Low Back Injury... Too Much Time Between Sets?

I pulled my low back, fairly seriously, for the second time this year. The first time, I did a high intensity set of deadlifts (405 X 9) as a top set, then I went about my business at the gym, finishing out back. My buddy came in and wanted to squat. I said I would do a set of 20 with him. Loaded the bar with 135, 225 for warm ups. Planned on hitting 315 for a set of 20 ( i had done 335 the previous week no problem0, went down for the FIRST rep, felt pain in low back.

Fast forward to yesterday. I did a high intensity top set of deadlifts at 425 x 5, then I sat, bullshitting with a guy for around 20 minutes. I hadn’t planned to do another set, but I felt that my rest period was long enough. I took 20 lbs off the bar, planning to do 405 x 7 or 8. I hurt my back on the pull to get it off the floor?

What was the problem? In each instance, the high itensity top sets felt solid. The weights that I hurt myself on are not heavy for me relative to maximal effort. Do you think I waited to long between sets and cooled down too much? I need to figure this thing out or I gotta quit squatting and deadlifting. I missed a week of work last time, and it seems that this time is worse, i can barely walk at the moment.

It is probably a technique issue or endurance factor of your low back/core musculature. Are you going into lumbar flexion at the bottom of your deadlift/squat? Initiating movement with your lowback first?

A lot of times with low back injuries, it isn’t the one specific moment that you hurt it, but instead it is a cumulative effect from previous poor movement patterns, etc.