Injured My Back Squatting

Training Beginners
1

I am 35 and have been lifting 5 weeks, 4 days a week. I have been squatting two of the 4 days. Well, last night, in my second set I hurt my lower back. As I was pushing up I had a jolt of pain shoot through my lower back. Luckily I was still able to get the barbell back on the the rack. Not sure what happened. Maybe bad form, I don’t know.

Later that night I picked up my sleeping 5 year old daughter to carry her into her bed. Bad, bad idea, I know. My back gave and I couldn’t move and inch. I slept on the floor that night in the exact spot I was standing when I picked up my daughter. This was pain I have never felt before in my life.

This morning, I called into work, my wife drove me to the emergency room. I had to force myself to stand and when I finally did I felt like passing out and puking. I now know the wonders of pain medicine. Such sweet relieve they do provide. So far the only testing has been x-rays. No problems there. I go to my doctor this Monday. I am guessing a possible MRI scan.

Just as I was getting into this lifting thing and seeing the results and now this. I won’t quit lifting but squatting now scares the hell out of me.

rhino

2

[quote]rhino72 wrote:
I am 35 and have been lifting 5 weeks, 4 days a week. I have been squatting two of the 4 days. Well, last night, in my second set I hurt my lower back. As I was pushing up I had a jolt of pain shoot through my lower back. Luckily I was still able to get the barbell back on the the rack. Not sure what happened. Maybe bad form, I don’t know.

Later that night I picked up my sleeping 5 year old daughter to carry her into her bed. Bad, bad idea, I know. My back gave and I couldn’t move and inch. I slept on the floor that night in the exact spot I was standing when I picked up my daughter. This was pain I have never felt before in my life.

This morning, I called into work, my wife drove me to the emergency room. I had to force myself to stand and when I finally did I felt like passing out and puking. I now know the wonders of pain medicine. Such sweet relieve they do provide. So far the only testing has been x-rays. No problems there. I go to my doctor this Monday. I am guessing a possible MRI scan.

Just as I was getting into this lifting thing and seeing the results and now this. I won’t quit lifting but squatting now scares the hell out of me.

rhino[/quote]

Injuries are normally caused by not warming up properly. If you’re working out pretty hard and not paying enough attention to flexibility exercises in the areas you are training, it could really mess you up.

Try putting a bar behind your neck and trying to touch your knees with your face. Just go as far as you can until you feel a pull, then hold for about thirty seconds and go a tiny bit further. Any damage that your doctor’s find will more than likely fade away in time, or at least enough to help you out, but doing minor exercises like this will really help alleviate pain and accelerate healing.

Do that about 5-10 times before your exercise and your lower back should limber up, too!

I’m new to the bodybuilding thing, but flexibility and injury-prevention is my game. Unless you aren’t telling us that you were about to give out or something similar, it sounds like you either had something wrong with your bones in your spine or you were just not warmed up properly.

3

Loaded Spine Flexion is a serious thing.

4

This terrifies me.

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[quote]overswarm wrote:
Try putting a bar behind your neck and trying to touch your knees with your face. Just go as far as you can until you feel a pull, then hold for about thirty seconds and go a tiny bit further.[/quote]

This is probably the worst possible thing you could be doing. I’d be suggesting the opposite - thoracic extensions on a foam roller.

OP - I’m guessing you rounded your lower back? Either way this video might help:

Of course, I wouldn’t do the extensions or start squatting again until your problem has been correctly identified and treated.

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oldskinny, thanks for the vid. Very good info for warming up, which I do very little of. Believe me, I will from now on. By the way, did your hear that guys knees pop it the video. Made me cringe.

Any other warm up techniques will be much appreciated.

7

Once you get back into it, make sure your abs and lower back are very strong. Yes, deadlifts and squats will strengthen your core but you need a base to start from. If you think your core is strong enough, you’re wrong.

8

Just an update. I injured my back Thursday night. Today in Sunday and feel much better. I have a long way to go to get back to 100% but I can get around normally now. My back is stiff when walking and won’t be able to do any lifting at work for awhile. I will find out tomorrow when I can go back to work.

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Every lower back tweak/injury that I have ever seen or experienced while deadlifting/squatting was because of weak abs, or not bracing them enough causing a rounding of the back.

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[quote]Pemdas wrote:
Every lower back tweak/injury that I have ever seen or experienced while deadlifting/squatting was because of weak abs, or not bracing them enough causing a rounding of the back. [/quote]

This is true-it’s really important to learn how to brace your midsection hard when you’re squatting and deadlifting. When I first learned how to squat correctly (after injuring my back squatting), my abs were incredibly sore for a couple of weeks.

11

had the same thing you describe about a month ago… doctor called it a severe muscle spasm…getting an MRI soon because i’m scared of a bulging disc… i still deadlift heavy one a week, because thats how long i need to stretch to do it again each week… BTW i was doing power cleans when this happened

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[quote]rhino72 wrote:
Just an update. I injured my back Thursday night. Today in Sunday and feel much better. I have a long way to go to get back to 100% but I can get around normally now. My back is stiff when walking and won’t be able to do any lifting at work for awhile. I will find out tomorrow when I can go back to work.
[/quote]

Had a similar occurrence several weeks ago. I’ll post a picture when I get home of how bad it looked. I chose the chiropractor route. Lots of rest, icing, and back stretches. Within four days and two adjustments, I was standing straight and bending over. Worked out yesterday for the first time and did squats.

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[quote]rhino72 wrote:
Just an update. I injured my back Thursday night. Today in Sunday and feel much better. I have a long way to go to get back to 100% but I can get around normally now. My back is stiff when walking and won’t be able to do any lifting at work for awhile. I will find out tomorrow when I can go back to work.
[/quote]

Also had a similar occurrence although not as severe about a month ago. I believe mine was due to not stretching enough since I missed my posterior chain stretch that day and probably bad form. Had to take a week off from lifting anything. I’d tend to agree with the weak abs thing also. My abs are usually really sore after a workout day even though I don’t do any direct abs work in my lifts.

PeterD

14

I dont ever stretch or do anything before working out, i heard its bad to stretch before lifting. I just started squating and can only do like 115-135 should i be worrying about injuring myself with such low weight or should i start worrying when im using much much heavier weight in squating.

15

1)Read any of Dr. John Sarno’s books on Psychosomatic medicine. I used to have to go to the chiropractor annually
for problems with my back related to weight training. Then I read his book, experimented seriously with his advice and am lifting heavier than ever, with no back problems at all.

  1. You like the pain-relievers they give you at the hospital? Good, because that is about the best they are going to be able to do for you. Next, they will advise an expensive surgery. Read Sarno’s book (he’s an MD Professor of Rehabilitation Therapy at NYU) to find out why most of the time back diagnoses are bullshit.

  2. Find somebody good to teach you to squat (not one of the pussy-ass personal trainers). In lieu of that, get Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength”. You will get therein around 30 pages of discussion on the Squat. You might also want to try front squats sometimes.

  3. In case you are blind :slight_smile: and can’t see my photo, I am no spring chicken. I am 48 years old and lifting heavier than ever. Follow the above advice and don’t pussy out and decide that you are too old and need to follow the instructions of a montebank like Matt Furey who will tell you (for a price) that weight training is not healthy and is dangerous.

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[quote]jck524 wrote:
I dont ever stretch or do anything before working out, i heard its bad to stretch before lifting. I just started squating and can only do like 115-135 should i be worrying about injuring myself with such low weight or should i start worrying when im using much much heavier weight in squating.[/quote]

If you just started then now is the time to get your form perfect for when you are squatting heavy. I have noticed a lot less DOMS when I stretch. Then again I also wear a belt too even if I am lifting light or doing a warmup set.

Just a FYI I was only lifting 70lbs when I pulled something in my back so it can happen when going light too it’s just more likely to happen when your going heavy if you have bad form.

PeterD

17

You are going to need to take some serious time off from squatting. When you come back to semi-serious lifting, I would recommend trying front squats in an EDT style.

This sounds like a recipe for disaster, but I found it very helpful. I began by taking it relatively easy. I struggled with remaining upright, due to core weakness, so I could hardly manage 5 reps with a weight that barely even taxed my legs.

The EDT sessions helped familiarize me with the movement and train my core while still getting enough volume to work my legs. Additionally, I began working on relaxing my plantar fascia (using the tennis ball movements in Soft Tissue Work for Tough Guys). I’m still uncomfortable with back squats, but I’m vastly improved.

18


As promised, here is my recent back injury. Doc said I had a spasm on one side which caused it to shift up. The other side tried to protect itself by cramping (paraphrased). I am standing as straight as possible. Just a little rest and ice.

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[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
As promised, here is my recent back injury. Doc said I had a spasm on one side which caused it to shift up. The other side tried to protect itself by cramping (paraphrased). I am standing as straight as possible. Just a little rest and ice.[/quote]

Holy SCOLIOSIS batman!!! Keep going to the chiro, get massaged, and stretch at least 3x per week. I dont know what limits you as far as lifting goes, but Id avoid squats and focus on single leg work until your spine gets fixed.

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[quote]gainera2582 wrote:
TheDudeAbides wrote:
Holy SCOLIOSIS batman!!! Keep going to the chiro, get massaged, and stretch at least 3x per week. I dont know what limits you as far as lifting goes, but Id avoid squats and focus on single leg work until your spine gets fixed.
[/quote]

LOL! I said I was fine now. My wife laugh see the pic and just laugh. It looked much worse than it felt.