I hurt my lower back two weeks ago, and I am still not able to do my usual movements like deadlifts or front squats. I have no issue with split squats.
What movements should I do while my lower back heals? Am I stuck with leg curls and leg press? Thanks in advance.
I have injured my back pretty badly twice in the past year. The first time I just stopped giong to the gym for a few weeks. didn’t even do upperbody lifts. That wasn’t a good move, IMO, but I came back into the gym and felt strong. I jumped right back into my bench and OHP exercises, and timidly worked back into squats and deadlifts.
Felt fine for 8 months, then reinjured it again a few weeks ago while squatting. This time I didn’t take any time off and just did real light deadlift and squat weights while its healing. It seems to be healing slower this time, but I’m hoping to not have to slowly get back into heavy weights once it is healed and can just jump right back.
Big thing to keep in mind is prehab work once you get it sorted out–I obviously didn’t take this advice after my first injury. I won’t make that mistake again. Lots of abwork and psoas stretching from now on.
I sprained my lower back pretty badly a few weeks ago. The leg exercises I’ve found I can do pain-free are: bulgarian split squats, pull-throughs, and 45 degree back-raises.
Hadn’t thought of pull-throughs; I will give those a shot. I’ll try some super light squatting and pulling too.
Does anyone have any recommendations for faster recovery?
If you still can’t squat after 2 weeks, then I’d see a DR. 2 weeks is a long time.
I considered seeing a doctor, but I am not going to pay good money for someone to tell me not to lift heavy things.
Right now, focus on stretching your hip musculature (hammies, glutes, hip flexors, etc) and using the reverse hyper for reps. That should get you up and moving just fine within a week. You have to get blood flow and ROM back into it or else you will stay tight and prolong the issue.
Make sure to start doing prehab work. Lots of stretching. I too forgot about pull-throughs, although I normally feel them as a hip-through speed movement more than lower back.
I injured myself on Saturday, so I am not good with prehab, but I have done this to myself enough to know how to feel better quickly. Hamstring tightness is my number 1 issue. I need to do some dedicated lower back strengthening too.
I, too, have had to deal with back pain. The main source of the pain was glute weakness and tight hips. I agree with nate and vtballa…stretch the hip musculature as often as you can and foam roll/pvc/lax ball a ton. I found that doing high rep 45 degree back extensions while emphasizing glute contraction helped quite a bit.
[quote]evitagen wrote:
I considered seeing a doctor, but I am not going to pay good money for someone to tell me not to lift heavy things.[/quote]
Right, because screwing up your back even more is the macho thing to do.
Even if my back is so fucked that I can squat 235, I still usually work up to heavy weights on good mornings. Not that this is great idea. However, lighter good mornings feel like they help stretch my back and alleviate pressure in the SI joint will still traingin my glute/hamstrings/core/etc.
[quote]Wild_Iron_Gym wrote:
[quote]evitagen wrote:
I considered seeing a doctor, but I am not going to pay good money for someone to tell me not to lift heavy things.[/quote]
Right, because screwing up your back even more is the macho thing to do.
[/quote]
I once saw a doctor about sciatica, and that was his advice, hence why I am not too keen to throw money away again. Despite posting on the T-Nation forums anonymously, I do not think of myself as macho.
well what about just not doing deadlift or squat while your back healths…but you can still train your back…traps…with alot of rows and shrugs and pin pull so you dont lose much strenght in the deadlift…
also dont do seated shoulder presses
foam roller + Jack’s Blue heat! Stretch your hammies and strengthen you abs.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned yet other one-legged lifts. I’m talking pistol squats, one-legged Romanian deadlifts, one-legged deadlifts with dumbells. These have been godsend exercises for me and my back. The stress on one’s back is reduced tremendously while one’s legs get all the workout one might want.
Yet another idea involves more high-rep (lower weight) exercises. There have been a few articles on this over the past year. The most recent one that comes to mind is nick tuminello’s article describing body weight leg complexes.
Take the back pain as an “opportunity” to switch things up and try something new. These exercises will leave you panting for breath and sore (in places other than your back).
Maybe it’s just me but (especially with the location of this thread being in the Powerlifting forum) I just feel as if single leg work takes such a back seat to anything else. You just can’t move the kind of weight needed. I actually have seen less emphasis on unilateral movement by some of the bigger names in the game over the last few years.
That said, they could work great as warm up work, mobility work, or if you just squeeze them in as accessory work.
Am I alone in my thinking? Maybe I am wrong and it’s something I NEED to include to continue down my quest for proper pre-hab.
[quote]dr.mcmc wrote:
I’m surprised no one has mentioned yet other one-legged lifts. I’m talking pistol squats, one-legged Romanian deadlifts, one-legged deadlifts with dumbells. These have been godsend exercises for me and my back. The stress on one’s back is reduced tremendously while one’s legs get all the workout one might want.
Yet another idea involves more high-rep (lower weight) exercises. There have been a few articles on this over the past year. The most recent one that comes to mind is nick tuminello’s article describing body weight leg complexes.
Take the back pain as an “opportunity” to switch things up and try something new. These exercises will leave you panting for breath and sore (in places other than your back). [/quote]
These are good tips. But since OP put this in the PL forum and not the Injuries and Rehab section, I assumed he wants to minimize the impact to his PL training as much as possible. I think the single leg stuff is awesome for mobility work, but I definitely recommend trying to hit the main PL movements as much as possible. Not too thirlled with hypertrophy work or switching it up a bit.
belt squats (no loading of the spine and lower back)