Intense Lower Back Pain while Standing

[Rudolf_Strahlmann]

Hi,

I’m new to the forum but have been following BBM for 3 years now and I am currently running Strength 3 while maintaining bw.

First some background info:
23 year old male
6’3" and ~225 lbs with a 39" waist.
6 years of general barbell training experience,
3 years of powerlifting style - training. Have been using BBM templates for 2 years.
Best gym numbers: SQ: 405, BP: 275, DL: 500

College student, my life is fairly stressful right now for the coming 9 months which is why I’m doin a maintain-phase while looking to increase strength.

What happened:
Two days ago (16.09.2019) while doing day 1 of week 5 on the Strength 3 program my lower back started hurting and the area around the tailbone and my glutes “cramped up” slightly after my top set of squats with 1×1 rpe@8… I didn’t think much of it as I have had the same issue before, stopped squatting and moved on to leg press (a year ago, and two weeks ago, both times a couple days of rest av light activity were enough to get me back to baseline. Both situations were most likely caused by my poor RPE management for deadlifting). I was able to do several sets of 700+ lbs of leg press without any pain or numbness in my back or legs, so I continued on to do bench press, OHP, hanging leg raises, curls and lat pulldowns. My back felt “stiff” but it didn’t hurt more than a 3-4 on a scale from 1-10 while doing any of the other movements. Before going to bed I noticed that my back was still hurting and slightly swollen but I didn’t panic and thought that a couple of easy days would do the trick.

I woke up about 3 hours later and had an extremely hard time trying to get to the bathroom as I couldn’t stand up straight (jolt of pain that forced me to bend over and take support from a table probably a 9/10 on my pain scale). I managed to crawl to the bathroom while in lesser pain, get back to bed and sleep well even though twisting and turning my body created significant pain. Next morning I could barely get out of bed (took at least 15 min) and I couldn’t stand up until I had crawled around the apartment
for another 15 min. I was still not able to stand up without supporting myself by leaning on e.g. a table, and walking was limited to short small steps with jolts of pain running through my glutes and tailbone area, loading weight on my left leg seemed to hurt the most. Sitting hurt as well and at one point I was close to fainting while sitting. Later on I took 400 mg ibuprofen, laid in bed and took small walks around the apartment when the pain was bearable. This seemed to help manage the pain a little bit, but sometimes my legs would still “give in” as the jolt of pain and cramping started.

I have previously had the same issue but the pain is now on a completely different level, a solid 8-9/10 while walking, standing up and leaning over. Pain while laying down is 1-2/10 except for twisting and turning. Leaning forward while sitting causes the pain to go to a 7/10, leaning backwards while sitting seems to lower pain. Previously resting and very light excercise helped (two weeks ago I was back to 90% within a few days, but had significantly less pain from the start and could still stand even though I was in intense pain (7-8/10).

I have not contacted an professional about this yet as it is still early and I wanted to hear your opinion on this matter first. Is there anything about this that seems alarming to you guys or should I just adjust my training and carry on?

Thanks in advance!

[Michael_Ray]

@Rudolf_Strahlmann

Hi,

I’m new to the forum but have been following BBM for 3 years now and I am currently running Strength 3 while maintaining bw.

First some background info:
23 year old male
6’3" and ~225 lbs with a 39" waist.
6 years of general barbell training experience,
3 years of powerlifting style - training. Have been using BBM templates for 2 years.
Best gym numbers: SQ: 405, BP: 275, DL: 500

College student, my life is fairly stressful right now for the coming 9 months which is why I’m doin a maintain-phase while looking to increase strength.

What happened:
Two days ago (16.09.2019) while doing day 1 of week 5 on the Strength 3 program my lower back started hurting and the area around the tailbone and my glutes “cramped up” slightly after my top set of squats with 1×1 rpe@8… I didn’t think much of it as I have had the same issue before, stopped squatting and moved on to leg press (a year ago, and two weeks ago, both times a couple days of rest av light activity were enough to get me back to baseline. Both situations were most likely caused by my poor RPE management for deadlifting). I was able to do several sets of 700+ lbs of leg press without any pain or numbness in my back or legs, so I continued on to do bench press, OHP, hanging leg raises, curls and lat pulldowns. My back felt “stiff” but it didn’t hurt more than a 3-4 on a scale from 1-10 while doing any of the other movements. Before going to bed I noticed that my back was still hurting and slightly swollen but I didn’t panic and thought that a couple of easy days would do the trick.

I woke up about 3 hours later and had an extremely hard time trying to get to the bathroom as I couldn’t stand up straight (jolt of pain that forced me to bend over and take support from a table probably a 9/10 on my pain scale). I managed to crawl to the bathroom while in lesser pain, get back to bed and sleep well even though twisting and turning my body created significant pain. Next morning I could barely get out of bed (took at least 15 min) and I couldn’t stand up until I had crawled around the apartment
for another 15 min. I was still not able to stand up without supporting myself by leaning on e.g. a table, and walking was limited to short small steps with jolts of pain running through my glutes and tailbone area, loading weight on my left leg seemed to hurt the most. Sitting hurt as well and at one point I was close to fainting while sitting. Later on I took 400 mg ibuprofen, laid in bed and took small walks around the apartment when the pain was bearable. This seemed to help manage the pain a little bit, but sometimes my legs would still “give in” as the jolt of pain and cramping started.

I have previously had the same issue but the pain is now on a completely different level, a solid 8-9/10 while walking, standing up and leaning over. Pain while laying down is 1-2/10 except for twisting and turning. Leaning forward while sitting causes the pain to go to a 7/10, leaning backwards while sitting seems to lower pain. Previously resting and very light excercise helped (two weeks ago I was back to 90% within a few days, but had significantly less pain from the start and could still stand even though I was in intense pain (7-8/10).

I have not contacted an professional about this yet as it is still early and I wanted to hear your opinion on this matter first. Is there anything about this that seems alarming to you guys or should I just adjust my training and carry on?

Thanks in advance!

Hey @Rudolf_Strahlmann - sorry to hear about the recent low back symptoms. We can’t provide individualstic advice without a consult (Contact Us | Barbell Medicine) but I do suggest listening to our recent podcasts:

1. Low back pain - Stream episode Barbell Medicine Pain and Rehab Podcast #3: Low Back Pain by Barbell Medicine podcast | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
2. Self-Management - https://soundcloud.com/user-34431316…r-austin-barak

I can say, based on the information you’ve provided nothing is alarming to me. General guidelines for acute onset low back pain are to remain active to tolerance with the understanding symptoms typically regress with time. How have you been managing since your OP? Have you returned to activity?

[Rudolf_Strahlmann]

Hi @Michael_Ray - thank you for responding! I was doing a lot better after two days of bed rest with short walks around the apartment every two hours. Five days later I was back to moderate activity (was working outdoors in the garden) and one week after the incident I was back in the gym, had to reduce load and volume but no need to change the range of motion for any lifts, strength back at about 80%.

Now, about two weeks later, I’m back to 90% strength-wise, have only subbed some of the squats sets for leg press sets in order to slowly build back up tolerance for squatting while training legs appropriately.

TLDR; I took one week off from training in the gym, listened to BBM podcasts and stayed active outdoors and slowly built up training volume and load again. I expect to be back 100% next week and will manage fatigue better in the future. Thanks for all your help!