Sharp mid back pain

[Dror]

Hey there,
I’ll start with a recap of where it started:
A few months ago I started to have low back pain, at first didn’t knew where it came from, the pain would happen whenever I unracked a squat but the movement itself was pain free.
After a bit of self assessment I noticed that I would unrack the bar without squeezing my lower back, or basically unracking with a butt wink.

It fixed it immediately and I could unrack the weight and squat without pain at all, but the pain and stiffness were still there.
It slowly started to get better but it wasn’t really gone, just a tiny bet less annoying.

Last workout up until my first workset everything was fine. On the first workset, on the first rep for some reason I just didn’t manage to stay tight and I went all the way down (didn’t crash, but continued all the way after breaking parallel mostly controlled).
On the second rep I was fine just struggled with balance, and on the third rep, after locking it I felt a tiny pop in my mid back, at the bottom of the ribs (on the spine, where the lowest rib is).

I racked the weight back and rested a few minutes and decided to try it again. I struggled again with my form and balance and noticed that I really struggled to keep my back tight, and stopped at the 4th rep after it was a grind.

* I recently had a week lay-off, on the last workout before I managed to close 160 kg, I then took 10% percent off and worked my way back to this 155 workout, up until then everything was fine.*

Rested a few more minutes and lowered the weight to 140, I just felt that I needed to check what’s wrong with me, did 3 reps and stopped there realizing something is off with me for that workout, looking back I should have stopped after the first 155 set.

I then proceeded to bench that felt overall well and to power clean which I also struggled with my form, but no pain there.

I got home, showered and a few hours after all of a sudden felt a deep sharp pain in my mid back (same spot, at the bottom of the ribs) when trying to get up from my bad.
Pain so sharp that just freezes me in place and that I can barely move through if I brace hard.
The pain itself come and goes, it barely happens throughout the day.

Last night I find that I can trigger it if I’m hyperextending my back when doing some glute bridges.
The pain doesn’t creep in slowly but coming sharp and hard from nowhere as my back reaches a certain spot when hyperextending.

Today, on the the morning I tried to rotate my back (sitting with my hips straight and just rotating my upper back) usually I would do that to relieve some pressure that would build up in my low back and I would hear a loud pop without pain.
Today when trying to do that It triggered it again and I also felt a weird sensation like my vertebrae are sliding on each other (at that same spot).

On today’s workout I decided to take it slower and make sure nothing bad happens again, I did some extra warmup sets for the squat (basically 20 kg jump up starting at 60 kg) cause I wanted to make sure everything is good.
I decided to stop at 140 kg pain free, because I wanted make sure my form is good and that I’m squeezing my back tight and sitting back (I’ve got some knee slide I am trying to fix).

Then continued to press, no pain there.
And then I went onto deadlift and I just couldn’t do it, I loaded the bar with 60 kg and right as I squeezed my back and lifted my chest the sharp pain came again, I did managed to do a few sets with it to check if it gets better but it didn’t, just stayed the same.
If I pulled with a filet back and didn’t squeezed the chest, there wasn’t pain at all.
I then tried to do some air deadlift with an empty bar, starting from the top down and the pain was the same.
When I got home I tried to do the same without a bar and it didn’t triggered pain even when I squeezed my chest up as hard as I can, which brings me to the understanding the pain happens only when my spine is under a load.

* I will note that before that I could deadlift pain free, even when I had the pain from squats. *

I was also recommended to go to a chiropractic before, but unfortunately the health system where I live just sucks, you have to wait at least 2 weeks to you your family doctor for him to send you to an orthopedic, and then you need to wait months for you appointment to come because they are booked at least 3-6 months ahead, and even after that the majority of them don’t understand the importance and benefit of strength training, and basically everything starting strength stands for.

So, right now I’m pretty much stuck and don’t know what to do, Because if I can’t squeeze my back with an empty barbell, it means I also can’t do my power clean and that I’m losing my pulls.

I am trying to get in touch with a physiotherapist I worked with 2 years ago (knee problems I had from something else) and maybe she can help me some or at least contact me with someone that can, and that understand the barbell training importance.

Other then that, I really don’t know what to do now, if someone here experienced something similar, or if any coach had a client with the same problem, I’ll take any help I can get.
With training, I’ll see if it gets better in a few workouts and if can get back to pulling, if not I’ll try to see if chin-ups won’t aggravate it and try to get at least some sort of pulling for my workouts.
Thanks, hoping you can help me with this.

[Nick D'Agostino]

The good news is this sounds like a standard back tweak. There are no red flags in the symptoms that you listed that would cause me to recommend you to see someone. The vast majority of these types of tweaks go away within six weeks, no matter what you do to treat them. Between podcasts and articles, there is a bunch of useful information on this site that can reference for help. The gist of it is start back lower and progress slowly back up.

If 140ish on the squat is tolerable is start there. Squat 1-2x/week instead of 3. Start back lighter on the deadlift. After a bad tweak, I once had to start again at 40 kilos (I was pulling around 250 kilos at the time for 3-5 reps). You already figured out that your experience has something to do with the load so now it is a matter of finding an entry point to start your rehab.

The route for recovering from back pain is not as straight forward as healing from a cut or broken bone. You will have good days and bad days. If you are having a bad pain day, either go lighter or wait an extra day to train.

[Dror]

The good news is this sounds like a standard back tweak. There are no red flags in the symptoms that you listed that would cause me to recommend you to see someone. The vast majority of these types of tweaks go away within six weeks, no matter what you do to treat them. Between podcasts and articles, there is a bunch of useful information on this site that can reference for help. The gist of it is start back lower and progress slowly back up.

If 140ish on the squat is tolerable is start there. Squat 1-2x/week instead of 3. Start back lighter on the deadlift. After a bad tweak, I once had to start again at 40 kilos (I was pulling around 250 kilos at the time for 3-5 reps). You already figured out that your experience has something to do with the load so now it is a matter of finding an entry point to start your rehab.

The route for recovering from back pain is not as straight forward as healing from a cut or broken bone. You will have good days and bad days. If you are having a bad pain day, either go lighter or wait an extra day to train.

Thanks nick, happy to hear that.
I noticed today that when I stand up I feel pain and tightness on the left side of the point of the pain, I did some air deadlift and squats and it does seem to relieve it a bit, but overall when I stand up/sit the main sharp pain isn’t there.
But when I lay down in bad, some time I feel the pain in the spine when rolling in bed.
Other then that I almost always feel it when I get up or lay down on my bed, I’ve tried a few ways to get in and out of bed but nothing seems to work, it just comes from nowhere, feels like my spine wants to break in half and disappear as I freeze myself to stop the pain.

With the deadlift, I’ll see what happens in the next few weeks, but the pain happens when I overextend my back against the slightest load, the empty bar caused the same amount of pain as the 60 kg I tried to start my warmup with.

But, I’m afraid it will probably also happen with the bench press on the same way it aggravates it when doing glute bridges, and if not, I assume even the action of laying on the bench will probably hurt like it is to get in bed (haven’t checked yet, just assuming right now)
If so, what other modifications should I do for now? Pretty sure pressing overhead every workout won’t work.

Thanks again nick, much appreciated.

[Nick D'Agostino]

Switch your focus from squeezing your low back to tightening your abs. Start the deadlift from the top and lower the bar slowly to mid-shin, pause there, and then come back up. Dr. Morris calls these Cocaine Deadlifts, and I'm sure it has been explained in other posts on this forum. I would start doing these for sets of 5 reps instead of starting from the floor and squeezing your low back in extension.

For bench, I would see if lifting with your feet up would make a difference if it bothers you while you are lying down. If the pain is just in transitions, then I would just continue to bench normally. Even though you are feeling pain during the transitions from lying to standing, you are not doing any damage to your back. Think of the pain you are feeling in those transitions as an unnecessary alarm going off that will go away soon. If it is very uncomfortable, you can try inclines for a few weeks and see if that makes a difference.

I hope this helps!

[Will Morris]

Minor clarification:

I do not call them Cocaine Deadlifts, and it is very unfortunate that this term came to be synonymous with my technique. I refer to them as a top down, paused deadlift.

[Dror]

Switch your focus from squeezing your low back to tightening your abs. Start the deadlift from the top and lower the bar slowly to mid-shin, pause there, and then come back up. Dr. Morris calls these Cocaine Deadlifts, and I'm sure it has been explained in other posts on this forum. I would start doing these for sets of 5 reps instead of starting from the floor and squeezing your low back in extension.

For bench, I would see if lifting with your feet up would make a difference if it bothers you while you are lying down. If the pain is just in transitions, then I would just continue to bench normally. Even though you are feeling pain during the transitions from lying to standing, you are not doing any damage to your back. Think of the pain you are feeling in those transitions as an unnecessary alarm going off that will go away soon. If it is very uncomfortable, you can try inclines for a few weeks and see if that makes a difference.

I hope this helps!

So a quick update: session today went amazing, I decided to just slowly work my squat weight back up so 142.5 felt good.

The bench didn’t hurt at all, I did fill a tiny bit of pain On the transition but the more I did it the better it felt and on from the end of the first set I didn’t even felt it anymore.

Deadlift also went very well, I started with an empty bar and jumped 10 kilos up until 60 kg, and decided to try to deadlift normally that felt well and from there I continued with 20 kilos jumps up until 120 that felt very well and decided to call it there so I’ll be able to deadlift again on Tuesday (and that the deadlift will be back with bench workout), from here planning to drop to 140 kilos (my best 5 before was 160, I recently had a layoff and the last deadlift workout when my back hurt was supposed to be 155 kilos).

Thanks again nick, I honestly thought that I did a lot more damage in my back but I was relieved hearing from that my situation was a lot better then it felt, also thanks for the tips with the training it sure is reassuring seeing how today’s session felt and knowing that I’ll be back to my previous pb in no time.

[Nick D'Agostino]

Minor clarification:

I do not call them Cocaine Deadlifts, and it is very unfortunate that this term came to be synonymous with my technique. I refer to them as a top down, paused deadlift.

Sorry about that Will

[Nick D'Agostino]

So a quick update: session today went amazing, I decided to just slowly work my squat weight back up so 142.5 felt good.

The bench didn’t hurt at all, I did fill a tiny bit of pain On the transition but the more I did it the better it felt and on from the end of the first set I didn’t even felt it anymore.

Deadlift also went very well, I started with an empty bar and jumped 10 kilos up until 60 kg, and decided to try to deadlift normally that felt well and from there I continued with 20 kilos jumps up until 120 that felt very well and decided to call it there so I’ll be able to deadlift again on Tuesday (and that the deadlift will be back with bench workout), from here planning to drop to 140 kilos (my best 5 before was 160, I recently had a layoff and the last deadlift workout when my back hurt was supposed to be 155 kilos).

Thanks again nick, I honestly thought that I did a lot more damage in my back but I was relieved hearing from that my situation was a lot better then it felt, also thanks for the tips with the training it sure is reassuring seeing how today’s session felt and knowing that I’ll be back to my previous pb in no time.

This is great news! I'm glad you are feeling much better and that you found the post reassuring. Don't rush the process and take your time getting back to PRs