Hello BBM crew, I would just like to start by saying I really love and appreciate your content and it’s especially coming in handy during my rehab of a recent lower back tweak. I consider BBM a “nocebo vaccine”, and have watched/listened/read all of your content on pain management which has helped me avoid approaching my back tweak in an unproductive way. However, I’ve run into an unfamiliar problem during my rehab and I’m not sure what to make of it.
A little background info:
Male, 25
6’1, 205 lbs. (waist circumference: 37")
I’ve been lifting for about 3 years, but have only been following strict programming for the last year and a half. I just finished running the bridge 1.0 and made all sorts of gainz, and decided to run it again.
I have never had my form checked, but I record myself and learned all of my lifts by watching Alan thralls/SS “how to” videos on repeat (which is what I compare my form to from my recordings).
Recently (on Friday July, 20th) I tweaked my lower back, it didn’t hurt during the set, but directly after the set I could feel a sharp pain on the right side of my lower back anytime I bent over forward. No red-flag signs I’m aware of (no tingling, numbness, drop foot/weakness). I feel fairly confident it was because I overshot my RPE (which I tended to do on a regular basis when dead lifting, lesson learned). I moved around, air-squats/air-dead lifts were uncomfortable but not very painful, did those all weekend and came back Monday. Dropped the weight down a bit, but in retrospect was still lifting weights that were too heavy given that my lower back would feel worse afterwords (again, lesson learned). For the last couple of sessions I’ve started with the bar and worked up from there carefully adding weight and my back has been feeling a bit better. I’ve been able to add about 30 pounds to my dead-lift each session which is great. I’m now up to 160 lbs. using a belt with no pain (my pre-injury E1RM was 420 lbs.). All of this being said, I feel pretty good about my recovery progress in general; what I don’t feel great about is this strange “tightness” I get in my left leg when bracing against my belt.
I first felt this sensation about a week ago (so about a week post-injury) at the bottom of a squat using a belt. It feels exactly like how your leg feels when stretching your hamstring (like when you’re really straining to touch your toes). It’s not very painful, just uncomfortable. I feel it shoot down from the left side of my mid-lower back all the way down the back of my left leg (and a little bit to the left around my hip) to my calf. I feel it during two moments (both of which happen when wearing a belt, I do not experience this without a belt or during my regular daily activities). Moment 1: at the very bottom of a low-bar squat, I don’t feel it with an empty bar or very light weight, even with a belt, but every time I’ve loaded over 155 I feel it at the very bottom, and during no other time throughout the movement. Moment 2: when I’m bracing against my belt right before dead lifting. I use the 5 step-dead lift approach verbatim as demonstrated in Alan Thralls youtube video. Every step feels completely fine leading up to right before I take the slack out of the bar. I take my valsalva breath and as I brace against my belt (even before I take the slack out of the bar, at any weight since I’m not even lifting it yet) I feel that same tightness shoot from my lower back down my left leg. This lasts as long as I’m bracing against the belt (even if I don’t even with the dead lift), and immediately stops when I release my breath. I have also found that if I stand a certain way and flex the left side of my lower back (without a belt) I can accomplish the same sensation. Normally I would only wear my belt twice a week for the bridge (I didn’t wear it for OHP), and now that I’m wearing it every day for every set including warm-ups I think it might have something to do with that?
Usually I would just d/c my belt for deadlifting and squatting, but it seems to help my lower back tweak (which I perceive as a separate obstacle). So that leaves me in a pickle. I’ve turned to front squatting which doesn’t bother my lower back or elicit this tightness (even with a belt), but don’t know what to do about the dead lift or low bar. Also the “shooting down my left leg from my lower back” aspect of this concerns me a bit, but I’m thinking maybe it has something to do with an inflamed muscle in my lower back that’s causing this (as opposed to the dreaded bulging disc). I try not to think about it throughout my day, but once I’m setting up for a dead lift it’s hard to ignore.
I guess really my intention with this post is to find out:
- Is this a red-flag for anything?
- Should I just push through it and try not to think about it (my concern being is this sensation a sign that I’m making something worse when I am in these positions?)
- Am I doing something that is potentially causing this / is there something I could be doing to help alleviate this?
You guys are awesome,
Tim