Periodic lower back issues - what to do?

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

21 year old male here, 5’10, 181 pounds,18-20% body fat. So at the very beginning of July, I hurt my lower back doing deadlifts with improper form, only 135 pounds (I was way too far forward on my feet). I could still bend over most days, it didn’t hurt to stand or sit, just to bend over, and it was a little stiff and sore when I did so. I stopped deadlifting and kept squatting until that started twinging my lower back as well, around the 150 pound mark. This was all previous to beginning Starting Strength. I took a number of weeks off, saw a chiropractor a few times, things seemed to be a somewhat better.

Three weeks ago, I began my SS LP and my back started feeling WAY better after 1.5-2 weeks, I had almost no pain left. Until Monday. I started feeling something a little bit twingey during my warmup sets, but I pushed on through and squatted 165 pounds for 3 sets of 5 and deadlifted 190 for 1 set of 5, since the barbell work seemed to really help with the pain before. It was uncomfortable, but I made it through and I didn’t feel like I was about to break anything.

Now my lower back feels like it used to. It’s fine until I bend over or load weight on my back. If I bend over, I can touch the floor, but I feel pain mostly at what I THINK is my sacroiliac joint in the center and right side of my back. After a few seconds, it seems to fade as my back gets used to being in that position.

I think my squat form is at least okay so I’m not sure that’s the issue, I’ll post links to a couple videos.

Set 2: https://youtu.be/yFoKzgWGwj8

Set 3: https://youtu.be/OteWSsRrxAo

I don’t have a recent video of my deadlift but I can try and post one today.

So, what should I do moving forward? Should I skip today and come back Friday or Saturday depending on how I feel? Or should I lift today but deload my squat and deadlift to 135 pounds and 165 pounds or so? What other recovery methods can I/should I use? I’ve read through old forum posts and articles about the SI joint and aches and pains before but I haven’t been able to find anything that gives a step by step guide for treatment. Should I bother going to the doctor or chiropractor given the symptoms I’ve described? Whatever I’ve done to myself, I want to make sure it gets healed so this doesn’t become a problem again.

2

Hi Spartan,

I think I have a very similar problem as you, though for me it feels more like coming from the muscles than from any joint (like SI). The pain usually starts the day after intense deadlift sessions (where there’s lot of strain on my lower back, liked paused DLs). It usually sticks with me for a few weeks and fades away during that time until almost nothing is left (i.e. the range of motion before I feel pain gets bigger and bigger).

Unfortunately, I have no idea what exactly this is. My coach and other people on the SS forum told me that its probably some form of protecion for my lower back, signaled by my brain, and its nothing serious.

This happened the first time a few months ago, so maybe my body (and yours?) will still adapt to this at some point. I hope so.

But it still would be interesting what the specialists on this board have to say about it.

BR,
Philipp

3

Hey I’m assuming you got an answer already but would suggest reading the Aches and Pains article on the BBM website and the SS website. It was written by Austin Baraki.

I would also listen through the Injury Podcast.