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I can commiserate… One time I fucked up my back by picking up a loaf of bread. I had just worked an extremely heavy shift at work. Slinging +200 pound pieces of gear overhead, lots of bending and crawling around, etc… I was gross after work. Climbed into my car, toweled off with some baby wipes, and headed to the grocery store on my way home. I just needed milk and bread.
So I make a beeline to the dairy section and grab the milk first, then swing by the bread aisle on my way to the registers. I bend over to grab the bread from the bottom shelf… And I feel a twinge in my lower back. Just a small little tug. I stand back up, and start heading to the registers. As I continue, the twinge gets worse and worse. I didn’t even make it to the registers. I quickly found myself wishing I had grabbed a cart, because I needed a walker to stay upright. I had to abandon the milk and bread in the middle of the store, and slowly hobble back out to my car.
That was on a Friday evening, and naturally my doctor didn’t have any appointments available until Monday. So I suffered all weekend. Monday finally rolls around, and the doc basically goes “oh lol yeah that just happens sometimes. Have you tried taking any ibuprofen?” Uhh excuse me. What the fuck do you mean that just happens? Can we make it not happen?
He says it is extremely common for industrial athletes to injure themselves after work. During work, they’re careful enough to not injure themselves. They’re warmed up, they do team lifts, they’re careful to use proper lifting form, etc… Then they get into their car, drive home, cool down during the drive, and then get injured by something stupid and small (like picking up a loaf of bread, or bending over the sink) because their cold joints basically go “nah I already worked enough today. I’m just gonna rip instead of stretching.”
I was out of commission for a solid two weeks, all because of that loaf of bread. That was about a decade ago, and my back still gives me issues occasionally.
If my doctor said it's extremely common for industrial athletes to injure themselves after work when I pulled my back out getting a loaf of bread I might well have killed them even with my back out.
If you have a issue with your back that's serious enough you can put it out getting a loaf of bread it's not that you weren't being careful enough, or didn't stretch first. You probably injured it at work and just finished it off at the grocery store.
I was working at a office supply store. The inventory manager did an all hands they decided they were going to restructure the warehouse storage. We were moving a wall of filing cabinets in the back to a different wall. They weren't incredibly heavy but they were very bulky and we were stacking them on top of each other. Essentially lifting a four-drawer filing cabinet and setting it across the room on top of another four-drawer filing cabinet. Like many times in my young life someone said "wow you're really moving stuff above your class, I didn't take you for being that strong" and that was all I needed to push myself way past the limit. I left there feeling great. I stoped by my old job to hang out with some friends went in the back to help him clean up, finished my back off just lightly sweeping, next thing I know I'm laying on the ground barely able to breathe. That was 33 years ago. I've been put out of commission by that same exact injury on my back probably a dozen times since then, once by sneezing while sitting. I learned about 15 years ago that if I fuck it up bad enough, the disc leaks and the fluid erodes nerves downstream which gives me radiating pain which puts me out of commission for a few days to a week.
Quick tip though, since COVID-19 it is possible to get a telehealth visit while your back is out. They'll usually make you show them how you have to get up off the floor, and they'll generally issue you something to at least alleviate enough of the pain to let you get up and down. They're generally apprehensive to give you serious narcotics, but they'll generally at least give you a reasonable muscle relaxer.