[quote]furo wrote:
Hey Rattlehead, sorry for clogging up your log but I’d like to pick your brain about your deadlift/lower back issues. Can you run me through what exactly happened and how you’ve come back from it? Have you incorporated specific mobility work? And I know you use a belt, how do you feel that has benefitted you and what weight do you put it on at? And in general are there any other changes you’ve made? Sorry if you’ve covered this all somewhere else. Thanks![/quote]
I’ve got quite a weird lower back, I have scoliosis which causes nearly all the musculature to be on the right hand side and the muscles themselves to nearly always be in spasm. The muscles on that side have also been shortened (?) significantly over the years and have large knots of scar tissue.
I had sciatic pain since 2009 and just always brushed it off and even the physio said it was just piraformis tightness but no stretching helped. Ignored it until Mid 2011 and got a MRI which showed a herniated disc, took time off to let it heal but it eventually got worse and was offered the surgery. Went to Pilates to strengthen my core (ghey), saw another physio which fixed an anterior pelvic tilt that was contributing greatly to the shortened muscles, started doing more lifting month by month and was pretty much good to go again by Jan 2012.
I keep mobility work pretty simple right now with just basic foam rolling of trigger areas and stretching hips, piraformis and lower back. Rolling is honestly awesome for me, I use the barbell on the rack from time to time to just crush certain areas. I tried the Defranco mobility stuff several times but some parts of it I just cant do because of my lower back whilst other I can do easily.
In regards to deadlifts I just make sure I never do a set where i’m pushing 5+ reps to failure/unsafely as its more difficult to control the load in a way I don’t mess up my twisted back lol. The belt I don’t really have any set rules about, at the beginning of this log I was wearing it for all lower body movements but I feel confident enough to do nearly all sets without this cycle. With people I train I usually have the rule of thumb of at least doing 100k x 5 reps on squat and 140k x 5 reps on the dead before wearing a belt.
Had a pretty shitty session tonight as I have some form of illness, and have had it for nearly a week now. Just did the basic sets and got out, will be doing it with all other movements too until i’m better.
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it. Sorry to hear you’ve had these issues but it looks like you’ve come out the other side fine :).
I’m not sure what my problem is, but I get pretty agonising shooting pains often when I deadlift (and box squat), sometimes with a really submaximal weight. I think I’ll start foam rolling, thoroughly warming up/mobilising, get a video up on here for critique and I’ll start using a belt (I’ve never used one before). Thanks for the tips!
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
I’ve got quite a weird lower back, I have scoliosis which causes nearly all the musculature to be on the right hand side and the muscles themselves to nearly always be in spasm. The muscles on that side have also been shortened (?) significantly over the years and have large knots of scar tissue.
I had sciatic pain since 2009 and just always brushed it off and even the physio said it was just piraformis tightness but no stretching helped. Ignored it until Mid 2011 and got a MRI which showed a herniated disc, took time off to let it heal but it eventually got worse and was offered the surgery. Went to Pilates to strengthen my core (ghey), saw another physio which fixed an anterior pelvic tilt that was contributing greatly to the shortened muscles, started doing more lifting month by month and was pretty much good to go again by Jan 2012.
I keep mobility work pretty simple right now with just basic foam rolling of trigger areas and stretching hips, piraformis and lower back. Rolling is honestly awesome for me, I use the barbell on the rack from time to time to just crush certain areas. I tried the Defranco mobility stuff several times but some parts of it I just cant do because of my lower back whilst other I can do easily.
In regards to deadlifts I just make sure I never do a set where i’m pushing 5+ reps to failure/unsafely as its more difficult to control the load in a way I don’t mess up my twisted back lol. The belt I don’t really have any set rules about, at the beginning of this log I was wearing it for all lower body movements but I feel confident enough to do nearly all sets without this cycle. With people I train I usually have the rule of thumb of at least doing 100k x 5 reps on squat and 140k x 5 reps on the dead before wearing a belt.
[/quote]
Much respect
[quote]RATTLEHEAD wrote:
I’ve got quite a weird lower back, I have scoliosis which causes nearly all the musculature to be on the right hand side and the muscles themselves to nearly always be in spasm. The muscles on that side have also been shortened (?) significantly over the years and have large knots of scar tissue.
I had sciatic pain since 2009 and just always brushed it off and even the physio said it was just piraformis tightness but no stretching helped. Ignored it until Mid 2011 and got a MRI which showed a herniated disc, took time off to let it heal but it eventually got worse and was offered the surgery. Went to Pilates to strengthen my core (ghey), saw another physio which fixed an anterior pelvic tilt that was contributing greatly to the shortened muscles, started doing more lifting month by month and was pretty much good to go again by Jan 2012.
I keep mobility work pretty simple right now with just basic foam rolling of trigger areas and stretching hips, piraformis and lower back. Rolling is honestly awesome for me, I use the barbell on the rack from time to time to just crush certain areas. I tried the Defranco mobility stuff several times but some parts of it I just cant do because of my lower back whilst other I can do easily.
In regards to deadlifts I just make sure I never do a set where i’m pushing 5+ reps to failure/unsafely as its more difficult to control the load in a way I don’t mess up my twisted back lol. The belt I don’t really have any set rules about, at the beginning of this log I was wearing it for all lower body movements but I feel confident enough to do nearly all sets without this cycle. With people I train I usually have the rule of thumb of at least doing 100k x 5 reps on squat and 140k x 5 reps on the dead before wearing a belt.
[/quote]
Much respect[/quote]
I will give you the press cause it’s painfully slow to move but I challenge you to get the 3/4/5 plates on bench squat and dead as you are kind of at a similar strength level as I.
Unless you obviously have a valid reason why those may be unattainable like injury and stuff!
BTW in reference to the race comp I will make a spreadsheet at the end of this month after exams to track everyones progress if everyone gives me their maxes at that point!
I will give you the press cause it’s painfully slow to move but I challenge you to get the 3/4/5 plates on bench squat and dead as you are kind of at a similar strength level as I.
Unless you obviously have a valid reason why those may be unattainable like injury and stuff![/quote]
Well, when I originally came up with those numbers, I was assuming I would maintain my current bodyweight, and that this was a 6 month race (not sure why I thought that). The weight maintenance isn’t necessary, though, so I’ll do what it takes.
I accept, and I’ll raise the press to 170. My bench has also moved painfully slow so I’m not sure how realistic 315 is, but possibly 300.
M Press - Wraps and belt OK, must start from below the chin and be held at the top for minimum of one second.
Bench - Wraps and belt OK, no elbow sleeves, don’t care how you do it as long as you touch the chest and lock it out.
Dead - Belt OK, no straps unless you can’t use chalk, can be whatever variation you want.
Squat - Belt and even knee sleeves are ok I guess, no wraps though. Can be whatever variation you want as long as its to depth, we can all be the judge of each others depth.
Gotta film your claims though, the one exception is our starting weights.
There will be awards for Best Relative Strength, Most Righteous Lifting Beard, Best Bloat/Bulk, Best Bro award (first to get upper body ones) and Best Raw Dawg (uses no lifting aids at all).
