Hi everyone. I read this board a lot but don’t really post. Well, I’ve decided to make my first thread about this back problem I’ve been having; it’s really stumped me.
Back in the beginning of November, I injured my lower back when I lost concentration during deadlifts. It was a stupid mistake and I paid the price. I felt a lot of lower back pain in the days after and even had trouble walking. I knew that I had to play it safe so I took six weeks off; no squatting, no deadlifting. Squatting required too much lower back stabilization for me to want to attempt them.
And here I am now. I started off doing both lifts very very light (135lbs) in December, slowly working up to my old loads. The problem is that while I’m now deadlifting as much as I used to [if not more], squatting often gives me sharp pains, even at loads that I was able to use before I started lifting. This confounds me because I have no pain or discomfort deadlifting at all.
My big mistake was not consulting a doctor immediately. I am thinking the injury must have not healed all the way. I plan to see a professional ASAP, but in the mean time I would appreciate some input from the T-Nation crowd on what you guys think my injury could be. If I broke any cardinal forum rules in making this thread I’d like to apologize before I get flamed.
Thanks for reading.
I’m no doctor, but if you can deadlift the same weight or more without any pain, but it hruts when you squat, I’d say you’re most likely squatting with incorrect form. I would still recommend seeing a doctor to just be safe, as I can’t give you professional medical advice. I would still think it’s an issue of form because deadlifting heavy causes you no pain, maybe video tape yourself squatting or have somebody knwoledgable watch your form and critique it. Good luck and I hope you’re pain free again soon so you can continue progressing with squats!
~ Chris
If you do a little searching through the old posts you can find a few articles that deal with back problems. Be forewarned that he exact cause of back pain can be fairly tricky to diagnose, even for medical professionals. I speak from experience here as I have had a herniated disc which bothered me off and on for a couple of years.
A few good books to check out are:
“The new back doctor” - Hamilton Hall.
“Ultimate back fitness and performance.” - Stuart Mcgill
As a side note, if you experience any shooting pain down the back of your legs, or numbness and tingling, this is a warning sign that something is very wrong and you should seek medical help immediately. Good luck.
Thanks for the positive responses guys. In addition to scheduling an appointment to have my back checked out I will also have someone critique my squat form. It’s too bad I don’t have a digital camera; I could upload some footage to youtube or something with how good the technology is these days.
Those look like good book suggestions orion, I will look into them. I have never had any pain in my legs when performing lifts so I suppose that’s good.