All-Star Lower Back Pain Anyone?

I would suggest you take her to see a physical therapist. She may have some core weakness and they can help you with that.

It could be a stress fracture? I had a stress facture in my lower lumbar spine when I was younger and what you are describing sounds similar to my situation/symptoms.

That sounds like what happened to me. I had x-rays done and an MRI and there was no structural bone damage. I've been going to a physical therapist and that has been helping! They said I have a sprain and that I had hyper-something. Basically everytime I tumble or arch my back, I recause the injury.

I had a stress fracture in my lower back, and this sounds exactly like what had happened to me. Keep the least amount of pressure on it as possible. be very careful, get her on some Advil. Make sure she halts all activity that even remotely hurts her (I didn't, and it got significantly worse.) This is HUGE.... I cannot stress how important stopping activity is. As horrible as she may feel about not being able to participate in practice and comps, it only will aggravate the area and cause more pain to her - ultimately making the situation worse. Which means MORE time to heal (not fun.) she will most likely have to wear a back brace for around 3 months or so - which helped me A TON. (try decorating it with stickers and such when you get it - it might make her feel less angry about the whole situation, and keeps the "pity" stares down to a minimum.) when she gets off of the brace, contact a phy. therapist because her core will be very weak, and will not be able to handle tumbling and cheerleading maneuvers if it is not strengthened. Make sure she is faithful with her core strengthening, because that is the key to this all. If she stops conditioning, it is setting her up for the situation to happen again.... but for now PLEASE make her stop tumbling and cheering on it.... it reallyyyy hurts and makes it worse in the long run!

Also, in the meantime, I bought a cheep back brace from target, which honestly didnt help that much... it needs to be plastic and hard, not like the flexible ones that are sold in stores. So the next best piece of advise would be to purchase the icy-hot patches that wrap around the Lumbar/lower back area. It relieves some of the immediate pain. Look up lumbar stress fracture and check with her to see if she is experiancing any of the symptoms...

I wish you the best of luck and a quick and full recovery!

Thanks so much for all the advice! I was afraid it might be something more serious. I'll definitely do some of the things you all suggested.

I recommend a physical therapist as well. Particularly if the Xrays don't show anything..

When I hurt my back, it was due to lack of core strength and lifting with my back instead of legs. I had the weakest stunt group, and I was over-compensating for their lack of strength. All came to a head at states.. My back muscles contracted, locked, and wouldn't release. I collapsed basically in a sort-of 'C' shape on the floor. SUPER painful..the trainer basically told me my back muscles were wrenching away from my spine. It doesn't help that my ankles roll in and throw off my body, plus my dad has a bad back. I'm essentially not designed to cheer lol. Depending on how she conditions as well (if proper form isn't being met), that could interfere with her muscles..

I agree with the others who said stress fracture. I've known several cheerleaders with this and the symptoms sound the same. It often won't show up on x-rays - just MRI. Google spondylolysis symptoms for more info...

CP has lower back pain and her x-rays showed that she has spina bifida occulta and spondylolysis. We don't know if the spondylolysis is caused from stress fractures or is just where the bone never fused from her spina bifida. We saw the neurosurgeon to make sure cheer wasn't dangerous for her. Her PT was afraid that if the spondylolysis got worse bone fragments could reach her spinal cord, but the neurosurgeon said he didn't think it would be an issue. She took it easy most of the summer (bummer she didn't get the chance to advance her skills) and her back is feeling better now but still hurts if she arches it too much like if her bhs are short or if she tries to do bridges.

This has happened to me. It still hurts itself. I never went to the doctor, I probably should've. Years ago (probably 4) I would not be able to go to sleep on a bed. I would have to go into the living room to the reclining chair to sleep not in pain. It hurts sometimes when I stretch a lot, tumble, or do scorpions. I suggest a chiropractor. My sister had non cheer related back problems and it helped

Make sure whatever doctor you get is not looking at her lower back in a vacuum. I have lower back pain which is caused by my hips being out of alignment. That's caused by my feet rolling in. That's caused by the tendons in my knees being weak so my knees slide. It might be that something entirely else is causing the pain. I think the most important thing to ask is "Is this muscle pain or bone/spine pain." I know for me it's spine pain (my spine feels compacted) and a chiropractor coupled with therapeutic massage has helped immensely.

Poor girl back pain is the worst. I had 6 bulging discs from cheering and recently herniated one of them. Similar to INeverStopCheering some of my pain is caused from the way my hips are set which causes me to have really tight hamstrings (I always wondered why my pike jumps were awful I would recommend lots of hamstring stretches and also core strength. My PT had me doing more stabilization stuff to make my core strong and less exercises with movement. Planks are really good and also going on all fours and extending alternating legs and arms. So extend right arm, left leg and then left arm, right leg. For a challenge put a long pole, bar on her back and have her try to keep it in the right place.

I would also maybe go for a second opinion. Waiting 8 weeks is a long time for back pain that isn't going away especially if he didn't have any recommendations in the mean time (resting, no cheering, etc).

Thanks again. After reading everyone's posts I took her straight to get X-rays. They showed nothing but we are going to set up physical therapy and she's going to rest for a few weeks since no on could tell me whether she should stop or not. Has anyone had relief with a back brace? Can she still tumble with one?

tdittmar said:

Thanks again. After reading everyone's posts I took her straight to get X-rays. They showed nothing but we are going to set up physical therapy and she's going to rest for a few weeks since no on could tell me whether she should stop or not. Has anyone had relief with a back brace? Can she still tumble with one?

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Hi! My daughter had the same pain a few years ago. The x-ray didn't show anything, but the MRI done about a week later, did.......stress fracture. She was out 3 months with a back brace and NO activity. The Dr didn't even want her to take long walks. I would take her for an MRI to be sure.

And, no, she couldn't have tumbled with her back brace at all, even if she wanted to! It made her pretty immobile when it came to her core area. All those years of saying "sit up straight" and I should've just gotten her a back brace!

so thankful for this post because i have the same exact problems and could never figure out why.

tdittmar said:

Thanks again. After reading everyone's posts I took her straight to get X-rays. They showed nothing but we are going to set up physical therapy and she's going to rest for a few weeks since no on could tell me whether she should stop or not. Has anyone had relief with a back brace? Can she still tumble with one?

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My cp has tumbled with the flexible back brace. It gave some support, but didn't impair her movement.

We battled low back pain for about 9 months. Had multiple x-rays, no fractures but there was misalignment of vertebrae. We tried resting it as told by the MD. Two months of chiropractic treatment and physical therapy as well. All of that did nothing to help her. Finally we tried a treatment that many others at our gym had success with, and she was fixed completely in 3 visits. Her flexibility was increased in one 30 minute session. Her hips had been out of line and that was corrected. Things she didn't even know were wrong were fixed! She was also given specific exercises for different areas so that she doesn't have to return for office visits. Their goal isn't to have a patient continue visits indefinitely (which was our chiropractor experience) but to get you back to the activities you enjoy. The biggest difference is the expectation that even during treatment, you keep moving!

The clinics are only found in a few states, but well worth the effort if there is one remotely nearby. www.airrosti.com

And I know I sound like I must work for them (I don't), but after month after month of watching my cp suffer trying to do what she loves...or sitting out altogether...I am just beyond thrilled to have found something that actually worked.