This question goes out to any vets of powerlifting, trainers or medical personnel.
Within probably the past six months or so I occasionally felt a pain on one side of my lower back while locking out my heavier set of deadlifts, I thought very little of it as it only happened sporadically, so I took it easy, lowered the weight and did other exercises to work on my deadlift. No contests in the near future and became quite busy with MMA, then Christmas etc etc.
But now I’m back at it, powerlifting, and so is the pain.
I’m a Jr. lifter and I pull in the low 600’s, I hover around 205-210lbs and am 6 feet. My form is pretty sound, not perfect mind you but good, I’m more of a back puller then a squat puller. The pain is only on the left side of my gluteal cleft (crack…sorry, not everyone knows the proper termanology). It occurs only near lockout, once the bar is about half-way up my thigh all the way until full lockout, it feels almost like a pinch more then a sharp pain.
I’ve been unable to replicate the pain, it only occurs with deadlifts over about 70%, I’ve done endless stretching, foam rolling, lower back work to no avail. I’d like some opinions if there are any out there.
THe big thing that helped me with this problem was glute activation work and stretching my hips and ass. It’s the same for a guy I train with. If he lets his glute work slip, it flairs right back up on him.
Is it possible that the “mixed grip”/baseball grip can contribute to pain anywhere along the posterior chain? While using sub-maximal weights the body is able to compensate for the unequal forces placed upon it & thus no real pain. When the weight is near maximal combined with real-world less-than-optimal form, those forces are compounded manifesting itself in pain in the area(s) that are weakest and not able to adjust to the strains imposed upon them.
Everybody has imbalances to some degree…those muscles inserting in those areas combined with the ligaments, fascia etc must be able to handle the stresses we place upon them. Using the mixed grip in the DL over time creates an imbalance & it’s just possible that Power’s is located in the area of the SI joint or possible near his coccygeal area. When he uses maximal weights he feels it as pain in that area. What do you think? Just my 2 cents for whatever it’s worth.
Art
[quote]Hanley wrote:
THe big thing that helped me with this problem was glute activation work and stretching my hips and ass. It’s the same for a guy I train with. If he lets his glute work slip, it flairs right back up on him.[/quote]
I used to have the same problem and the same solution worked for me, especially stretching hip flexors.
I have the same problem and just saw a chiropractor today. He said that it’s actually because my right hip is rotated, possibly from driving, sitting on a wallet, or soccer. That causes me to have pain in my left hip because it is trying to adapt to the rotation on the right side. I do deads tomorrow so we’ll see how it goes.
Is it possible that the “mixed grip”/baseball grip can contribute to pain anywhere along the posterior chain? While using sub-maximal weights the body is able to compensate for the unequal forces placed upon it & thus no real pain. When the weight is near maximal combined with real-world less-than-optimal form, those forces are compounded manifesting itself in pain in the area(s) that are weakest and not able to adjust to the strains imposed upon them.
Everybody has imbalances to some degree…those muscles inserting in those areas combined with the ligaments, fascia etc must be able to handle the stresses we place upon them. Using the mixed grip in the DL over time creates an imbalance & it’s just possible that Power’s is located in the area of the SI joint or possible near his coccygeal area. When he uses maximal weights he feels it as pain in that area. What do you think? Just my 2 cents for whatever it’s worth.
Art
[/quote]
If it helps I’m right handed so my deadlift grip is over-under, right on top, left under.