I think I might hurt my back, what do?

About three years ago I was doing a high (8 rep) deadlift, and I had the lower back “tweak”. I remember feelin a little bit of pressure or discomfort, nothing painful, near the SI joint for a week or two before hand whenever I did low-bar squats or deadlifts. Nothing painful, nothing limiting motion, just a bit of discomfort. Then, mid-set, my whole back just locks up and I fall down. It took me about four weeks before I could move around in my daily life pain free.

This past April identical thing happened. I was planning at top-set of 275 for 8, I think I was on my first working set, 255 and it happened again. Exactly the same, I had been feeling the pressure building in that spot for a couple weeks, again not painful. But this time it took me nine weeks before I move without pain. I spent nine weeks trying to do what was tolerable: walking, rowing, dead hangs, and kettlebell swings felt great. Any squat or deadlift would set my recovery back a week or two.

Both times I had been recording the sets leading up to the tweak (they have since been deleted to save space on my phone), squats and deadlifts, and I can’t see anything egregious. I do have a problem adequately bracing if I am not wearing a belt, and I tend to “good morning squat” on high rep squats when it gets heavy.

Moving to the present, I have been back to lifting without restriction for about two months. Numbers going back up, feeling great. This week, the feeling returned to my back. And I am just worried about wrecking my lower back again for another two months. Right now I can’t afford to risk it. I have a back country elk hunt planned in six weeks and I can not risk hurting myself. So I have given up barbell squats and deadlifts for the time being. I will pivot to doing some kettlebell circuits since I have never done that seriously before and I don’t feel the back aggravation with goblet squats.

My question is, is this something you have come across in your years of training and coaching? Repeated or regular back tweaks? Are some people more prone to it? Can you really feel it coming on or am I noceboing myself? Can this all just be put down to terrible form?

Some larger context. I don’t care about chasing PRs. I am 37, 6’1", 204 lbs, and have a 37" waist. Right now my numbers are probably 270 squat, 315 deadlift, 225 bench, and 135 overhead press. My main fitness goal is to be able to maintain cardio fitness, range of motion, and be able to deadlift 225 at 75 years old. Giving up barbell training for some other kind of strength training is perfectly fine for me. But sticking to short term goals seems to help with adherence.

Hey David,

Thanks for the post and sorry to hear about your low back sensitivity. May I ask, what program are you doing right now?

I was rerunning the Beginner Prescription as I was coming back from an injury. I was on Block I. Six weeks in, still making progress week to week.

I’m curious that if I would have just moved into Block II it would have helped. I really dislike the 8 rep deadlifts and 10 rep low-bar squats on Block 1.

I see. I have experience with back tweaks, though I have not personally experienced them at regular intervals. I do think that some individuals experience them more often than others, which seems to be more likely when someone has been injured recently.

I can appreciate that you don’t like doing those specific variations for higher repetitions. In the Beginner Template, we give users the option to select more variation for the movement selection, e.g. doing split squats or leg press for sets of 10 vs. squats, for example. I believe we talk about this option as well within the Beginner Prescription article as well, but it may not be emphasized enough.

In any case, I have 3 suggestions: 1. No issue with you taking a holiday from regular squats and deadlifts. I would do some squat pattern, so perhaps a leg press or hack squat would work? I would also do some sort of hip hinge. Maybe hip thrusts would be suitable.
2. I would advise something like the PPL hypertrophy template upon your return from the trip. I think greater proximity to failure, double progression, more movement variation, and so on would be useful for your training goals and current status.
3. I would definitely plan on doing some direct low back and trunk work, e.g. hip and back extensions, glute ham raises, sit ups, leg raises, and so on. Just my 0.02.

Thank you for the feedback.

  1. I was going to do gobblet squats, the pendulum squat machine, and the standing hack squat machine for squat patterns. For hinge I was thinking of one legged kettlebell deadlifts, and I forgot what they are called but your doing a deadlift with a kettlebell and your standing on two boxes and you going super deep. I suppose I could swap in a hip thrust as well.
  2. I think that’s a great idea.
  3. I can try this as well.

I’d favor pendulum squats or hack squats, and then hip thrusts over dumbbell loaded lower body exercises. I have concerns regarding loading when using dumbbells only on lower body exercises.