I hurt my back squatting today. Before I went the gym I had to help my mom move boxes, and I think this fatigued my back. When I went to the gym my warmup and first set went fine, but in the middle of my second set I felt a strain in my lower back.
I was wondering if once it heals enough for me to go back to the gym, how I should working out again. Should I start with easier exercise to strengthen my lower back, or can I start squatting again at a lighter weight?
Where is the pain located in the lower back?
left side, middle lower back.
It’s hard to say, how strong are you? What level of weight do you lift? How long have you been training? Do you access to ART?
I’m an ART trained chiropractor who is 44 and has a fairly high strength level. I was lifting close to normal loads one week after some pretty serious back strains. a younger lifter with a lower strength level might not be seasoned enough to bounce back as quick.
It’s pretty arbitrary.
sounds like typical muscle strain I’ve done this with heavy back squats. What happened is you probably good mornined a heavy squat it happens sometimes. Make sure your form is really solid when performing your lifts-especially in the squat, very dangerous lift-.
You should heal up in about week or less. To be safe I would avoid any squatting while your lower back is strained. Stretch, ice it rest. You should be able to do other stuff though like chest,shoulders,arms,abs,some back.
If it gets worse there is nothing internet can tell you and you should go see a doctor.
[quote]shizen wrote:
sounds like typical muscle strain I’ve done this with heavy back squats. What happened is you probably good mornined a heavy squat it happens sometimes. Make sure your form is really solid when performing your lifts-especially in the squat, very dangerous lift-.
You should heal up in about week or less. To be safe I would avoid any squatting while your lower back is strained. Stretch, ice it rest. You should be able to do other stuff though like chest,shoulders,arms,abs,some back.
If it gets worse there is nothing internet can tell you and you should go see a doctor.
[/quote]
Thanks
[quote]tom63 wrote:
It’s hard to say, how strong are you? What level of weight do you lift? How long have you been training? Do you access to ART?
I’m an ART trained chiropractor who is 44 and has a fairly high strength level. I was lifting close to normal loads one week after some pretty serious back strains. a younger lifter with a lower strength level might not be seasoned enough to bounce back as quick.
It’s pretty arbitrary.[/quote]
I’m not very strong yet, I’ve been lifting consistently since june but I’ve only been lifting seriously since september. I was going for 205x5 for a second set and 1/2 of the way up on the 3rd rep I felt the muscle strain, I managed to get the weight up and racked the weight. I don’t have acess to art =(.
Thanks for the advice/
My back is feeling a lot better and I think it might completely painless there by monday.
I was wondering if when going back to the gym it would be good or bad idea to start w/ something like this.
Monday
Arched back GM’s 5x5
Bench Press 5x5
Bulgarian Squats w/ DB’s 3x5
Chin ups 5x5
Dips 2x5
Cable Abs 2x8
Wednesday
Overhead Squat 3x8
Military Press 3x8
Kroc Rows 3x8
Back Raise 2x8
Decline Sit ups 2x8
Friday
Front Squat (too Stressful?) 3x3
Bench Press 3x3
rack pulls(Too Stressful?) 3x5
Overhead Press 3x3
Chest Supported Rows 2x10
How does that look, is it too stressful on the low back or would it be good to strengthen the lower back?
You have to be careful with a back injury. A similar thing happened to me recently. I avoided all back supported heavy lifting for a month (squats, deads, military press, cleans, bent over row, etc), but came back feeling strong. During that down time, I’d do 100 bodyweight squats, single leg squats, jump squats, etc. on legs day to keep them in good condition. It’s better to give it more time to heal than to re-injure yourself and be out for even longer. That’s why doctors tell you things like “don’t workout for 6 weeks”.
Do lots of deadlifts, goodmornings, hyper extensions etc.
The weak link is what gets hurt, you dont necessarily want to go to failure your first couple workouts back but make sure your getting stronger without a doubt each workout.
You can train lower back pretty often because there isnt much blood flow down there so I might advise hitting some hyper extensions for a few sets every time you hit the gym.
Maybe not super heavy every time, but like I said, you should be getting stronger each workout.
[quote]Uber N3wb wrote:
Do lots of deadlifts, goodmornings, hyper extensions etc.
The weak link is what gets hurt, you dont necessarily want to go to failure your first couple workouts back but make sure your getting stronger without a doubt each workout.
You can train lower back pretty often because there isnt much blood flow down there so I might advise hitting some hyper extensions for a few sets every time you hit the gym.
Maybe not super heavy every time, but like I said, you should be getting stronger each workout. [/quote]
Be careful doing too much lower back, as the soreness in lower back can affect you a lot in lots of lifts if your doing it daily. I love hyper extensions and deadlifts though for lower back, goodmornings hit my hams A LOT-actually all of them do which is why I tend to do lower back more on leg days- prob the way I do it but I’m also afraid to go heavy on them.
Anyways I highly doubt you did anything serious, lower back pains are one of the most common injuries for lifters. Its usually very minor and heals up relatively quick. Deadlifts should be more then enough for lower back, and its pretty easy to do good form as long as your not too focused on going really heavy on it.
Ok, I guess I’ll start with that and take it lighter w/ anytting that hits my lower back for a while.
Thanks for the help guys.