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Hello, everyone. Don't worry...I'm getting it checked out by my PT (and then doctor, if necessary), but I'd like to see if anyone here has any idea or previous experience with something like this.

Basically, whenever I arch my back I feel a pretty significant amount of pain around L4/L5. If I hollow my back after, the pain gets even worse. I'm not feeling any muscular pain, and when I press on my spine in that region it's pretty sensitive.

I haven't been vaulting very much due to other lingering injuries with my feet. When I do, it's only from 4 lefts out. I am not taking off under (dang it, that solution went away), and I know this because I check my step after every vault (I did think that that was the original cause).

I've tried heat, ice, rest, and pain meds, but nothing seems to help. I don't think that it's a matter of core strength, since I've always been pretty strong in that area and have been focusing on it since last November. I also don't think that it's a matter of flexibility since I did gymnastics for 12 years, and haven't lost much of that since.

The pain has been here for about three weeks, and has gotten worse from when I first noticed it. I can't think of any singular incident where it first started to hurt...I just stood up from stretching one day at practice, arched my back and thought "Woah, that hurts."

Any ideas? I'm kind of sick of injuries and just want to vault again

Sounds like my back my senior year of high school. I had to take the back walkovers out of my beam routine because they hurt soooo bad.

Mine never bothered my when I vaulted though.

I never got it diagnosed, but a summer or two ago I got an MRI on my back and there was a spondololysis (tiny stress fracture) right where it had hurt so bad.

Poor Sami I'd go see a doctor and get some film on it.

a vaulter at my high school has that problem right now...and we seemed to have fixed it:

Even if you are not under you plant, you still might be getting taken under by the pole. your back might be bending too much because of it. what we did to fix that was I told him to drive into the plant and jump. If you drive better, you probibly wont be taken under by the pole

thanks everyone...keep it coming if you have something to share

I'm seeing my trainer on monday, PT later that week, and getting a referral for films whenever that comes through.

Becca, I had some kind of thing (perhaps a shifted disk?) that resulted in a pinched nerve in gym...level 7, so that meant back walkover-back walkover as a flight series on beam. I know what you mean about the pain...but it doesn't quite feel like that now.

Oh, and I'm not getting taken under by the pole. When I focus on jumping up and driving, I get a triple dose of pain (arch from the "C" position, hollow from the rock back, and then landing on it when I land on the pit). Not a ton of fun.

o sami, im sorry, i really am cheering for you to finally be healthy youd think id be able to help you more since ive hurt my back so many times, but right now i dont know. is there anything at all in your vault that is putting stress on your back because of bad form? cuz thats why my back always hurt. id be doing something that would force a lot of stress in my back like taking off compressed and being jerked off the ground. so just think about your form and ask yourself if theres any part of it that your doing wrong that might put stress on your back. also im sure you got a good physical therapist with your injury history (im pretty much buddies with mine now) but i also have gone to a sports trainer type guy thats really really good, he fixes you. hes $65 each time to go but if nothings really helping i think he will. so if u think you might be interested, let me know.

aw thanks. Ya, I was kind of hoping that once I got out of the boot I might be able to salvage at least a season and a half more. Alas, the feet are still killing me (and they can't seem to figure out what's wrong) and now the back is hurting and I'm just hoping that they'll figure it out and tell me that it's nothing too bad. I'm really hoping for next year...because right now I hate having to add "from freshman year" on to the end of my pr.

That's just the thing though. I haven't been vaulting that much at all (APs and the feet have helped for that one), and when I do I can't think of anything that would cause it to hurt. I'm taking off tall and jumping up, I'm not under, I'm not being sucked under by the pole...the only thing that we've changed is getting a more pronounced trail leg and whip (so that I feel tension with my hip flexor), but the only thing that that might aggravate would be the hip flexor and possibly low lower back (both of which are fine...well, my hip flexors are weird from injuries, but they don't hurt).

Gahhh! I don't want anything else to happen....I thought that the deal was that you stopped getting injured once you quit gymnastics.

Well...nothing showed up on the x-ray, but the pain's still there

oo wow, your story sounds so familiar, that is how I started before I was dianosed with ddd (minus the foot pain). I had low back pain that hurt worse with a backwards arch, and a negitive x-ray; infact, untill two weeks ago, my PR was followed by "from freshman year"

I hope your doctors get this sorted out quickly, and it is nothing serious. But even if they can't fix it remeber there is always room for improvement, physical therpy, drills, pool work. Don't get discouraged if you lose a season, stay positive and rember why you love polevaulting!

I haven't been all that discouraged by losing a season...or even two for that matter. However, the last three out of four might just make me a bit disappointed

well I hope every thing turns out fot the best for you.

thanks...me too