For a long while now I’ve been getting stiffness in my lower back, and this is normally the next day and so forth after I’ve deadlifted. My back never hurts when I’m squatting or deadlifting, due to stretching of the glutes,hips and hams beforehand, but it’s always really tight and somewhat painful for the next few days, making it hard to do anything work-related. Is this normal for all lifters?? .
Also Some times when I’m just walking around or making any sudden movement, my lower back will just tighten up out of nowhere which ends up slowing down my movement. Does this mean I’m getting a disc bulge?? I don’t feel any strain on my lower back just stiffness that makes it hard to walk at times. I’m hoping someone can answer this because I’m afraid of deadlifting every single week so I’ve cut it down to every other week, so I don’t develop any serious back problems. People who deadlift at my gym always use a belt when they’re lifting for reps over the 3 plate range, should I start doing the same thing since I’m currently lifting beltless??
no has to be a form issue. Are you getting your hips down nice and low before executing the movement? I stopped doing deadlifts cause I just had a hard time getting my form down and that I look back. I was always starting the movement with more back/lower back involvement with less hip and leg drive. Which cause me to feel exactly like you.
see look at Kirk Karwoski he squats beforehand to get his hips low and get his groove going for where to start the drive up. Kirk Karwoski - YouTube
Of course there is no way I can tell for certain, but I would HIGHLY suspect that your problem (or at least part of it) is a muscular imbalance called lower crossed syndrome.
Here’s an article that I wrote on just this topic. Yeah, it was written for the women at figure athlete, but the information is the same.
[quote]Carlitosway wrote:
no has to be a form issue. Are you getting your hips down nice and low before executing the movement? I stopped doing deadlifts cause I just had a hard time getting my form down and that I look back. I was always starting the movement with more back/lower back involvement with less hip and leg drive. Which cause me to feel exactly like you.
see look at Kirk Karwoski he squats beforehand to get his hips low and get his groove going for where to start the drive up. Kirk Karwoski - YouTube
man that video is fucking bad ass, for some reason i can’t keep my back neutral when i convential deadlift so recently ive been using sumo DL’s…working pretty decent so far.
[quote]Carlitosway wrote:
Growing_Boy wrote:
Rack pull and forget about the back pain
Or I agree with that also mi compa. Very hard to mess up rack deadlifts.
[/quote]
Fuck yeah ese. I cleared 405 from the floor, fucked up my back and got it somewhat fixed and never went back to that shit. Fuck pulling from the floor. Rack pulls isolate the back and nothing else.
I had one c6-c7 hernia repair and a second cervical ruptured disc without surgery and was told by the Neuro surgeon that if the pain is muscular and central to the back and not a shooting burning pain down your leg with increasing weakness or numbness then it is PROBALY soft tissue damage. MRI will give you a definate diagnosis, but I would work on rehab regardless because surgery is not always 100% fix and might make it worse.
It could be from wear and tear on discs, and you are right to be cautious. But I experienced aching and pain in and near the spine when I was injuring my discs, not just stiffness. It wasn’t just a tight feeling, it was actual pain. But your CNS could be stiffening the spinal muscles to stabilize the spine due to instability or injury around a spinal joint, and that would of course be bad.
On the other hand, it may be just muscle soreness/stiffness that’s normal after training, especially after heavy/slow eccentrics. Are you lowering slowly?
It’s also normal to feel fine during the training due to the adrenaline, endorphins, and enhanced blood flow to the muscle, even if something about your form or loading is actually causing damage.
I think it’s a bad idea to stretch glutes or hams before squats and deadlifts.
