Image Credit: Cardio Coach
Posted by Sasper in StrongLifts.com Forum:
I tweaked my lower back during Squats. I let my form slip and brought my lower back in towards the front of me. It hurt bad immediately and I had to cancel the rest of my workout.
I had trouble walking and moving around for the next 24 hours. I started taking some ibuprofen to help with the pain and met with a personal trainer at my gym. He gave me some stretches to hit my lower back as well as the rest of my core.
Mobility vs. Stability. Some of your joints are designed for stability, others for mobility. Starting with your feet, joint function alternates like this:
- Ankles: mobility
- Knees: stability
- Hips: mobility
- Lower back: stability
- Middle back: mobility
- Shoulder-blades: stability
- Shoulders: mobility
Lower Back Stability. Your lower back is designed for stability: it keeps your torso upright. Both when walking around or performing Squats. If you stretch your lower back, you compromises its stability function.
By stretching your lower back you try to increase its natural range of motion. Stretching doesn’t alleviate your lower back pain. Stretching makes a back that is already unstable more unstable.
You want a strong back. A strong stable back that keeps you upright when doing heavy squats. Stop stretching your lower back. No more hyper-extension or rotational stretches for your lower back.
Lower Back Injuries. Sasper injured his back. Here is some of the advise I gave him on StrongLifts.com Forum:
- Rest. Stop loading your lower back for 2-3 weeks. Sasper took one week off strength training followed by 1 light week. Start with singe leg exercises then Front Squats.
- Glute Activation. Excessive sitting causes dormant glutes. Glute activation teaches you to use your glutes when doing Squats & Deadlifts.
- Hip Mobility. If you have dormant glutes, you have tight hip flexors. Improve your hip mobility so your lower back doesn’t have to compensate.
- Technique. Sasper will agree improper technique caused his lower back injury. It’s his responsibility to improve his Squat technique now so it doesn’t happen again.
- Doctor. If your lower back pain gets chronic, see a doctor.
Very interesting.
Thanks for the advice and post, Mehdi. The back is doing great now!
Other than static stretching and activation, soft tissue work with a foam roller/tennis ball/golf ball would be a great way to improve soft tissue problem and get rid of the aches and pains.
When you advise against stretching the lower back, are you referring to flexion only? I’ve read a good deal about press-ups, a.k.a. the cobra position, and the merits they can have towards helping to promote healing of back injuries.
However, this is a movement that places the back into extension. Since humans in general are constantly placing the spine into flexion through everyday activities (bending over, slouching while seated, etc.), it seems to me that stretches of extension can actually help counteract the problems that arise from bad posture and such.
Thoughts?
Oh! Man it sucks to hurt any part of your back. You never realize just how much daily living requires a healthy back until you sprain it! No drug seems to work to speed up recovery. Time is the only thing that works for me even after going to the doctor
A good friend of mine has back problems and she has pain doing the simplest of movements. She has to do physical therapy now and it has definitely made me realize what an important role our backs play in daily activities.
Aye, are cobra-ups bad? What about dorsal raises? If anything It seems they strengthen the back without stretching them. Any advise?
Mehdi, what about the “Good Mornings”?
Thank you for giving me the idea for this post Sasper
Kurt. Flexion, extension, rotation. All are bad. I’d stay away from doing cobra’s if a strong lower back is the goal. Which is the goal if you do strength training which involves heavy squats & deadlifts.
About the posture. When people slouch over, it’s their upperback that slouches, not the lower back. The lower back will always be in a relative healthy position when sitting. It’s the hip flexors that will shorten when sitting for extended periods of time & pull the pelvis forward, which leads to lordosis & lower back pain.
So the solution for bad posture when sitting (slouching shoulders) is putting the shoulders back. As written in the article: the upperback (thoracic spine) is made for mobility.
Cobra’s is hyperextension of the back, meaning bad. Dorsal raises, supine scorpions, etc are also risky.
Good morning is hip extension. Nothing bad with it.
I’m not a big fan of goodmornings btw, put too much stress on my lower back.
Prone cobras aren’t that great. Standing cobras are great because you can control the amount of back extension by activating your glutes to go into posterior pelvic tilt. They can be done with a resistance band to correct some scapula stability issues. They are not meant to “stretch” the back.
Hmm, can you reccomend some good excersises to strengthen lower back without flexing it too much?
Anthony, I think that if you deadlift and Squat, you are done with lower back.
Agreed. Exercises like supine scorpions/extensions are much safer when you squueze your glutes.
Heavy deadlifts as Vassili wrote below.
I’d add one additional book to your recommended reading list: Low Back Disorders by Stuart McGill, Ph.D. I came to it via Michael Boyle, who keeps referring to McGill’s work when he discusses anything having to do with supporting the spine and core performance in his various articles on several sites, including his own. I’m not sure how much the Boyle reading overlaps McGill’s or whether Boyle might be putting much of what McGill’s research found into practical application, as I haven’t read the Boyle book. But if you want to see the studies and evidence behind what Mehdi’s talking about, McGill’s book has the most up-to-date research on the subject.
On static stretches, I’d add one caveat to what Mehdi says, or rather the implication of the headline picture he uses. Using a similar stretch to the one in the picture can help with the hamstring and glutes while not attempting to increase the range of motion in the lumbar spine as the person in the photo is doing. The stretch is properly done by putting the lumbar spine into a neutral position and then trying to do the stretch while maintaining that position. This actually strengthens the support of the lumbar spine, by resisting the pressure to move it out of position. You will feel the stretch only in the hammies and the glutes. You can apply the principles Mehdi has laid out in a short, clear fashion by learning how to properly do static stretches properly. Some stretches can’t be fixed, but others can stretch the piriformis, lT band, glutes, hip flexors, and increase thoracic spine mobility while either not increasing lumbar spine RoM, or even enhancing lumbar spine stability such as the adjustment mentioned above to the stretch pictured. In other words, don’t run away from stretches that might impact the lumbar spine without thinking through or learning if they can be done properly.
Dave
Stuart mc gill’s book is on my wish list. Boyle, Cressey, Robertson,.. etc all recommend it indeed.
A better way to stretch the hams is indeed same as in the pic above but keeping the back straight/chest forward. Like in a goodmorning position. Stretches the hams, spares the lower back.
Keep your comments coming Dave!
I’m not sure I agree with this in instances where someone may already be suffering from a disc injury. Press-ups can be valuable for no other reason than to re-open the space that a disc should be occupying. Check out Dan John’s newsletter. Scroll down to the press-ups article.
http://danjohn.org/gu11.pdf
Dude, have you read SuperSquats? The Squats and Milk program…
I’m Finishing a bulk up using it, with some modifications…and it is the best I’ve seen in 5 years training…
Basically is “Eat a Lot, drink a LOT of milk and do 20 rep breathing squat!”
You surely will get some fat, but you also get a lot of muscle. I started at 76 KG, 1 month later I was 83+ KG…Now I may be around 86 KG, there are 2 more weeks to go…Its a 8 week program.
BTW, it also is the most freaking intense and painful training (thing?) that I’ve done in 5 years, and I’ve been training HIT, Heavy Duty…
Anything by Stuart McGill regarding the entire back musculature/structure is probably gonna be good, but also probably gonna be over my head, so I read the distilled versions by Boyle et al
Actually I’ve found that the best way to stretch the hams is to do it supine with a strength band. Keep a towel under your lower back to prevent your lower back from doing into flexion in order to compensate for lack of hamstring flexibility. At this position you can do a bent-knee hamstring stretch, or bicep femoris diagonal stretch. Hurts like hell for me since I have a flat back and tight hamstrings.
I didn’t know what press-ups were. I often do press-ups but standing. And as galapogos wrote somewhere in this post: while squeezing the glutes. I like press-ups, kind of relax the lower back.
But press-ups are totally different from hyperextension of the lower back as done in yoga or gymnastics for example. That’s what you should avoid. Thanks for the pdf link Kurt.
Never read it, but I’m familiar with the concepts. Squat & Milk always work. I’m doing a Smolov Squat routine, which had me doing 4 squat session a week. Several people have told me I’ve gained weight this week (in the good sense).
I like the runner stretch for the hamstrings. Goodmorning style stretch are also good but you quickly get tired in the lower back.
I’d thought Smolov was a pure strenght program.
4 Squat sessions per week looks like extreme…its it going fine?
Don’t you fill like tired or over-trained?
Check my training log in the forums Vassili. The goal of smolov is indeed pure strength. But the intensity of the program is such, you get very hungry & need more sleep. I’m in week4, starting week 5 now. Third week was mentally hard but I gained probably 10kg on my Front Squat in only 3 weeks. Will test max in a few hours.
If you don’t recommend stretching the lower back, what do you recommend for improving form on deadlift, if the back is rounding?
Stretching the hamstrings, keeping the chest up, supermans, etc.
If your back rounds on the deadlift it probably rounds on the Squat too. Try the tips here.
i have one question: does it mean that i shouldn’t do stretches like the one pictured in the article? i have issues with lower back pain (due to sedentary work i suppose) and i started streching my whole body, before I start 5×5 program. I use some general stretch excersices, mostly static, and some dynamic from your site. I was also planning to try egoscue method.
I’ve been working out for about 1.5 year now (mostly some split programs in the gym, never streched enough
), lately i tried some full body workout (5,10,15, maybe you’ve heard about it) and it gave me very nice gains both in mass and in strength.
now i’ve found your site and decided to give 5×5 a try. but first i have to get rid of my back pain.
Hi Medhi,
My wife is a chiropractor and she thinks you are totally wrong here. She says there’s nothing wrong with stretching the lower back and that you will not make it unstable by doing so.
She also says on your Lordosis post that everyone has lordosis. Hyper-lordosis is what can be a problem.
@Barry
Check out Stuart McGill’s research on lower back health. Read also this post. And yes the spine has a natural lordotic posture, anterior pelvic tilt was meant.