Hi BBM,
I’ve been having a problem every few months where my back feels like it’s shifting and pops during a squat or deadlift, similar to the sensation of what chiropractors do. It’s painful enough under load that despite following all the advice on pain/injuries that I’ve learnt from here it still ruins at least the session and often sets me back a week or more. It usually happens during later warming up or early working sets and always on the first exercise.
Perhaps this is bad thinking but would it be worth me trying to pop my back beforehand to prevent this (with any method in particular) or would you recommend some other kind of procedure?
It’s hard (likely impossible) to know/explain what, exactly, is going on here, but we would not recommend any sort of “procedure” for this.
Thanks for the reply Austin, here’s how my “workout” on Friday that caused the latest occurrence went:
- walk in to gym, always cold (I live in northern England) so I’ll do 5 mins rower or walk about with a band around my legs first just to heat up
- deadlift (current max 210kg, was aiming for rpe8 single between 180-190): 60x8, 80x6, 100x4, 120x2 … it happened on the second rep
- tried to keep it moving but could only manage leg press and hamstring curls afterwards, still sore today
This is how I’ll usually warm up for whatever lift is first. Based on the above would you say I’m not doing enough or it’s just one of those annoying things and move on? I’m otherwise normal with no other major issues to speak of.
I actually have had this same issue, it kind of went away as i got stronger. Now if my back pops while i’m lifting it just feels the same as if i wasn’t under load weirdly, i guess i just adapted to it somehow