Hey guys, I wanted to know if you have any suggestions for my problem. I have lower back pain on the right side of my lumbar. I doesn’t hurt when I Deadlift or do Racklifts, but when I do Back Squats it kills me. Any suggestions?
Goes it hurt during any other time of day, or is it only limited to squats? Any medical history or injuries in that area?
If it’s a squat issue, check your form. Work on tightening your upper back more during the squat and pulling your shoulder blades together. That will help you keep a little more upright and stop the weight from going forward. That or you could look at widening your stance. The eliteFTS videos “so you think you can squat” were a great help to me. Just google the name to find it.
Another very important thing to do is stretch more. If your hamstrings & glutes get tight, you might start to feel it in your lower back first. Foam rolling is also really good. Foam rolling will usually crack my back a lot and straighten everything out.
That’s about all I can say at the moment without more information. There are a lot of possible causes, but you didn’t really give us much to work with.
Get a professional to check it out, may be the start of lumbar disc issue, SQ hits my back hardest especially when trying to go deep (for me) DL doesnt involve any where near the same low back position.
SI joint could be dysfunctional. See a chiropractor or physical therapist.
[quote]butter829 wrote:
Hey guys, I wanted to know if you have any suggestions for my problem. I have lower back pain on the right side of my lumbar. I doesn’t hurt when I Deadlift or do Racklifts, but when I do Back Squats it kills me. Any suggestions?[/quote]
Stop squatting till the pain goes away. I had mild pain in my back for a couple months and never thought much of it, some days were better than others, but I felt shitty squatting most of the time. One week during this period I decided to try to match my 10 rep max (using 405), even though that day my back felt shitty. I completed the set without any sudden failure, however a few hours later I developed bad sciatic pain, lost the function of my calf muscle and half my foot went numb. I had 6 weeks of bad pain, couldn’t sit or stand or even lie in bed without pain. 4 months later I am still having nerve problems, however my calf seems to be slowly progressing and I have been pain free for a while.
Moral of the story - don’t squat if it is causing pain. Take the time off and fix your problem.
I hurt my back when squatting too. It was fine the whole day of the squat. The next morning I woke up and couldn’t walk. I went to the doctor and he thought that I might have compressed a disc in my lumbar spine. Then he told me to come back if I felt any numbness in my feet or legs because that could be a sign of a disc herniation and nerve damage.
Seriously Joe84, go to the doctor.
[quote]GSD wrote:
I hurt my back when squatting too. It was fine the whole day of the squat. The next morning I woke up and couldn’t walk. I went to the doctor and he thought that I might have compressed a disc in my lumbar spine. Then he told me to come back if I felt any numbness in my feet or legs because that could be a sign of a disc herniation and nerve damage.
Seriously Joe84, go to the doctor.[/quote]
I’ve been to a neuro already. I know I have nerve damage, there is nothing to do to fix it, except wait and see if it heals over the course of 18 months or so. A dr will not do anything unless you have bowel problems. The point of my storey was to tell the OP to stop squatting if its causing pain because it can lead to serious problems.
I’ve stopped doing back squats for a couple of months and my lower back has recovered well. I have no pain anymore and I’ve been doing front squats and rack lifts to test it and see how it feels and so far pretty good. But every now and then, it feels a little tight. I don’t think I have any disc problems though.
Also, I’ve started getting massages every month and that seemed to help a lot.
[quote]GSD wrote:
Goes it hurt during any other time of day, or is it only limited to squats? Any medical history or injuries in that area?
If it’s a squat issue, check your form. Work on tightening your upper back more during the squat and pulling your shoulder blades together. That will help you keep a little more upright and stop the weight from going forward. That or you could look at widening your stance. The eliteFTS videos “so you think you can squat” were a great help to me. Just google the name to find it.
Another very important thing to do is stretch more. If your hamstrings & glutes get tight, you might start to feel it in your lower back first. Foam rolling is also really good. Foam rolling will usually crack my back a lot and straighten everything out.
That’s about all I can say at the moment without more information. There are a lot of possible causes, but you didn’t really give us much to work with.[/quote]
Ya, I’ve started stretching a lot and working on my posture, that’s helped too. thanks for the suggestions.