I’m hoping that someone can give me some hope. I have constantly reoccuring lower-back problems and I see a chiropractor regularly. They keep suggesting that I stop doing squats and deadlifts. I use extreme caution when doing these lifts and I also use very strict form. The Dr. isn’t suggesting that my injury (L5 is thinning) comes from deads or squats just that I’m not giving my back enough time to heal.
So, is there anyone out there that has had significant back problems, overcome them and been able to return to doing heavy deads and squats???
Absolutely you can, but be careful. I prolapsed the lowest disc on my back (playing sport). I stayed away from deadlifts and squats for a year or more. Then I slowly reintroduced them to my program, working up in weights to 200 kg for squats and 180 for deads, stronger than I had been before my original accident. This was without a belt too, on the advice of this site. I successfully did both lifts for over a year.
However a word of caution. I reinjured my back two months ago doing a deadlift. Just one rep at 150 kg, well under what I had been doing regularly, and it went. My warm up had been poor that day. I am just about back to considering squats and deads again. Personally I will now do them in a higher rep fashion to get the benefit of the exercise without the high risks. I will increase the weights in a very methodical fashion and warm up much better than before.
I can sympathize. My back first went out on me when I was in the third grade, no joke. I was carrying a heavy backpack whilst opening a door and out it went, and to the nurse’s office was where i went. You may want to try alternitives to squatting and deadlifting, my back bothers me on some days and other days I will be fine. Front squats dont seem to bother me as much, same with box squats. Single Leg squats with dumbells have become a new favorite of mine. I understand the feeling that you are missing out on many gains by not incorporating them into your workouts, however what good are they doing you if you keep injuring yourself doing them? If you are injured you cannot train to your fullest potential. Listen to your body and allow ample healing time, warm up properly and dont let the ego stand in the way of the lift. Learn from my mistakes!
“I have constantly reoccuring lower back problems and I see a chiropractor regularly.”
Stop seeing your chiro regularly and start doing some preventative exercises to safe guard your “thining L5.” Have a real medical doctor (MD or DO) refer you to an Orthopedic Specialist or Physical Therapist. Sounds like a little PT and R & R is what you need. Dont get me wrong…Chiropractors have their place in preventative medicine, but if it is so “reoccuring” then what are you gaining from this experience.
As a general comment (I’m certainly not qualified to address your specific problem), why not try other excercises that hit your back from different angles and find what you can do without pain?
I would think of such an injury as a call to reevaluate my strengths/weaknesses and training. Maybe you should be thinking about where you have weaknesses that give this injury the opportunity to recur and correcting them. If you are only doing squats and DLs (the only excercises you mention that hit the back) there’s a whole lot else you can do to strengthen the back along with the whole posterior chain.
Thank you very much for the replies. As far as not giving myself enough time to heal I wouldn’t do any deads or squats when I was in pain, I would feel fine and frequently I would feel fine after, the chiro (which goes to the same gym) suggested laying off regardless of if I felt fine or not and I just feel that I’m missing out from some decent gains by not doing these lifts.
At this point I guess I will lay off and be doing some PT stuff in hopes of healing up so that someday I might come back to doing these exercises.
I recently had surgery (microdiscectomy) on my herniated L5 disc on April 1st… I am only 18 and am a football player/sprinter. Has there been stories that athletes coming back from this surgery can resume playing football again? I might consider taking this fall off and getting back into shape, since I havnt been able to do much since mid-March. I’m not going to give up, I will do whatever methods there are that exist to strengthen the core like no other. I still am not cleared to lift yet, but what would be the best methods to start out with when I am able?
I need to get treatment for my back, the doctors said that I have a pinched nerve but everyone else says its a muscle strain/sprain. I think I need to just let my back heal on its own and go to the beach, but some people are telling me to get a brace or something? What do you think?
Let me put a suggestions your way, from one who has endured much disk thinning as a result of two seperate herniations in the lower back.
Screw the orthopedics. Maybe it’s just my personal bias, based on experience. Maybe there’s just no good ortho’s in Rhode Island. But in my experience, they’re the LAST place you want to go for back advice assuming that you’re currently standing and ambulatory. They’re generally of the mentality of “either cut it or drug it,” neither of which are great long-term spinal solutions IMHO. I was two days away from a hastily-scheduled disk surgery after my first herniation; luckily, my kung fu instructor intervened, called me every imaginable name in the book, and then doubled my weekly qi quong/tai chi. I never looked back, although the initial couple of months were rough.
Work within your limitations in terms of weight and in terms of range of motion, but keep working as much as you can. I made friends with partial deads and low-weight/high-rep squats. I also invested in an IronMind squat belt, which allowed me to fry my legs without straining my back. And go heavy on those things which don’t bother you (for example, I couldn’t even partial dead with much weight for a while, but I really went crazy on heavy shrugs/heaves in order to keep some meat on my traps and erectors.
Don’t forget rotational stressors. Too many rehab programs focus on bi-angular movements, while many back injuries occur with some sort of twisting component. Woodchoppers, med ball twists, etc. are great. (BTW, I also believe this is one reason why qi quong was so helpful.)
i haven’t been able to heavy squat or dead in at least 8 years. i have degeneration at L4/L5 and L5/S1.
i’ve had a lot of success lately with old fashioned hack squats, overhead squats, side deadlifts, walking lunges, one-legged squats, and step-ups. i think i actually get better, more athletic work with these exercises than i did with back squats.
but to answer your question, i don’t expect to ever be able to heavy squat or traditional deadlift again.
on a side note, the ONLY treatment that has given my low back any relief is prolotherapy. check out www.prolonews.com. PM me if you have any questions about it.
I don’t no fatsensei. If you are, you might put some extra effort into burning it off. Wouldn’t hurt.
Swiss ball stuff is great for back rehab. Get Cheks tape Better Abs Back and Buns. The excersices are challenging.
Yes, for crying out loud, go slow with it. Just do moderate work for a few months at least. Your number one priority is to recuperate. You can’t do anything else til you do that.
Get some cross fiber massage done.
Check out a chiropracter that uses the Activator method.
I recently had a client dump a straight-leg dead to the floor with what appeared to be a cramp.
After further review ~ xrays and a visit to the chiropractor ~ it showed that his fourth vertibrate was shifted and pinching nerves.
At first, I was concerned that it was because of the type of lifting I had this guys doing. However, the Chiro has been continuously stating that this has been this way for a very long time due to his large belly pulling on the low back and was just aggrevated by the new workout. This guy hadn’t worked out for years. In other words, my client did himself a favor by finding out about this now.
My plan, and the chiropractor has agreed, is to focus on loosing the belly, doing some PT, GPP, and ease back into weight training. I expect that we’ll lay off the squats and dead for approximately two months.
I guess this long post is to get to two points. 1) If you have a big gut, it might benefit you to put some focus on that and not worry about the short-term lost gains from not doing squats and deads. 2) Give youself enough time to heal.
First of all… properly done squats and deads are not comfortable exercises. So if you’re having a little discomfort during the exercise, realize how much weight is in your hands or on your back. If there is pain after exercise you need to get treated. Prolotherapy, PT, Chiro, Physio… whatever it takes to get the pain away. Stay the hell away from orthos. Very few people are 100% pain free after back surgery and remember that when you alter structure you change function. Surgery is a viable option for people with pain so bad that they’re in a wheelchair popping opiates. But not for anyone else.
Rest, rest and more rest, then and only after sufficient rest can you properly rehab you lower back.
To rehab you lower back focus on improving strength and muscular endurance of your spinal erectors with Good Mornings and reveres hypers (there are many exercise that will work I just gave you 2 of my favorite). You also need to do a postural analysis because it sounds like your postural could be partly responsible for your condition. Read the NNM article series posted to the left in the articles section.
HOPE THAT HELPS!