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Lower back injuries from lifting

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Posted by: robjfinn

i was wondering if anyone had any advice on lower back injuries from lifting...

around 6 months ago I tore a muscle in my lower back deadlifting....i have been lifting (mainly for fitness) for a while, I am 28, 220lb, and sustained the injury during a set of 315lb deadlifts (which normally were not a problem).
I took about 3 months off all exercise and then tentatively restarted... lifting 2x week, running/cardio 2-3 week. i did some light deadlifting (upto 200lbs) - routine was full body 10 exercises 2 sets of 12......for convenience (and lack of a power rack) I did squats on a smith machine (most recently upto 295lb ish).
Today I switched to a v basic powerlifting routine (from Paul Kelso's book).... worked up some free squats & managed to tear a similar muscle on my last set (275 lbs)......its all getting really frustrating.

does anyone have any advice on how to avoid this in future and what kind of routine i can do to build them up again safely. i guess that since i only did smith machine squats + light deadlifts, my lower back stabilizing muscles are significantly weaker than they were and free squats just overloaded them too quickly......
ultimately my fitness aim wud be to lose 20-25lbs, do some more running & maintain my current strength levels.

any advice is greatly appreciated

tx

rob finn


Posted by: juggernaut2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by robjfinn View Post
i was wondering if anyone had any advice on lower back injuries from lifting...

around 6 months ago I tore a muscle in my lower back deadlifting....i have been lifting (mainly for fitness) for a while, I am 28, 220lb, and sustained the injury during a set of 315lb deadlifts (which normally were not a problem).
I took about 3 months off all exercise and then tentatively restarted... lifting 2x week, running/cardio 2-3 week. i did some light deadlifting (upto 200lbs) - routine was full body 10 exercises 2 sets of 12......for convenience (and lack of a power rack) I did squats on a smith machine (most recently upto 295lb ish).
Today I switched to a v basic powerlifting routine (from Paul Kelso's book).... worked up some free squats & managed to tear a similar muscle on my last set (275 lbs)......its all getting really frustrating.

does anyone have any advice on how to avoid this in future and what kind of routine i can do to build them up again safely. i guess that since i only did smith machine squats + light deadlifts, my lower back stabilizing muscles are significantly weaker than they were and free squats just overloaded them too quickly......
ultimately my fitness aim wud be to lose 20-25lbs, do some more running & maintain my current strength levels.

any advice is greatly appreciated

tx

rob finn
I know everyone gets injured but if you're tearing the same muscle twice... then you might wanna hire a trainer to show you how to perform these exercises!


Posted by: P-funk

maybe you didn't rehab properly.

maybe you are doing something wrong

maybe those just aren't good lifts for you (poor levers)

Pretty tough to tell without seeing you lift and know what you did for rehab.


Posted by: fUnc17

How do you know you "tore a muscle"? Get xrays, or an MRI?


Posted by: immigrant

first of all - i'd study nutrition and get your diet spot on. lose the excess weight around your waist while you recuperate from the injury. that should help tremendously w/ back problems.

next - do your rehab correctly and completely, i dunno which muscle is hurt so i can't recommend the excercises, though you can't go wrong w/ straight leg deadlifts (KEEP IT LIGHT), hyperextensions, etc.

one final note - i dunno about anyone else, but the point of bodybuilding for me is to concentrate on blood flow, not how much weight i can squat, or press, or wutever. if i get a good and challenging pump from doing 200 lbs. squats w/ excellent form (peeking stretches & contractions), then i don't see why i should bump the weight up until i've fully mastered that weight. just my two cents.

as Lee Haney once said - "it's about quality, not quantity."

good luck! you'll be back up in no time!


Posted by: robjfinn

Hi, in response to some of the comments :

1. From what I can tell I didn't injure the exact same muscle - just a muscle in the same area - lower back
2. I am not positive that i 'tore a muscle' - it did feel that something tore as I performed the lift, it hurt a lot and put me out of action for several weeks. It may be a strain of sorts but I am not sure (it caused some limited mobility initially).
3. I have done these exercises for years including some small comps in college in UK, so I think I am doing the exercises correctls
4. In relative terms, squats & deadlifts have been my better lifts, with deadlifts being best of all ... deadlift = squat + 50lbs++ for 1-8 reps
5. For my rehab last time :
(a) 3 months off exercise (muscles recovery + work obligations)
(b) some light cardio (mainly running - building run/walk to run 3-4 miles)
(c) introduced full body weight works outs twice a week: each exercise 2 x 12 done in supersets :
day1: smith machine squats, bench press, cable flies, lat pull down, leg ext, leg curl, smith machine upright rows, lat raises, machine bi-curl, tricep push
day2: hack squat, dbell bench, cable row, calf raise, leg press, hammer shoulder press, deadlift, shrugs, bbell curls, dips (bweight + weighted)

6. I guess what has happened is that I rehabbed doing exercises that didn't really work my lower back (deadlifts were light & only introduced later) - then i went from smith machine squat to regular squat and found that my back couldn't handle the weight......should have start regular squats and kept the weight much lighter.

tx

Rob


Posted by: CowPimp

That doesn't sound like much in the way of rehabilitation. Often times with injuries come perturbed motor patterns. This is particularly evident with lower back injuries/pain. Did you goto a doctor when you injured it?


Posted by: robjfinn

i spoke to a general practitioner who has some basic sport medicine background (though not really weight training specific).
when the injury heals (I assume that if its not signficantly better in a week I will go to see someone) what kind of rehab routine to you suggest to strengthen the area again?
Rob


Posted by: P-funk

GP's don't know shit about rehabing injuries.

I would go to a physical therapist (someone exercise based) and learn how to stabilize.

Rehabing back injuries is tricky. No one can give you an idea of what you should be doing without seeing you in person, as there are so many different things that could be wrong.

Could be:
weak hips
lack of mobility in the hips
anterior tilt
posterior tilt
disk problems
faulty gait pattern (again weak hips)
overactive QL
pulled QL
SI dysfunction


get the picture?


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Lower back injuries from lifting


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