Lower back pain after starting workout.

[StarStuff18]

I am a 20 year old female with height 5'7" and weight 95kg. I started going to the gym around 2 months back and my trainer got me started on a high intensity of squats, steppers and abdomen related exercise such as squats and sit ups. And after about 2 months I developed a back and knee ache. My left knee hurts whenever I climb stairs or stand up from a sitting position but that pain is much more better than before. My back ache though, there's this pain in my lower back of the right side of my spine which is only there where I bend forwards, when I stand up from a sitting position, when I change my posture while sleeping and when I sneeze while standing up. Along with that if I bend to pick up something heavy like two or three books from the bed even, it hurts then too. And the pain sometimes feels like shooting down my right hip and leg but that's very rarely and the pain is barely noticeable but it is there at time. I've not been going to the gym for almost 3 weeks now but this pain is not settling down. At first it was throughout my lower back but now it's just along where I mentioned earlier. It'll get great to get some help or the other. Thank you so much.

[gymdandee]

You're repeating the same question that we replied to about 3+ weeks ago!  

[Paxiled]

I think she's concerned it's still a problem, Gym -- we told her to rest and it hasn't worked.

[Paxiled]

You say it's in your back, but might it be in your buttocks?  You're describing a pinching of the sciatic nerve.  It can be from the back or the hips, but if it's centered in your buttocks it's the periformis, a small but, literally, pain in the butt muscle that the sciatic nerve runs very close to in most people.  When it's inflamed, it often pinches the sciatic nerve.  Obviously, you started out on a program that wasn't right for a beginner, and squats and steppers aren't beginner exercises if done intensely.  Now, you probably had something already going on in those areas -- if you're someone who sits regularly, uses a computer regularly, drives regularly, the hunched over position required to do these things compresses the spine and makes these injuries more likely.  If I were you I'd probably, at this point, go to a doctor and get a referral to a physical therapist who can show you stretches and strengthening exercises to hopefully teach you how to fix what's broken and protect it from breaking again, especially since you've caught it early.  I have really bad problems with this.  Originally, I got it from riding a bike, which is a common cause, and my knee while running one day, but as someone who's been athletic all my life it was probably coming at some point.  Sorry this happened to you -- personal trainers aren't always that well educated -- some gyms will have a biography of their personal trainers on the wall somewhere and you can tell who has studied the most about movement.  But if you ask for something, they will give you that something, so be careful what you ask for.