Hey all,
I’ve been noticing during my squats/deads that my lower back seems to be holding back my strength, as I rarely feel the emphasis in the posterior chain where I want it. I’ve searched around a bit and the experts seem to favor Good Mornings and Reverse Hypers to improve lower back strength.
Any other suggestions or methods that have worked for any of you??
I’ve found narrow stance GMs target it better than wide stance. I go down until my upper back starts to round and then back up. Back extensions are pretty simple and effective too. Dimel deadlifts are another good option. I think the key to lower back work is to keep the reps higher (10-15). It’s easy to beat yourself up to the point it’ll affect the rest of your training.
This is my problem right now. Its holding back my squat. What I’ve noticed with myself is it is not a strength issue at all. My best comp deadlift is 771. I’ve pulled 825 in training, close GM’ed 405 for 10, RDL’ed 625 for 6, and done many many other exercises that I hoped would strengthen my back but I still have not been able to get over 700. What has been helping is re-evaluating my form. I do not arch hard enough to keep the bar in a good position. Mobility work has helped tremendously over the last couple weeks. Extensive warm-ups have also helped.
Do a search on hip mobility exercises. Also, if you go to elitefts.com and get the Strength Stretching with Pavel Tsaouris (or however the hell you spell it) DVD you’ll find some GREAT stuff on there. I honestly think everyone who squats, benches, and deadlifts should watch that at least 500 times. Hoped this helped. Good Luck buddy.
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
Extensive warm-ups have also helped.
[/quote]
What does your typical warmup look like?
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
get the Strength Stretching with Pavel Tsaouris (or however the hell you spell it) DVD you’ll find some GREAT stuff on there. [/quote]
Pavel Tsatsouline.
I have this problem also when squatting and my back doesn’t seem like it should be the weak link. I might have to check out this DVD.
I’ve noticed this too and I think I’ve had the same experience as Stormfront.
I noticed that squats fatigued my low back a lot more than anything else. I thought it was weak lower back too but really it was my form. I was going too low without the necessary flexibility which caused slight rounding at the bottom. I ended up GM’ing a lot of squat reps when I got fatigued. Because I was putting a lot of unnecessary stress on my back I think it actually made my back stronger. For a while, I think all my squatting training really helped my deadlift more than my squat. My deadlift got a lot stronger relative to squat and bench. I did hypers, GMs, etc. trying to strengthen my lowerback, and it worked, but it did not address the true problem.
For me, I had to learn to cut the squats a tad higher, use proper footwear (Oly shoes in my case), and do consistent hip mobility/stretching.
I found this article to be helpful for my style of squatting:
http://www.cathletics.com/articles/index.php?show=shorty&shortyID=55
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
This is my problem right now. Its holding back my squat. What I’ve noticed with myself is it is not a strength issue at all. My best comp deadlift is 771. I’ve pulled 825 in training, close GM’ed 405 for 10, RDL’ed 625 for 6, and done many many other exercises that I hoped would strengthen my back but I still have not been able to get over 700. What has been helping is re-evaluating my form. I do not arch hard enough to keep the bar in a good position. Mobility work has helped tremendously over the last couple weeks. Extensive warm-ups have also helped.
Do a search on hip mobility exercises. Also, if you go to elitefts.com and get the Strength Stretching with Pavel Tsaouris (or however the hell you spell it) DVD you’ll find some GREAT stuff on there. I honestly think everyone who squats, benches, and deadlifts should watch that at least 500 times. Hoped this helped. Good Luck buddy.[/quote]
I like this advice.
More often than not with intermediate and beyond lifters, the problem is not a lower back strength issue, but a technical one.
I too agree with StormTheBeach.
Get them hips really warmed up, roll out your IT band, do some mobility work before any squat/deadlift (and every day wouldnt’ hurt) day.
I really like doing pull through and GHR work to get my hips/glutes stronger. This helps me fire my lower back and ass on pulling and squatting.
So many times to I see my guys squatting and not pulling through. Then I tell them what they can do to help (pull the hips through) and they nail the next set.
Good luck!!
[quote]J.Rex wrote:
[quote]StormTheBeach wrote:
Extensive warm-ups have also helped.
[/quote]
What does your typical warmup look like?
[/quote]
Foam Roll for a few minutes- depends if i find any trigger points
Forward and Later Leg swings for a few sets of 8
If Squatting- Wall Squats for a few sets of 5<~~~~ look it up, probably the best way to feel what squatting should feel like
If I am feeling good after all that, I’ll get right into it, start with a bar warm-up for a couple sets of 10, then start moving up.
If I’m not feeling good, I might do some lunges in every direction possible until my hips feel opened up.
It looks like a lot of stuff but the hardest part is doing it and doing it consistantly
[quote]B rocK wrote:
So many times to I see my guys squatting and not pulling through. Then I tell them what they can do to help (pull the hips through) and they nail the next set.
[/quote]
I’m confused. What is pulling through referring to when squatting? What movement? What part of the lift? You mean the lockout (if one can talk about such a thing in the squat)?
@StormTheBench, thanks for reminding me about leg swings.
this all makes sense. I have lower back issues as well and pull around 660lb, but rarily max and push my deads to often because I always get a huge pump in my lower back, and feel disjointed for at least a couple days after. Just last week I did 10 reps of 495 on DL and regretted it…
I look try warming up more and working on flexibility.