FORUMS > Injury & Prevention Forum Rules

If you don't want to read the story, skip to the last paragraph now.

Thanks to the advice of RJ and its members, I only work out three times a week and work out what is appropriate for my body type and calorie-intake (which sucks), trying not to overdo anything.

However yesterday, my workout buddy suggested we do an abdominal exercise using an 8 kg (16 lbs) medicine ball and a decline crunch bench.

This Godforsaken exercise involved him throwing the ball at me while I was upright on the bench, me catching it and using the momentum to go downwards, then crunching back up and tossing it back at him. He also varied the exercise by tossing it to my sides targeting the obliques.

Ever since, I have experienced a pain in my lower back, (an inch or two above my butt crack). I assume that I had bad form and the weight was too much. It was unwise of me to go ahead with the exercise without really knowing what I was doing, but "the damage is done".

Long story short: How does one know whether the pain they feel is of muscle soreness or because of an actual strain/injury ? What kind of doctor should I see for this problem if the pain persists ? Thanks.

You answered most of your question in the last sentence. If the pain persists then it is more than a sore muscle. A sports medicine specialist is best but failing that you can start with a GP and go from there.

(The GP will call it lower back strain, tell you to take it easy and prescribe some presciption stregth ibuprofen or ocaissionally valium, also an anti-inflammatory.)

The GP it is then .

I guess I just fear progressively hurting my back over time due to bad form and ending up like one of those guys are limited at the gym because of their injuries, hence wanting to know know when I've screwed up vs when it's just the lactic acid screaming. Back problems run on my father's side of the family, I'll take your advice on talking to the sports medicine guru.

And the pain has subsided for the most part as of this post.