Kettlebell Kettlebells and scoliosis

[PaulAtreides]

I realize this is a delicate question, but here I go:

In april, I carried a huge printer up a couple of flights of stairs and ever since have had Issues with my right lower back and pain running down to my right foot. My General practicioner sent me to physio-therapy, which didn't to jack s***, so I quit that. I decided to wait, train maintaining a healthy posture (as described in superjoints or beyond stretching), and different kinds of glute/back/hamstring stretches almost daily. this helped tremendously. Now that I've started strength training again, things have improved even further, to the point where it isn't even noticeable 99% of the time.

But 1% remains, so I decided to get X-rays for the entire spine and hip and dig deeper, before I resume my BJJ practice and start doing Deadlifts and heavy KB work.
I went to see an orthopaedist today, we looked at the X-rays and went through some tests.

Turns out I have mild scoliosis with a slight torsion in my spine, resulting in a tendency to overload the right side of my lumbar spine, which in turn results in a hardened right Piriformis and an occasional pinching of the right outer sciatic nerve. No bone issues, no joint issues, disks are also fine, and legs have equal lengths.

My current Stats
Height: 173cm
BW: 76kg @ 15.5% fat
Pull Ups: 15-20 reps at bodyweight, 4+ with 25kg added
Barbell OHP: 1rm ~55kg
KB OHP: 1rm +32kg
Deadlift: 1rm ~100kg

Doctor's advice:
Avoid activities and exercises with lots of rounded back work (he mentioned "rowing"), torsion ("judo throws, wrestling" ), and heavy loads on the spine in general ("weightlifting, deadlifts" ).

My question:
Now I'm wondering if unilateral exercises, such as KB OHP, KB Loaded carries (as taught by Gray Cook ), and Suitcase DLs would be ok and/or until what weight they would be OK in my case?

 

[Kettlebelephant]

Doctor's advice:
Avoid activities and exercises with lots of rounded back work (he mentioned "rowing"), torsion ("judo throws, wrestling" ), and heavy loads on the spine in general ("weightlifting, deadlifts" ).

I have a mild scoliosis aswell (a mild kyphosis, too) and my PT actually adviced me to lift heavy.
So my advice would be to get a second opinion from an orthopaedist who specializes in sports injuries/athletes.

Also somebody will definitely mention Lamar Gant in this thread

 

[PaulAtreides]

get a second opinion from an orthopaedist who specializes in sports injuries/athletes.

Also somebody will definitely mention Lamar Gant in this thread

The great, not so tall, but still great Lamar Gant.
I've read about that guy and his scoliosis before I even suspected I had any.

I agree. My guy was a professor, specialising in hip in lumbar Orthopedics. the additional advice he gave me (which I haven't mentioned up to now) seemed to be bogus, for example he recommended I run (the first time I had sciatic pains was when I took up jogging right before the "printer accident", NO THANKS prof!) and do soccer and other stuff that involves high impacts which he actually labelled "low impact".
I'm very critical of modern academia but I would have thought a professor of hip orthopaedics knew better than that... it's almost like an IT professor who's never heard of Laptop computers.

But then again, professional idiocy comes in all shapes and sizes, and in all fields.

Thanks for the advice: I'll try to find a sports Orthopaedics/medicine guy and get his opinion next.

 

[Paul Nathan]

I have found that medical providers with a sports focus have a different way of thinking about health and improving it. They aren't so much for healing via sophaticated couch potato'ing.

Your milage will vary, but I've had good enough experiences with sport medicine pros that for sport injuries, I will avoid non specialists.

 

[Snowman]

I'm sure the doc has his area of expertise that he kicks butt in, but obviously it's not exercise related. Most docs without specific training or experience with with sports medicine (which is most docs) just end up re-stating "common knowledge" in a way that sounds more educated. In this case, "running is always a safe exercise, and lifting heavy things is dangerous." Plenty of folks with back pain will tell you that running lights them up, and learning to tighten their trunk while lifting heavy dramatically reduced their pain by re-training the trunk muscles.

Get a second opinion from someone whose opinion means something. Don't take medical advice from the internet

 

[offwidth]

Worth their weight in gold, and difficult to find, but if you can get a sports medicine doctor that actually trains, lifts, or is active in some sport.

 

[PaulAtreides]

Thanks for your inputs, everyone.

I think it's unanimous: My Doctor's diagnose is almost useless, and I need to seek an MD specialized in and/or practising sport, preferably weightlifting or a contact sport to remotely understand my queries.
Also, don't take medical advice from the internet.

They aren't so much for healing via sophisticated couch potato'ing.

I'm totally taking that into my vocabulary, a perfect and concise description of 99% of the doctors I've encountered xD

 

[Im out]

Bar hangs ?

 

[PaulAtreides]

Bar hangs ?

All of my hanging work (pull-ups, chins, ring dips), which makes up about 2/3 of my training seems to have helped my recovery a lot.

I tried 30-60sec Passive bar hangs when the pain was (more) acute. They felt good for the spine overall but didn't have any noticeable effect on the specific pains at that time.

 

[GeoffreyLevens]

I have a mild scoliosis aswell (a mild kyphosis, too) and my PT actually adviced me to lift heavy.
So my advice would be to get a second opinion from an orthopaedist who specializes in sports injuries/athletes.

I've had by far best results w/ PT's and ortho's by getting referral from nearest big college/university sports coaches. Or if there's a pro team of some sort near you, see if they are willing to share name(s). Those practitioners are all about helping athletes stay in the game.