

 

[Annihilation]

I'm a bit surprised you can even go up to 150kg in the front squat. Granted there's less emphasis placed on the gluteus whilst front squatting, but still, the gluteus are not totally exempt from contributing a certain percentage to the force applied during that lift.

Moving on, my recommendation to you during this difficult time is as follows: aim your focus on maximally stimulating your muscle fibers through the metabolic stress pathway, or cellular fatigue if you like. You do this by pushing your muscle fibers to their metabolic limits through performing some high rep sets of between 25 to 50, reaching muscular failure, and waking up the giant we're all interested in; your type II white fast twitch high threshold muscle fibers.

Basically, what I have done was to offer you a different path that would lead to the same destination had you been uninjured. The other pathway would have been the maximum stimulation of your muscle fibers through some muscle tension overload, leading to some deep muscle fiber damage, leading or signaling muscle growth. That overload path is out of bounds for you until you recover from your injuries, which the high rep metabolic stress pathway would help you with (due to the amazing blood supply they'd have to offer all your tissues, muscles and joints and all in between).

Hope you have a speedy recovery Champ. Take care now...

Thanks Fadi, I will take it on board. I have been doing up to around 20 rep sets on good mornings and light deadlifts to get the blood flowing. Will up it to 25-50 to see if it helps.

 

[taurus]

That's nerve pain mate. You need to rest, not be doing 25 rep sets. Swimming and stretching at the most.
Check my back op thread mate. Mine started with BAD sciatic pain too. I had two herniated and fragmented discs at l5/s1