Lower back pain...Squat Help

[metalman]

I have been trying to get my main lifts up such as squats, deads, press, bench and pulls. Unfortunately, every time I get near my personal best for squats my back starts to really hurt the day after training...and I know I'm about to get some serious responses from the more experienced lifters, but I think it is from shifting to complete ATG squats (instead of stopping at parallel).

The problem I believe is that once I go past square with the floor, I cannot keep an inflection in my back even without any weight. The result is usually a slight lower back injury, and therefore I do not know what to do. Everyone preaches about going as far down as you can, but how do you manage to keep your back from relaxing/arching outward as you go past parallel? I am quite flexible and really focus on proper form, but this really hurts, and repetitively injuring myself is not fun.

Please, any advice would be much appreciated.

I am 6'0, 190 lbs, 12-14% BF, but can only load about 60 lbs a side to the bar for my squats without hurting myself and it has been completely detrimental to my training...now and in the past...this is really crushing my motivation, and for that matter overall health. I can barely even sit in a chair at work right now.

For now, I am going to take a week off of squatting reset my weights to much lower (for the 5th time) and work up again.

[dku]

I'd say go as low as you can while keeping good form and see how that feels the next day. You can work on your flexibility to get lower.

[Danger]

Hard to say without actually seeing your form but I would suggesting trying a wider stance and really focusing on keeping your core tight with a belly full of air, squats are a full body exercise and the tighter you can keep everything the stronger you will be.

Also try to bring your hands in as close to your neck as possible keeping your shoulder blades super tight, that lets your upper back keep the weight in place and really forces your core into a tighter position.

And like DKU mentioned if you have been squatting parallel for a long time dont expect to take the same weights ATG its going to take time.

[O-Train]

You may want to get your back looked at if you are experiencing enough pain to make sitting uncomfortable. You may have done something to your back that you arn't aware of and squatting is slowing down the healing/aggravating the injury, although I'm not sure.

I can definitely tell you that your hamstrings are too tight and that stretching will help although it may not solve the problem. It's impossible to keep a proper pelvic tilt with tight hamstrings because (in laymans terms) they will pull your butt underneath you and transfer a great deal of the load directly onto the lower part of your back.

[Ritch]

going all the way down is good, but never focused on that myself and it never stopped me from developing big legs. Parallel is fine, and most people will tend to naturally lean over when they go ATG. People are over obsessing with this ATG thing.

[BritishColumbian]

No one can really help you without being there to see your form and stuff. When I was having an issue with squats last year (lower back pain next day like yours) I quit doing squats for a month and stuck to leg press, the one where you lay on your back, And I would use about 200lbs and let it come all the way down till my legs were almost in my chest, real slow up and down like a streching exercise. This helped me to gain lower back strength and strecthing. When I went back to squats I was suprized / no pain / strength/ good form. Now I do a leg press and ham warm up before squats and lovin it!

[tex]

you need to work on your posterior chain....lower back, glutes and hamstrings.....dont forget abs! do some leg raises for abs. start squatting wide stance and really sit back when you squat. good mornings, glute/ham raise, reverse hyper and lots of ab work will get you on the way to big squats

[tiramisu]

Video your sets. It may be helpful to identify if the issue is technique related or if the weight is just to heavy. Watching the video and thinking about what's holding you back will help you figure out how to work on it more effectively.

Check out the starting strength wiki for squat form video. Buy the book for great instruction. If you don't mind criticism you can post your squat video and get some constructive feedback.

Good squating technique takes practice and it helps if you are practicing the right technique.

[metalman]

Thanks for the input guys... I am going to take a week off of the squats and heal up, and then I am going to build it up again from a lower weight, absolutely focusing on maintaining a straight back even at the expense of ATG. I feel that with time, stretching and warm-ups I may be able to slowly work to get lower than parallel, but for now that should be far enough.

[spankmonkey]

This may seem a weird question, but when you are at work what percentage of your day is spent sitting?
Baring structural damage your pain is probably attributed to muscular dysfunction which could be unillateral strength differences, or muscle tension. It could be triggers which may be refering pain or any combination thereof. There are simple tests which can be conducted to determin any of the above and I think, as mentioned by someone already, go and make an appointment with a professional. I would suggest a good chiro who will take x-rays to rule out structural issues and maybe a good RMT.
Good luck and keep us posted.

[Timbo89]

id reccomend hack squats. i mean I know they arent as good, but its gonna save your back man.

[Drummer]

helps to have a spotter with his hands on your chest to help keep you from leaning forward until you get the feel for it. It really helped me when i decided to go all the way down.

~D~

[Scaffer]

do a light set first,activate your glutes,quads and hams and also your core.

[Drummer]

do a light set first,activate your glutes,quads and hams and also your core.

oh yea... forgot this... i start with 135 all the way down, stay there, stretch, slowly up. I do 4 rising warmup sets like this. It really helps with your heavy lift!

~D~

[metalman]

Well I have been taking the week off of squats in order to let my back heal. Its starting to feel a little better so I am thinking I should be good to go in about 5-7 days pending any other problems. Thanks to all the posters who have offered advice, some of it should be quite helpful.

Just a note:
-I do sit all day at work
-I usually do a few sets of low weight warm ups and build up to my working sets to avoid injury
-I may see a doctor before I hit the squats real hard next week depending on how well my injury feels
- in the future I am going to stop at parallel or just below to avoid injury, and will work on my flexibility and form without weights or with low weight before I try and get lower.

Thanks again

[monkey]

I used to get backpain form squats. Mainly from going to heavy which prevented me from utilizing a proper form.
Something else that personally helps me, besides squatting properly of course is a proper warm up. Get those core and glut muscles warmed up and loose if they happen to be tight. Happens usually to people who sit a lot...

[poncho101]

honestly it totally depends on the kind of training you do. i almost see no one ever going all the way down and if ppl are going all the way down its definitly going to be high reps and low weight... dont see much of a point in going so low, if you really want that stretch, go to the leg press.