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Thread: Low back pain with deadlifts

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2021
    Posts
    3

    Default Low back pain with deadlifts

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    Hey there,

    I'm a 22yo male, been on the Starting strength LP roughly 10 weeks

    BW 240 pounds
    Height 6 foot 3 inch
    Currently deadlifting 1 set per week.

    About 6 weeks ago I noticed a sharp pain in my low back during a heavy set of DL's. Not exactly excruciating but just sore. Low back was slightly rounded.

    Decided to just keep going on the LP as per normal, pain wasn't too bad, just focussed on cleaning up my form and strictly maintaining good back posture while lifting. Hoped the pain would gradually go away.

    Over last 6 weeks, the pain has pretty much remained the same, I can really feel it when deadlifting, and it's sore when I wake up in the morning, but not exactly affecting quality of life. Hurt when I bent over to pick something up but not too bad.

    Yesterday it felt worse than normal through the workout, last warmup with 375 felt pretty bad, but just decided I would do my work set and see what happened. Got 2 reps into my work set at 420, and stopped because the pain was about 3x worse than I'd had before.

    Since then sitting in a chair for any length of time has been pretty painful, and putting my socks on is a bit of a mission.

    Here's a link to my last successful set at 415 if you want to have a look at my form 20211106_065154_1_1.mp4 - Google Drive

    And my two reps of 420 Google Drive: Sign-in

    Looking for some advice on how to proceed from here please.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Garage of GainzZz
    Posts
    3,297

    Default

    Your back is not set at all. And that negative portion of the movement is weird, weird looking.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2021
    Posts
    3

    Default

    Ok.

    I am already trying pretty hard to set my back, but will try and really focus on it next workout and get a new video. Find it hard to put lower back in extension properly with a belt on.

    Could you be a bit more specific based on that video, exactly what I need to do or think to achieve a 'set' back? I had kind of thought that if the back stays in a neutral-ish position and doesn't flex through the movement then it must be set properly, but obviously I'm missing something.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    North Texas
    Posts
    53,559

    Default

    Your back doesn't look too bad to me. But most people don't deadlift as well in a 4" belt as they do with a 3":

    The Belt and the Deadlift | Mark Rippetoe

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2021
    Posts
    3

    Default

    Oh, I wish I had a 3".
    But they're not available where I am currently and shipping from overseas is prohibitive at the moment 🙄

    At this stage I'm planning to keep deadlifting 1x per week, but deload to a point where the pain is not too bad (see how I feel, but maybe something like 305), then put the weight back up 20 or 30 pounds every week until I'm back up to 420 hopefully pain free.

    Interestingly, I can feel the same pain squatting during my warmups, but as soon as I put on the belt for last warmup and work sets I can squat almost completely pain free. Current work set is 325.

    It is truly a weird feeling walking around all day with a sore back, then putting 325 on my back (not much weight, I know) and feeling less pain than I have all day.

    Any other thoughts?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    North Texas
    Posts
    53,559

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