Low back inury; squat form check.

[JR88]

Hi. I had a recurrence of an old lower back injury on my right side around 6 weeks ago. I took a two week break from squats, deadlifts and cleans because the pain and inflammation was quite intense. I could still press and bench press without too much pain. I deloaded and worked back up to a 132.5kg squat for 3x5 last night and the pain was back almost as bad as 6 weeks ago.

There's a video of my last set.
Any tips or pointers on form would be much appreciated. Things I've observed; on the second rep my weight was on my toes and my upper back maybe isn't as tight as it should be for the rest of the set.

Squat 132.5kg - YouTube

[Will Morris]

Hi. I had a recurrence of an old lower back injury on my right side around 6 weeks ago. I took a two week break from squats, deadlifts and cleans because the pain and inflammation was quite intense. I could still press and bench press without too much pain. I deloaded and worked back up to a 132.5kg squat for 3x5 last night and the pain was back almost as bad as 6 weeks ago.

There's a video of my last set.
Any tips or pointers on form would be much appreciated. Things I've observed; on the second rep my weight was on my toes and my upper back maybe isn't as tight as it should be for the rest of the set.

Squat 132.5kg - YouTube

Instead of diving into the minutiae of form, are you at least able to see that you are completely “lawn chairing” at the bottom of the squat?

[JR88]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Is it that I'm losing tension at the bottom?
Or that I'm letting my upper torso/back fall forward?

I think I can see a bit of both upon closer inspection of my form.

[Will Morris]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Is it that I'm losing tension at the bottom?
Or that I'm letting my upper torso/back fall forward?

I think I can see a bit of both upon closer inspection of my form.

Is the bar staying over the middle of your foot, or are you completely folding over (shoulders and bar falling forward) at the bottom?

[JR88]

Yeah, I can see that now. The bar's going past the middle of the foot at the bottom. I take it I need to work on keeping my chest up and thinking of the 'master cue' of keeping the bar over mid foot?

[Will Morris]

Yeah, I can see that now. The bar's going past the middle of the foot at the bottom. I take it I need to work on keeping my chest up and thinking of the 'master cue' of keeping the bar over mid foot?

That might help. What happens to the musculature of the back when your shoulders pitch forward like this?

[JR88]

It feels as if it's hard to stay tight throughout the squat and that the lack of a tight, rigid upper back is then transferred to the lower back, which feels as if I'm fighting not to fall forward.

I've always found it hard to generate hip drive out of the bottom, maybe this is why.

Other than working on my form, what would be the best way forward? Drop the weight and focus on technique?

[Will Morris]

Now that the big issue is identified, go back and rewatch your video. Tell me what happens (first rep was good) on the initial movement starting on rep 2 and then look what happens with the bar at the bottom.

[JR88]

At the start of rep 2 it looks like as my hips go back, my shoulders roll forward, placing the bar past the mid foot and further up the back at the bottom of the rep. The bar then stays in this incorrect position for the rest of the set.

[Will Morris]

Do you notice the torsion in your spine at the bottom? This is demonstrated when the right side of the bar drops relative to the left. Loaded torsion + flexion of the lumbar spine is probably not a movement pattern that is going to be easily adaptable to stress patterns.