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Thread: Lower Back Pop During Deadlifts - What happened?

  1. #1
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    Jul 2015
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    Default Lower Back Pop During Deadlifts - What happened?

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    This afternoon I was set to deadlift 360 for a set of 5. My warm ups all felt good - 135 x 5, 225 x 3, 275 x 1, 315 x 1, 335 x1. I started wearing a belt and using chalk at 275. For my workset, the first rep felt great. As I was resetting for the second rep, I realize looking back I was a bit unfocused. I'm not sure I set my back hard enough, or used a strong enough valsalva. About 1/2 or 3/4 of the way up, I felt a single pop in back. No immediate pain, no electricity, or anything like what others on this forum have said accompanied a similar sensation. I finished the rep to the top, and I think I set it back down without dropping, but I don't quite remember because of the overwhelming dread that hit me. I have never injured myself lifting. I took of the belt and walked around a bit, not feeling any pain. Mostly I was kicking myself for possibly getting injured. I decided it was best to call it a day, and putting the weights away I started to feel some stiffness, but nothing horrible. I was able to walk back to my dorm, shower, walk to dinner, and now I'm here sitting and typing. I have not had shooting or radiating pain. I would call it a sharp discomfort at the point above where my spine meets my pelvis and just above it. Walking feels absolutely normal. Sitting is a bit off, and bending over is more uncomfortable. Otherwise I have full mobility, though I would not be comfortable training given how I feel right now.

    Questions:

    Does the absence of tingling/numbness/electricity rule out nerve issues?

    What most likely happened?

    When/who do I need to see (Chiro, ortho, etc)?

    What can I do tonight to help (ice, ibuprofen, heat, etc)?

    Any experience or advice will help.

    If its worth anything:

    Male, 5'9.5", 175ish

    Squat: 285 3x5
    Deadlift: 350 1x5 (360 1x2...)

  2. #2
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    Dec 2016
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    If you're not feeling anything unusual, other than some moderate discomfort, I'd take some ibuprofen and hope it'll be better by next workout. If this is the first time you've experienced anything like this, you're a lucky man. I wouldn't worry about it. That said, only you know how you feel so....

  3. #3
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    SI joint strain maybe? Is the discomfort to the left or right of your spine in the dimples of your lower back?


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  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by SpazTheCat View Post
    SI joint strain maybe? Is the discomfort to the left or right of your spine in the dimples of your lower back?


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
    I believe it was a strain of some sort. No bruising or anything. I can feel the discomfort ever so slightly more on the left side, but its really rather centered. From what I've read it may be a strain of the muscles or tendons in the lumbar region, but it really seems so hard to tell from reading online.

    What had me so worried was the visceral popping that occurred. I've dealt with an achy lumbar before, particularly from low bar squats, but this seems to be only a bit more severe. Because I felt the pop so strongly I would have expected more issues but thankfully so far it has not been so bad. Time will tell.

    Going to bed now, I've put some heat on it, and taken ibuprofen.

  5. #5
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    Update: I woke up this morning and feel pretty good. What was painful to do yesterday is not so today. In general, a lot more ROM and a lot less stiffness and discomfort. Still doing ibuprofen. I think i've pin pointed the discomfort to the SI joint area. Its not lumbar, but rather right over the sacrum. At times it feels slightly to the left, but not anything definitive. I can go through the ROMs for deadlift/squat (no bar or weight) with no discomfort as long as I brace my back and make sure not to let my lower back extend or flex. I'm hoping it will be better by next week, though I may keep it light for my Monday squat session. If I've learned anything from reading SS: the worst way to handle an injury is to do nothing. So as long as I don't feel particular pain or discomfort before/during/after, I will lift.

    Again, what had me so worried was the way it popped. Never had that happen. Thinking more about it, I don't think my back was set, but I also don't think it was particularly round. I do have an issue on heavy deads with the bar getting away from my shins. I think the extended moment arm (on multiple occasions) is what stressed the SI. But here I am a layman guessing.

    This all has been quite a bit of to do, posting this and elaborating on what most of the veteran lifters here would probably equate to a paper cut. Alas, I'll appreciate any input. First injury under the bar brings one to these measures I suppose.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by GorillaGains View Post
    Update: I woke up this morning and feel pretty good. What was painful to do yesterday is not so today. In general, a lot more ROM and a lot less stiffness and discomfort. Still doing ibuprofen. I think i've pin pointed the discomfort to the SI joint area. Its not lumbar, but rather right over the sacrum. At times it feels slightly to the left, but not anything definitive. I can go through the ROMs for deadlift/squat (no bar or weight) with no discomfort as long as I brace my back and make sure not to let my lower back extend or flex. I'm hoping it will be better by next week, though I may keep it light for my Monday squat session. If I've learned anything from reading SS: the worst way to handle an injury is to do nothing. So as long as I don't feel particular pain or discomfort before/during/after, I will lift.

    Again, what had me so worried was the way it popped. Never had that happen. Thinking more about it, I don't think my back was set, but I also don't think it was particularly round. I do have an issue on heavy deads with the bar getting away from my shins. I think the extended moment arm (on multiple occasions) is what stressed the SI. But here I am a layman guessing.

    This all has been quite a bit of to do, posting this and elaborating on what most of the veteran lifters here would probably equate to a paper cut. Alas, I'll appreciate any input. First injury under the bar brings one to these measures I suppose.

    I agree with your assessment of it being the SI joint. I have had this problem for 9 years, which started on the right side. It started with the famous pop followed by pain. Anyway throughout the years I never stopped training or "working out", which I'm glad you've figured out you can and should continue to do.

    As a pilot, I can tell you sitting for long periods of time made this worse. A lot worse. So from here on out during the normal course of your day don't sit for long periods of time if you're able to get up and move around. Just move.

    Continue training but now more than ever it will be important that you really focus on engaging the abs and the trunk, which helps if you're really doing the valsalva as you should be. The belt of course also helps as a reminder to engage the abs.

    I have had this issue so long that the pain moved over to my left side for several months and then just last week during REALLY light deadlift warm ups, my entire lumbar section/spinal erectors seized up. I could now walk upright, get out of bed without severe difficulty, get out of a chair, get dressed, etc. Never in my life have I experienced that and while I know plenty of people have, it wakes you up when it happens to you. I actually had to get an NSAID injected into me followed by steroidal injections the next day just to relax all that. Now I'm on borrowed time of steroids and need to figure this out. The thought is that for years my body had been overcompensating that right side injury that it finally wore out the left side and the ligaments doing all the overcompensating. I'm not a doctor but that's what mine told me.

    I tell you my story to tell you that you're right on not just stopping the training with where you're at now but also keep doing the ibuprofen thing, use your abs, big air, and don't sit down for long periods of time. The ligaments and muscles get far too relaxed and otherwise disengaged, which in my experience makes it worse.

    By the way I am embarrassed to admit my injury and famous "pop" happened on the leg curl machine that I had to use for a military strength test....

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by JLB0 View Post
    I agree with your assessment of it being the SI joint. I have had this problem for 9 years, which started on the right side. It started with the famous pop followed by pain. Anyway throughout the years I never stopped training or "working out", which I'm glad you've figured out you can and should continue to do.

    As a pilot, I can tell you sitting for long periods of time made this worse. A lot worse. So from here on out during the normal course of your day don't sit for long periods of time if you're able to get up and move around. Just move.

    Continue training but now more than ever it will be important that you really focus on engaging the abs and the trunk, which helps if you're really doing the valsalva as you should be. The belt of course also helps as a reminder to engage the abs.

    I have had this issue so long that the pain moved over to my left side for several months and then just last week during REALLY light deadlift warm ups, my entire lumbar section/spinal erectors seized up. I could now walk upright, get out of bed without severe difficulty, get out of a chair, get dressed, etc. Never in my life have I experienced that and while I know plenty of people have, it wakes you up when it happens to you. I actually had to get an NSAID injected into me followed by steroidal injections the next day just to relax all that. Now I'm on borrowed time of steroids and need to figure this out. The thought is that for years my body had been overcompensating that right side injury that it finally wore out the left side and the ligaments doing all the overcompensating. I'm not a doctor but that's what mine told me.

    I tell you my story to tell you that you're right on not just stopping the training with where you're at now but also keep doing the ibuprofen thing, use your abs, big air, and don't sit down for long periods of time. The ligaments and muscles get far too relaxed and otherwise disengaged, which in my experience makes it worse.

    By the way I am embarrassed to admit my injury and famous "pop" happened on the leg curl machine that I had to use for a military strength test....
    Do you know what the injury is exactly? Was the "pop" the sound of ligament or muscle or what? Is it a strained tendon in the SI joint? Do you have any nerve issues along with it?

    Sorry to berate you with questions. Theres just not a lot of valuable and reliable information on the web about this sort of thing.

  8. #8
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    In my quest of figuring this out, no one has been able to tell me. Others may have a different experience and I hope more will chime in as this is a common injury. I have been led to believe the ligaments and muscles get strained as a result of the joint either moving too much or getting seized. Try to look up the difference in SI joint hypermobility versus hypo.. some websites will describes how people feel pain-wise in each case.

    Also, I've BEEN TOLD the reason back pain is so hard to figure out is because sometimes you have issues with your back and you either don't feel any pain or you feel pain in a different area. So you could get an MRI and it could show clean images yet you're in tremendous pain. The contrary can also happen where you feel little to no pain yet your MRI is a mess.

    I started physical therapy last week which I know is frowned upon a lot on here. I'm giving it a chance because of how long I've dealt with this and it all came to a VERY ugly head last weekend with the spasms. The damage I did last week may have been nerve related but only time will tell with trying to get strong again. They're trying to figure out if it is disc or ligament related, with ligament being the better case. So I'm not really sure at this point what else I've aggravated but it started with the SI joint and my point is that your body will try and protect itself by compensating in other ways, which could lead to further issues later on

    My PT is very open to weightlifting and actually says he wants me to get back to it soon once he works with me a few weeks. I'm also having injections done next week, again because of the duration and exacerbation of the problem.

    I'll keep you posted but you have the right idea with not just laying in bed rusting away. Make sure your form is right and if you're having a painful day that does not get better with warm ups- STOP for the day. Post form check videos on here or better yet go to a SS seminar/camp. I went to one two years ago and form will make or break you. The seminars are worth every penny and you do not want to make this worse like I have done.

  9. #9
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    Jul 2015
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    Quote Originally Posted by JLB0 View Post
    In my quest of figuring this out, no one has been able to tell me. Others may have a different experience and I hope more will chime in as this is a common injury. I have been led to believe the ligaments and muscles get strained as a result of the joint either moving too much or getting seized. Try to look up the difference in SI joint hypermobility versus hypo.. some websites will describes how people feel pain-wise in each case.

    Also, I've BEEN TOLD the reason back pain is so hard to figure out is because sometimes you have issues with your back and you either don't feel any pain or you feel pain in a different area. So you could get an MRI and it could show clean images yet you're in tremendous pain. The contrary can also happen where you feel little to no pain yet your MRI is a mess.

    I started physical therapy last week which I know is frowned upon a lot on here. I'm giving it a chance because of how long I've dealt with this and it all came to a VERY ugly head last weekend with the spasms. The damage I did last week may have been nerve related but only time will tell with trying to get strong again. They're trying to figure out if it is disc or ligament related, with ligament being the better case. So I'm not really sure at this point what else I've aggravated but it started with the SI joint and my point is that your body will try and protect itself by compensating in other ways, which could lead to further issues later on

    My PT is very open to weightlifting and actually says he wants me to get back to it soon once he works with me a few weeks. I'm also having injections done next week, again because of the duration and exacerbation of the problem.

    I'll keep you posted but you have the right idea with not just laying in bed rusting away. Make sure your form is right and if you're having a painful day that does not get better with warm ups- STOP for the day. Post form check videos on here or better yet go to a SS seminar/camp. I went to one two years ago and form will make or break you. The seminars are worth every penny and you do not want to make this worse like I have done.
    I appreciate your input, thanks for taking the time to share. I will proceed with caution, my main goal being to continue becoming faster stronger and harder to kill, as they say. I hate the dreadful notion that my entire active life could be jeopardized by a single injury from a single deadlift. Such is the nature of back injuries, I suppose. At least I didn't injure it doing something stupid, like showing off...

  10. #10
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    Dec 2014
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    starting strength coach development program
    Yep. I don't know if you're "doing the program" or just lifting while doing other things, but give yourself a lot of recovery time. Don't do deadlifts more than once a week for now and just let it calm down. I found squats would actually make it feel better before I screwed all up worse. Even doing some air squats periodically throughout the day helped a bit but everyone is different. Get up and walk around if you've been sitting.

    You mentioned your dorm which tells me you're probably still fairly young. Make sure you listen to it now to avoid making it come back to haunt you years down the road, because if it comes back it will be a lot less forgiving later in life- as I'm finding out now

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