Dealing with a bad abdominal strain. Anyone else had this experience?

[nikamelodia]

Im a 44yo M who’s very active. 6 months ago I felt a “pop” in me lower abs doing ab wheel. This wasn’t the first time, and each prior time it’s been 4-6 weeks of soreness before it’s gone. This time the pain is persisting, and it’s getting old! Thought it might be a hernia, so I got an MRI and it’s not. I just finished 50 days of bpc157 and tb500, and it didn’t heal. Granted I have been going to Jiu Jitsu, which hasn’t been helping, but I need my goddamn therapy!

Anyone else deal with a stubborn abdominal injury like this??

 

[mehr]

@nikamelodia Yes, rest is the only way. It will keep happening until you improve your core strength. I understand you were doing core exercises when it happened, that’s when it usually happens to me. Usually when I’m doing a core exercise I don’t do often or push my core too hard. But getting more well rounded core, working up slowly with a variety of core exercises seems to have helped.

 

[nikamelodia]

@mehr Yeah I don’t like rest.. of course you’re right.

 

[unbridledwild]

@nikamelodia Injuries will persist without rest. The injury is recurring because of something you’re doing (or not doing), either in training or outside of it. This is worth a talk with a physical therapist, assuming you haven’t already.

 

[nikamelodia]

@unbridledwild Just scheduled with a sports medicine doctor, I have a feeling PT is coming

 

[afraidoftheend]

@nikamelodia Rest, rest, rest. For me it takes a week or two of rest after a strain, and then if I still have chronic pain, I do only one set of high reps(not to failure) on the problem muscle, and that pushes out the chronic pain, and is good to resume regular workouts.

It sounds like you are getting hardly any rest.

 

[nikamelodia]

@afraidoftheend I don’t disagree but this has been an issue for 6 months, I’ve rested. The strain or tear just isn’t healing. It’ll start to feel better, then I sneeze and I realize it’s still there. I just took another two weeks off Jiu Jitsu, it was feeling a bit better, after one class I feel like I’m at square one. Really frustrating

 

[afraidoftheend]

@nikamelodia That does sound frustrating. I had a similar issue with the inner part of one collarbone caused by weighted dips. Practically any arm movement aggravated it so it never got true rest, but the pain and inflammation did gradually go away finally.

 

[thatwhichwas]

@nikamelodia Dang thats me. 6 months no healing. I think I have a sports hernia. May see Dr Meyer in Philadelphia

 

[nikamelodia]

@thatwhichwas Yeah I got official diagnosis of a sports hernia a few months ago. Doc said give it another 6 months it is getting better w use of peptides and PT, but not completely healing

 

[thatwhichwas]

@nikamelodia wow this heals insanely slow.. Ugh.. Good luck

 

[orlandosickelectro]

@nikamelodia Update please

 

[nikamelodia]

@orlandosickelectro I was tentatively diagnosed with a sports hernia by a sports medicine doctor. He explained these are fairly common, and take a long time to heal. The pain and weakness has not improved. Even with the consistent use of peptides, stretching and planks the weakness is still there. There is a surgery option, but it’s not as cut and dry as a real hernia. If it’s not better by July I’m going to look into that.

 

[intothevoid]

@nikamelodia I'm wondering if that's what I have. I've lost 22 lbs in the last 7 weeks because my appetite left. I have a tight feeling in my upper abs and spasms in my left ab that are very painful. Ultrasound, labs, X-ray, and endoscopy are all normal. Getting a CT next. This is the most debilitating thing I've dealt with. I can't even lift my arms without ab pain.

 

[nikamelodia]

@intothevoid My initial MRI didn’t show anything. My sports medicine doc has tentatively diagnosed this as a sports hernia. In July I’m getting a specific type of “layered” MRI that can see it. A year later I’m definitely improved, but not better.

 

[intothevoid]

@nikamelodia Omg I just drank some water and it went down the wrong pipe and I coughed twice and almost fainted from the pain. It felt like my abs were ripping in half.

 

[clease28]

@nikamelodia Have you tried TCM? Idk how they do what they do but they can find out which part of the body is blocked or injured just by taking the pulse, lol. I usually go there for sprains and they have their methods of identifying and treating the injured part.

I'm guessing maybe you tore something when doing that exercise and it's still taking time to heal. Taking some herbal medicine may help to accelerate the process or reduce pain while your body is healing.

 

[nikamelodia]

@clease28 I have thought about acupuncture, probably a good suggestion.

 

[clease28]

@nikamelodia Doesn't hurt to try, if the pain keeps persisting, it's probably a good idea to get it checked out by more people and do something more about it.

 

[davis32123]

@nikamelodia Sure you don’t have a hernia?