Why Your Lower Back Rounds During Squats & How to Fix it
Nov 14th, 2007 by Mehdi Tags: Exercise, Squat, Strength Training, Weight Lifting
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Lower back rounds during Squats
Posted by Woo! in StrongLifts.com Forums:
I can Squat under parallel a little without my lower back rounding, but after that it does. Will glute activation help or should I do something else?
I can’t touch my toes yet. I can touch the tops of my shoes though, the top fleshy part above the laces tart of shin area. Is this why my lower back rounds? I can’t really explain it but I just round if I Squat lower than parallel.
Is lower back tightness possible without having your chest forward? I haven’t been paying attention to my chest but my back is tight. So hopefully it was fine in the past and I do it naturally. Otherwise, I’ll make sure I keep my chest forward.
Coaching Wesley. Wesley is a friend of my brother, who became my friend too. He never lifted weights seriously before. He started StrongLifts 5×5 Beginner Program 4 weeks ago & trains in my home gym under my supervision.
Wesley is strong. Deadlifted 5×100kg & Overhead Pressed 5×5 40kg last week. He does competitive Frisian Handball. He’s in the off season until spring and wants to build muscle & strength during the next months.
Wesley’s Squat. The picture at the top shows Wesley’s Squat technique in week 2. There are several things wrong with Wesley’s Squat on that picture, things we’re working at. For now focus on his lower back. It rounds.
When Woo! asked why his lower back rounds during Squats, my initial response was: keep your chest up. I thought his whole back was rounding. Then came Wesley & did what looked exactly the same as what Woo! wrote.
Here’s a video of Wesley doing an Overhead Squat. It shows how his — and I suppose Woo! too — back rounds during Squats. Pay attention to Wesley’s lower back: it tucks in when he reaches parallel.
Why Your Lower Back Rounds. Just like Woo!, Wesley can’t touch his toes. He told me he has “a weak back”: his back hurts when standing for long periods. His hamstrings often get tight when playing Frisian Handball.
There are 2 reasons why his lower back rounds:
- Tight Hamstrings. When you Squat, your hamstrings pull the pelvis downwards which makes your lower back round. Normally, you have to Squat deep before this happens. Unless you lack hamstring flexibility.
- Weak Back. Now it’s not really a weak back, but I need to give it a name. What happens is that Wesley doesn’t know how to keep his back tight during the Squat. He loses lower back tightness. Yelling didn’t help.
How To Fix Rounding of the Lower Back. Keeping your chest up still applies. You can’t round your back if you keep your chest up. Keep your chest up on all exercises. Other things I have Wesley do:
- Hamstrings Stretches. Leg swings don’t work. He can’t keep his pelvis still. I make him do goodmorning hamstring stretches which he says hurt a lot. I understand he needs to do them more.
- Squat Stretch. Great exercise to stretch the adductors & get used to Squatting below parallel. Sets of 20-30 sec. He had problems keeping that position for more than 10 seconds at first, but has improved since.
- Supermans. Picture below. Supermans teach him to use his lower back muscles so his back stays tight during Squats. Sets of 10 holds.
- Box Squats. His idea. He felt he needed a reference point to hit the same depth on every rep. I’ve added sets of Box Squats to his program.
Supermans
Correct technique necessary to increase the weight isn’t there yet. But flexibility improves: the Squat position feels more comfortable & it takes his lower back longer to round. His Squat technique will be ok by next month.
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I’ve been trying to figure out why I’m stalled on squats, and I think this may be the answer. I’m not rounding my back on every rep, but when I get tired and feel like I’m really going to need to push out of the bottom of the rep, for some reason I start by tucking my hips under (thus rounding my lower back) before pushing back up. It’s a bad habit and it actually results in me missing more reps, but now that I’ve figured out what I’m doing, I can use these tips to fix it. Thanks!
Hi, There may be problems with glutes. My glutes seem to be fiberized. (Sorry, I don’t know exact word of it…@@) The condition is like that when I lie flat on the floor and rise my thighs toward my chest, I only can keep my thighs near 90 degree from the floor. I know most people can have their thighs larger than 90 degree or even touch their chests. Thus the flexibility of my glutes is limited and I can not even squat being parallel to the horizon.
Thank you, great timing once again since I was just puzzling my lower back rounding last workout myself.
PS: A picture of a proper good morning stretch would have been nice… I mean should I bend my knees a bit or do them straight legged ?
PS2: Frisian handball…. *LOL* I’ve been doing that all through my childhood and didn’t know what you were referring to untill I clicked the link and saw the image
The reason for lower back rounding will vary person to person. The best thing person can do is analyze his posture for anomalies like pelvic tilt and get them fixed. Also note that you would do more harm by stretching the weak muscle..the aim should be to strengthen weak muscle and stretch tight muscles…magnificent Mobility is a good reference point for these stuff or one can check “Neanderthal no more” series on t-nation.
yay! my favorite post
anyways, my situation is a little worse than his. he barely rounds! for the stretches you posted, are they common ones you can find on the internet? i’ve never heard of those before except superman.
chest up=extend rib cage out, yes? and for squeezing glutes, i try to do it on the descent but i don’t seem to be getting it right. however, i can squeeze quite pushing out of the hole. anything wrong here?
Arnose > You mean lying back on the floor, rising on leg & trying to bring your knee closer to your chest with straight leg. I think you mean tight hamstrings not glutes. That would give the same problem as in this post yes.
Wazzup > Thanks for the digg
Goodmorning stretch with slightly bend knees, not locked. I didn’t include them because I don’t like any stretch where the knee is in a near locked position (topic of a future post). If you can do leg swings, do them. Actually he does “kaatsen” not Frisian Handball. Frisian handball is on grass, he does a “street version”.
Harsh > I tried the exercises from Magnificent Mobility (you’ll recognize the leg swings) with Wesley. Didn’t work well. Lack of muscle control to do exercises correctly, lack of flexibility to do exercises correctly, etc. Agreed that the pelvis could be a problem & that more glute activation work might be needed in that case. Surprisingly Wesley did not have symptoms of lordosis.
WOO! > You’re welcome. You won’t be able to squeeze your glutes well at the bottom because of the position you’re in. Just focus on trying to squeeze the glutes it will work. What stretch do you need exactly?
I can’t see the video sadly (my PC) but I suspect ankle mobility may also play a part too. Have you tested his ankle mobility Medhi? If so how was it?
No problem with his ankles David. Heels stay on the floor during the whole movement while his knees come way over his toes in the Overhead Squat video.
My back rounds slighlty at the bottom of the squat too. I found this video on youtube from the jpfitness forum about lower back rounding and how to solve that problem.
Great stuff on the ankles. Tracy Fober suggests keeping the shins and the torso parallel which I had not thought about before. Makes sense though.
> Actually he does “kaatsen” not Frisian Handball. Frisian handball is on grass, he does a “street version”.
basically the same thing (different ball though, bigger, softer and no gloves) It’s all called kaatsen (or rather kaetsen)
Also I didn’t get the “leg swings don’t work” and then the “do leg swings”… but the essential is to keep your pelvis still when doing them then they will work. thanks.
aren’t the knees supposed to not pass the toes?
since you said dynamic stretches (leg swings) weren’t working. im looking for clarification on the hamstring stretch and the squat stretch, which i suspect is just touching the toes with straight legs and staying in squat position with the arched back until time stretches the hams to make the back straight?
@wazzup
Leg swings didn’t work for Wesley because he couldn’t stop engaging his hips, with defeated the purpose of the exercise which is stretching the hams. So I had him do goodmorning stretches. I don’t like any stretch where the knee is in a (near) locked position, makes the knee unstabile. Will post about this soon
@Woo!
For a low bar parrallel back squat: yes. As I wrote: there’s a lot wrong in the first pics. Wrists bend, knees over toes, etc. Article was about the lower back rounding.
Picture of the squat stretch is above: you stay in the position for 10-30 sec letting the muscles tight muscles of hams/adductors relax.
Goodmorning stretch. Again: I don’t recommend it, leg swings better. Goodmorning stretches are done by assuming the same position as for barbell rows. upperbody parallel with the floor, knees unlocked but not bend. Chest forward, let hams stretch.
That video of Wesley doing the overhead squat was sort of freaky (no offense to Wesley)- sort of like part of his body had a mind of its own and decided it didn’t want to stick with the program. Definitely some weakness combined with short, tight muscles and connective tissue. In addition to what you have tried, I’d encourage some daily work on foam rollers and other methods to work on trigger points and stretching the tissue. I think I remember you saying in a previous post that you don’t have an ART practitioner available, but having Wesley see someone who can do deep tissue work might help as well. I’d recommend these to arnose as well, based on his posts above.
And not that I doubt your expertise in this Mehdi, but since you have the video anyway, I’d consider paying for an hour of consultation with someone like Mike Robertson, Eric Cressey, etc. They are likely to have seen this before and at least suggest some ways to test to pinpoint better where the problems lie and then how to best address these. Most of this would likely confirm what you are already doing as you’re advice seems sound and fits with what I’ve seen and read as well.
You might also try some single-leg work as a supplement. I’m thinking especially of those exercises that hit the posterior chain well, like step-ups & step-downs (& side step-ups), as well as single leg squats (from a box or pistol squats). If nothing else, you might see if the back rounding is partly aggravated by compensating for a particular weakness on one side.
Finally, I’m wondering about some band work like kick backs as a glute activator/strengthener in a manner similar to a squat that might allow practice bracing the lumbar spine correctly at the same time.
Good luck to Wesley, Woo, arnose, and all others addressing the rounding problem! I suspect the learning to be hyper self-aware of what their bodies are doing during a lift will make them better lifters overall than many who don’t have to learn to undo a glaring problem and therefore don’t develop that keen awareness or have the spur to learn more about lifting better.
Great article,
I have the same problem and last week I began to feel pain doing the squat, my lower back rounded on the first set and on the second I focused on squeezing the glutes and the abs, but the pain was still there…. I’m sure it’s a similar problem because i can’t stand streching legs for more than 10 seconds. I will try those streching tips and see the improvement.
I’ve been following Stronglifts 5×5 for the second week now, it’s great thank you for all this help Mehdi
(and sorry about the english)
No problem about the English, we understand each other. English isn’t my primary language neither.
Lower back pain on Squats can be caused by rounding Caim. Keep the weights light & focus on stretching. Keep us updated Caim.
i always hurt my lower back when i do squats! its in the kidney area and lower back, of course and i dont know what to do! someone please tell me!!
Impossible to help you with that little info Jon. Could be many things. Go StrongLifts.com forum, register for free & explain your story.
i use a low bar position when i squat. i round my lower back right before my hips go lower than my knees. if i didnt do this then i wouldnt be able to balance the weight. wat do i do?
@Paul
Your back shouldn’t round. Work on flexibility as explained in the article.
hi mehdi,i am new to this but my friend is a big fan of this site so i wanted to see if you can help me.i am struggling with squat form.i also get the rounding in the lower back when i reach parallel but also if i go deeper my chest seems to be pulled towards the floor and i lose form.this happens with light and heavy weight.i do have trouble with hamstring flexability but am also concerned about my si joint because i have pain in my right kidney area.can you recommend any good exercises and stretches that can fix this or am i just destined not to do squats.thanks for your help.