Lower Back Fatigue

[Ice Cream]

I used to feel that way all the time. Then I got my squat and deadlift (among other lifts) form put in good order by Rip, stef, Steve Hill, Tom Campitelli, Julie, and Ryan at a seminar. At 63 my lower back has never felt this solid. Which is not to say it doesn't get fatigued now and then, but not from the lifting, rather from standing around for long periods at work. I have also been able to dispense with the lengthy and habitual stretching and foam rolling I did for my lower back to keep it feeling good. Which it seldom accomplished.

I got so protective of my lower back I gave up squats and deadlifts entirely by my early 40's in the hopes that back extensions and cable pullthroughs and lots O' ab and other core work would solve my progressively unstable lower back. To no avail. But getting it stronger from the squats and deadlifts did. So look to your form. Or better yet, have someone SS knowledgeable help you improve it.

Thanks for the advice! I'll try to post a video here soon of my deadlift form. Hopefully we can pinpoint the issue

[Ice Cream]

have you tried the warm up app?

I didn't know an application existed! I just downloaded it, and will be giving it a try next session.

[Ice Cream]

If you say this:



I'm wondering how long you pause between your warmup sets and before the work set. Maybe with carrying the plates around, bending over to put them on etc. it's just not enough. Especially since I guess at that point you already did squats on that day as well.

I have a stop watch on my phone, and between every warm up set I take about a minute and a half. And between my last warm up set and my workset of 1x5, I always take exactly 5 minutes.
This was actually something I figured might be an issue, and one session I tried taking 2-3 minutes between each warm up set, as well as 5 minutes between the last warm up set and work set.

Unfortunately, didn't help at all! My back actually cramped that day immediately after I finished the 1x5.

[Ice Cream]

I had back issues too for a while. Could not quite figure out what the issues was. After a trip to a massage therapist to get my back worked on, I realized the issue was not my back at all. She enlightened me to the fact that my hamstrings were ridiculously tight to the point that they were pulling on everything, back included. I was in pain for several weeks and after she worked my hams like a rented mule my back pain was gone. Try focusing on stretching yours and see if that helps the "back fatigue".

If this pain is only occurring during the deadlift then it's likely your form.

Thanks for posting! Could you possibly suggest a hamstring stretch in particular that helped you? Or would any basic hamstring stretch do the same trick?

[Ice Cream]

Regarding that tight hamstring thing: I don't think I have really tight or inflexible hamstrings per se. But I do have very short arms, which makes it hard for me to reach the bar if I bend down after tightening my low back and abs as my hamstrings still reach the end of their flexibility before I get to the bar. In fact if I reach down as per instructions in the sticky and in the book I can't set my low back in extension properly anymore. Just trying to do it also made my back feel sore. This of course was worsened by less than optimal lifting mechanics during the lift, more work for my low back to keep the spine as straight as it could. But yeah I lifted that way for quite a while until realizing it.

Anyway now I extend my lower back before bending down to grip the bar, which I do with a bit of momentum so that my hamstrings stretch a little bit to give me that extra 1 or 2 inches so I can even reach the bar. I know this is not ideal and I have to get up and set my back for each rep... but this also instantly increased my deadlift, allowed me to keep my lower back locked and reduced my soreness as well.

My point is: Maybe you don't have t-rex arms as I have but maybe your hamstring flexibility also keeps you from being able to reach down to the bar. Try it and if you cannot reach the bar with the back already set in place, it might be possible that you also cannot set your back into proper extension after gripping the bar as described in the book. Which might indeed make your back sore and wreck your force transmission from your hips to your shoulders.

I do find the starting position of the deadlift to be quite uncomfortable. But I've always thought that was normal. As I've heard many weightlifters say: Lifting weights isn't comfortable. I'll look into this hamstring flexibility issue. I'm hypothesizing that I have tight hamstrings mixed with possible poor form that is causing my issue.

I appreciate the advice, it was really informative and I'll definitely delve deeper into this tight hamstring issue.

[Sean Herbison]

It's not a "oh this hurts, I can't do X exercise", my head of both femurs lost oxygen supply and parts of it died.