!!!Broken Vertibrae!!! Lumbar life Vest Work????

Okay i play college football and fractured my vertibrae. The trainer told me that it wasn't serious so i played the rest of the season in tremendous pain. In the winter i hurt my back more by squating while lifting. I couldn't walk for two weeks cause of the pain. Factured vertibrae. Disk deterioration/ buldging disk against the nerve with a piece of vertibrae mixed in there. After a few cortizone shots i'm back now. After rehabing and strenghting my core i feel better than i have in the last few years.

My question is do the lumbar supports in life jackets actually work? I mean can u tell a difference at all. I would feel so much safer and confident if i had one.

Any particular one's you guys recommend. I'm a bigger dude at 225 so an XL or XXL that is USCG approved is prefered.

Thoughts comments anything cause i can't find any information on these jackets. Sorry for the lenght.

Was told i might get more responses if i posted here

Trainer told you that a fractured vertabrae "wasn't serious?"

Now you're re-injured and this time with disc problems, and you're only 20?

Hate to break it to you, my friend, but it's serious. Do some homework on it. I saw the chief of the spinal service at Kaiser in NorCal when I fractured mine, and he recommended yoga to help maintain it after it healed. In addition, I must do lots of things differently now, including the way I ride.

Imagine you only get one car to drive the rest of your life, the only one ever. Now at 20K miles, you've wrecked it, resulting in a cracked frame, no good way really to repair it. It's kind of like that. Better think hard about the way you drive that bitch from now on. Sorry to rain on your parade. I don't know about the life jackets, but personally I would not be relying on an extra rubber strap to keep me from blowing out my back the rest of the way. Do some homework on it. Go get some advice from a respectable doctor who is not invested in having you play ball the rest of the season.

Yeah thanks man. I still don't know what i'm going to do for ball but yeah the doctor was totally against me playing until my college got in touch with him. So your right i understand that i've lost 20 lbs of fat since the injury to help out the good ole back.

So anyone got any suggestions on jackets.

What did your doctor say about wakeboarding? I played college lacrosse and football as well, and know damn well that boardin' is definitely a "contact" sport! I don't think there's a vest out there that can protect you from an
"awkward" or "twisted" landing.......? It wouldn't take much to F your back up! (what does your coach think?)

I think that's the dad in me coming out, and if I were back in the day, it may have come out differently......I guess I'm just saying be careful, cuz you've got plenty of sports and ridin' ahead of you!

Good luck.

If you've injured you're back, the best thing would be to stay away from sports that involve forces on joints such as those inherent with wakeboarding. In other words, going big ain't easy on the joints!

Well the doc was a back specialistist. The worst part he said was that i have disk deterioation. If i rehab and strenghten my core i should be okay to do things. I'm hoping that wakeboarding won't kill me. Cause i don't want to stop wakeboarding or snow skiing.

I guess the lumbar jacket doesn't matter much so i'm going to stick to the old one.

Oh and i think that my coach just wants me to play. oh and if this is the wrong thread for my post now sorry.

Doc oc how do u now ride differently. Should i stick to the wakeskate now instead..

Grant I hear ya about not wanting to stop. About 5 years ago I broke my C7 and T2 vertibrae in a motorcycle wreck and spent three months in a halo. I'm not even that good at wakeboarding but I could never give up the active sports I love to do. During the summer wakeboarding is all I can think about.

Hey Grant,
A couple if things: I have had trouble with my back and wakeboarding is really hard on it. I wouldn't wakeboard if you are still feeling pain. One exercise that has really helped my back is on a pull up bar tuck your knees up and lift yourself up until your back is parallel with the ground, then twist your lower body back and forth so your knees are passing right by your elbows.

Back support: I have found the best thing to do is to use a back support brace underneath my life jacket then you can adjust it independent of the life jacket.

The other thing to look at is your board. Many of the newer boards are designed for softer landings. A lot of the pros were having problems with their backs and having to retire early so the board companies have really tried to address this issue, especially Liquid Force.

Skiing made me board,
Lyle
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