Spinal Erector pain/mid back stiffness (obese newbie); need adive

[danmaku]

I'm restarting weightlifting for a variety of reasons. Stats first

6'0
275 lbs

Lifts
185 squat
155 deadlift
80 lb overhead
125 bench
still learning power cleans, have been using deadlifts. About 4 weeks the program in now, spent the first 2 or so workouts learning my working starting weights. Skipped a workout due to illness.

Since I've been fat for a long time, I have decent power in my legs and can machine leg press over 400lbs 3 sets of 5 easily (there aren't any other machines in the gym I'm at that go over that amount on a machine). So it hasn't been difficult for me to add weight to both squats and deadlifts. However, my lower back seems significantly weaker than my legs. I've noticed that as I continually added weight to my squats each workout, my lower back muscles started to progressively feel stiff, similar to how I felt (but much less intensity) after finishing dead lifts. I gave myself a lot of rest time, maybe 10 minutes last workout (mostly due to factors out of my control, someone was doing pushups and stretches at the dead lift area when I got there) before performing my deadlifts. After completion, my lower back was extremely sore and I had to sit down immediately.

Looking back, I don't think I engaged my core muscles during the lifts, which probably contributed to the injury.

Anyways, today my back feels stiff and somewhat sore, like a mild cramp. The feeling goes through both my lower and mid back. When doing range-of-movement exercises like "good mornings", I don't feel any sharp pains thankfully. My questions are:

What's a good way to rehab my back?
How many days should I take off?
How can I get my spinal erectors to "catch up" to my other muscle groups?" I feel as though I won't be able to continue progressively adding weight until I strengthen my back more otherwise I'll run into this problem again.
What questions should I ask the doctor?

Thanks for the help.

[Jeff Illingworth]

You would probably benefit greatly from getting your form checked - ideally in real life or at least by posting some videos on here. Speaking from personal experience, it's pretty easy to have crappy form if your gut is getting in the way. I'd also leave power cleans out for awhile and deadlift more often.

If you do the program the way it's written and use good form, everything will catch up. Believe me, if you're doing squats, presses, deads properly, your spinal erectors are getting plenty of work and trying to add some other work on top to "catch them up" is just going to derail everything.

What you're describing sounds more like DOMS as opposed to any real damage. The best way to deal with that is to keep moving.

[danmaku]

Update.

I skipped 2 workout sessions after I discovered that I had strained my back after moving it a bit and experiencing acute, but mild, pain. I worked out this Monday and Wednesday, but I experienced the same lower back symptoms as I mentioned previously and skipped deadlifts both days. I did wobble a little bit during my last squat set and decided I wasn't doing it safely enough and that my form is likely poor and putting undue strain on my erector spinae. I'll probably just do my upper body workouts and go see a personal trainer for a few sessions in the meantime about improving form.

[Daniel Cavallari]

Video yourself doing the lifts and post it to the coaches section. Read the sticky and post the squat first.

[Dlk93]

R.I.P. danmaku if you go see a personal trainer. Seriously. Don't do it. The odds of him/her being familiar with SS model is next to nothing.

Post form checks (after reading the sticky) to this or the coaches forum (preferably here first since we have the context). Chances are you're doing something wrong, whether its recovery related or form related. If you are overweight and are currently losing weight, i.e. you're in a calorie deficit, then by definition your recovery resources are compromised, and you'll be much more likely to experience DOMS. Plus, you're still fairly fresh on the program so soreness is to be expected.

[danmaku]

Hello again.

Yes, I did see a personal trainer. It's a weightlifting gym and he was familiar with the SS program. I guess I'll give an overview. I arranged for a three day package.

He also said that, like Jeff mentioned, I should forget about power cleans for the time being. I plan too. My back is still bugging me a bit but the foam roller he provided cleared up a lot of tension I was feeling. I did some leg/hip stretches too, which loosened me up a bit too. He worked me from kettle bell to zercher to back squats to test my form and capacity. Did some kettle bell dead lifts and my lower back still kinda smarts but not nearly as bad. We plan to try again in the last session.

As far as form correction goes - what I was doing wrong was:
incorrect shoes (bought some chuck taylors instead of using my running shoes, this has helped a lot)
improper back alignment when deadlifting and squats (I was not aligned for my deadlifts, not using my shoulders/lats properly, leaning forward too much during squats)
not engaging core muscles (he called it "sniffing in), basically taking deep breath into the diaphragm and tensing the abdominal muscles for each rep

My back no longer feels strained when I do squats now, although I'm lifting light for the time being.

We also went over form for the bench press and he taught me to use my feet, hips and shoulders appropriately whereas I was previously laying prone without using those. I feel a lot better about doing bench presses now.

I'll see if I can post videos later this week if I can get a tripod for my phone

[Dlk93]

So in other words, you could've posted form check videos here, and we could've told you all of that, for free.

"Familiar with starting strength" and yet he did all of that other stuff with you first before even looking at your form.

I'm a PT as well, and I work with other PT's. They've also "heard of starting strength". It's a popular program. But "heard of Starting Strength" is vastly, infinitesimally, enormously, Brobdignagian-ly, different from being an SSC.

But anyway, I hope I'm vastly underestimating your PT and he gets it all worked out for you, and us as well whenever you post some videos. I just hope you didn't waste a bunch of money.

[danmaku]

Well, I did explain all the lifts I wanted him to check my form on and he evaluated my then-current form before suggesting corrections and going through the lifts with me. He was knowledgeable about power cleans and all the other SS exercises (which are fairly well-known as is).

I don't feel confident posting videos because I'm worried I'll misinterpret what someone might say, or maybe frame the video incorrectly so people wouldn't be able to give accurate advice...etc so I thought that real time instruction would be the quickest and safest way. Not happy about spending 150 for three hour long sessions but I'm not dissatisfied with my service since I felt like I was making good progress.

My plan now is to essentially restart the program using light weights only for the squats and deadlifts for a few weeks while my back heals up, post videos every now and then for critique, and learn power cleans maybe a couple months from now.

[Dlk93]

1) Yes, squats, deadlifts and presses are widely known exercises. But again, being widely known is very different from knowing how to coach them according to a specific model, and how to fix problems that arise when that model isn't adhered to. SSC's, and people on this board to a varying degree, can do this; PT's very, very, VERY likely cannot bc they aren't aware of the model to begin with. They've heard of SS on bodybuilding.com.

2) If you misinterpret what we tell you, you can ask for a clarification. That's what communication is. There's also the chance that you won't misinterpret us to begin with. The people on this board are pretty articulate, especially if you submit to the coach's forum (which, again, is an entirely FREE and invaluable resource).

3) There are instructional links in the forums describing in detail on how to post videos so that you shouldn't have to worry about framing the video incorrectly.

4) Now that you've spend money on the trainer, you're probably far less likely to take any of our advice since you don't want to feel like you've wasted you money. And I hope you haven't wasted your money, but I'm just speaking from personal experience, i.e. working with trainers myself, and I can tell you with 98% certainty that the trainer will not be familiar enough with the SS model to help you progress on the program. That's not to say he won't make you do stuff that makes you FEEL like your progressing.


Anyways, best of luck to you, and I hope to see some videos of you power cleaning the PT out of the window in a few weeks.