About my depression (personal note)
Published: Tue, 08/27/13
most of my adult life. Let me tell you a quick story..
The first time I hurt my back was my senior year of high school
right
at the beginning of football season. There was nothing I wanted
more
than to play my senior year and it looked like I was done for
the year.
I heard a pop one day in the weight room when I was doing lat
pulldowns
behind the neck. I'm sure I was using awful form and
from that point
forward I entered the world of lower back pain.
It hurt too much to sit down and I had to stand in class while taking
notes (embarrassing). I had an MRI done and they couldn't find
anything wrong with me. I went to physical therapy and that didn't
help
much either.
After missing the first three games of the season, I was getting
really
depressed and I cried out to God begging him to let me play my
senior year of football. Shortly after that my back pain reduced and
I
was able to play the rest of the season.
That wasn't the end of my back pain though. In college I threw my
back out a few times so badly that I had to stay in bed for days.
Nope
that wasn't just an excuse to skip class, I physically couldn't
walk
around when the muscles were tonic and spazzing out.
Being the competitive, stubborn guy that I am I wasn't going to let
back pain rule my life. I kept putting my body through more impact
by
walking on the College Football team and played four years of
D-IAA
football. After college I had a short stint in Europe before
tearing my
ACL (knee).

My back started getting worse again in 2007 when I started competing
in powerlifting (The Squat, Bench Press & Deadlift). Only a couple guys
know this but I injured my back in my first competition during the squat.
I finished the meet though and even bench pressed over 600 pounds.
Again, probably not the smartest idea, but what can I say, I had the
"powerlifting bug".
Here's where it gets weird. You might ask me why I play all these
sports and workout so much. Firstly, I love it and I don't want to
stop.
Secondly, when I don't work out my back actually hurts a lot more.
I feel better when I do train even if I occasionally have a tweak.
As you can see from my little story and my extensive sports
background,
I have enjoyed training with heavy weights for a few decades
now and
I've had my share of injuries and pain over the years.
Ironically it wasn't a back injury but a partially torn rotator cuff
that initially
led me to seek out the gifted hands of Injury Specialist
Rick Kaselj, MS.
Long story short, he helped me fix my shoulder pain in
a matter of weeks
and the next trouble spot on the list was my
lingering knee pain left over
from an ACL surgery in 2001. Again Rick
helped me with this problem
and it was time to tackle the elephant in
the room...my back pain that
has been lingering on and off for over two
decades!

