Thread: lower back ache

Drop the weights until its light.
Work on your form or if possible, grab someone to work out with to work on your form.
Everyone begins to work on form. Give it several weeks to learn the proper technique before lifting heavy

i've got good form.
But i'm just wondering whether it's too heavy for my lower back. My back is straight but i dont feel like my lower back can handle it

The thing is I dont get any lower back pain pre/post workout or even the day after.
It's just after playing football.
Hip instability maybe?

Yeah not instability I don't think, but if you just started working out, then your muscles are adapting to the new muscles you're hittin from the work out, and funny thing is I got the same thing after soccer, which is normal.. you do pretty much move your whole body through playing football, remember that.. you shift your body when you run, jump up and down, etc.

i am thinking this is something you should message p-funk about , before you decide the course of action to take lower back is a very serious injury

It could be a few things. But your lower back basically pumps like a piston with each step, one side then the other side. An hour of soccer is alot of lower back support. Throw that in with a bunch of other shit and youre set up for some pain.

I agree P-Funk could better assist you.

very impressive pics "Natty" i mean merkaba, i always remeber your posts by that line, not your screen name

never got this level of ache before, and I play soccer all the time.

Maybe it's because I've been out with an injury and have hardly done any running (except for the bus) over the past few months?

I'll message p-funk

Another question without opening a new topic: stretch marks!!

How to stop?? I've been taking vitamin E and fish oil (only 3g a day but i go through a 2 cans of tuna day, as well as multivit) and I don't know how to make them stop. I'm prone to scarring/stretch marks cos my knees (yea wtf did my bone start growing on its own) and butt have stretch marks from when I used to sprint in my biggest growth spurt.
Now I'm getting a few spits and spats on my chest and my right arm has quite a few. How can I prevent them??

well maybe youre reaching the point of break down? just because it hasnt happened before means nothing. But again, it could be who knows what. I think everyone should get a chiropractor/physician x ray and examine their spine/pelvis if they never have. Many people have scoliosis and other abnormalities and never know it.

Stretch marks...good luck. I've had em since high school.

Do you do enough hamstring/posterior chain work to balance out the pushing work you do for quads etc?

Soccer is very much an anterior sport and very brutal on the hamstrings because of all the impact forces going through the quads.

If your hamstrings are too weak to counteract these forces, might result in a ham pull or perhaps a pull higher up the posterior chain in your back.

Just a thought!

I alternate quad dominant and ham dominant workouts, but always consisting of squats. I do as much posterior chain as the (anterior?) but it seems my hams and glutes benefit most from the workouts

Just so long as its a 1:1 ratio or as close as dammit. Same as the deal with back and front of your upper body really.

Squats/Deads
Leg Ext/Leg Curl
Lunge/Single Leg RDL

Etc etc. Was just an idea anyways, your best bet if the problem persists would be to see a specialist - a balance in training will always help these things though.

Also comprehensive warmups/cooldowns/flexibility work.

There isn't anything that can change the nature of the sport however.

You might need to re-evaluate, the role "Stretching" has in your warm ups before your soccer matches, and possibly spend more time on that. Weight training does make you tight, and can compromise your flexibility. I played college football in the states, we weight trained like crazy, and we also were required to stretch a great deal.
Big Back 51

Train your muscles the way you intend to use them.

You are training your back for sets of 5 to 10 reps and for 3 to 6 sets.

You are using your back for 30 seconds to 90 seconds total (not counting rests).

On the other hand when you play soccer for an hour you are working the back for probably 30 minutes with lower intensity.

It does not surprise me that your back aches--it is probably not an injury, but rather a muscle spasm (tightening of the muscles due to weakness or overwork).

Train your muscles the way you intend to use them at least once per week and you will eliminate the lower back aches.

I like hitting the heavy bag for this--10 minutes will have you panting for air and will work your lower back if you execute properly.

I wish I had the answers. I would think building lower back muscles would be good. Either that or you are building muscles in an area that is pulling and straining the muscles in your lower back.
But I was just wonder the same question. I have lower back problems. Sometimes when I work out, sometimes when I'm just standing at the kitchen sink for two long.
Maybe when you are playing you are actually working the muscles in your lower back, but then again I'm not sure if you are having a 'worked muscle' pain or a pulled, bad pain. Good luck, I'm going to stay tuned to hear the results myself.

it was less of a pain and more of an ache/discomfort

it wasnt pulled at all, but it happened the same day as i played soccer so it couldnt be a "worked muscle" ache such as doms? and it was most uncomfortable when i was sat down

All I can say is if this discomfort continues, rest for a couple days, consume alot of protein to repair body tissues.

Could be a variety of reasons. Could be your mechanics are off or you have a dysfunction going on somewhere. In which case noone here can really help you because it would require an assessment done in person. For this you may need to find the appropriate specialist.

If could be an issue of warm up. Look up dynamic stretching and check out the stickies at the top for general warm ups before intensive activity.

The other thing i can throw out off the top of my head would be that if you haven't been playing soccer for a while but training hard in the gym then you add soccer back in...It could put you over the line and something might give. So it might be worth it to scale back your training a bit and to properly incorporate the soccer playing days with the weight training days. I mean unless you just eff around with your buddies, soccer is a pretty intense sport with tons of jogging and sprints, jumps etc interspersed throughout. Thats some pretty serious abuse on the whole body, add 2-3 heavy workouts with squats, deads etc where you are going all out and your body will start to break down on you.

When I was in climbing shape (the best shape of my life) I was running 5 miles four times a week and riding my bike 20 miles every evening (weather permitted) and logging another 100 miles over the weekend.

All that in addition to my regular weight training program.

The week before I was to go on my climb I wanted to back off on the training to rest up a bit. So I took that time off and since I had all that time on my hands, I decided to paint the living room and dining room of my house.

This is not hard work, but then next day my back ached.

Unfamiliar exercise will invariably cause some sort of unusual muscle fatigue, no matter what kind of condition you are in.