Lower back injury healing quicky. How careful do I need to be?

[TylerR]

Last Thursday I injured my back deadlifting. It happened at the very top of my second rep. I think I briefly relaxed and possibly hyper-extended. I felt an immediate "crack" and then tightness which spanned the entire width of my back, from the top of my butt crack to the top of my hips. I finished the set (dumb) and racked the weights. Getting the last few 45's off seriously sucked. By the time I got home I was in major pain. Couldn't sleep Thursday night, and has extreme pain Friday and Saturday. Not constantly, but when trying to do certain things (like stand up). At it's worst, the absolute most painful thing was trying to get of bed. I needed to roll over on my face, slide myself off of the bed onto the floor, get onto my knees, then pull myself up by grabbing the dresser. I thought I had seriously injured myself and was planning to see a doctor on Monday.

Since then, I've gotten rapidly better. Today (Wednesday) I went to the gym. Squatted 45x20 and 135x10. Felt completely normal but I didn't want to push it. Did my benching which was scheduled for Saturday. Made the reps and felt ok. No pain, but some slight discomfort (a mild throbbing feeling).

I'm a bit surprised by my (so far) quick recovery. I was super depressed Friday/Saturday thinking I hurt myself badly and would be missing a bunch of time in the gym. Now I'm not exactly sure what happened. I'm tempted to go back to the gym tomorrow and do some deadlifts at 135lbs and see how I feel. I don't want to be reckless but I'd like to lose as little time as possible. Any opinion regarding how careful I should to be?

Thanks for any insight.

[Subsistence]

If you feel fine then I'd say let pain be your guide. If you can squat 135x10, a 135lb DL is unlikely to fuck you up (and if it does, it probably is a sign that your DL form is screwy). Seems like almost any back injury results in everything getting tight, sore, and inflamed so I don't think what you described is very diagnostic. A lack of shooting pain down the legs, numbness, weakness, etc. is a good sign though.

So yeah, I'd say be careful with form, deload a bit, and let warm ups be your guide.

[Charlie Davies]

If your back hurts less on the last set than on the first set, you're probably helping it heal by working it. If the pain gets progressively worse from working it, stop and let it heal. My back heals very slowly when I'm on a restricted diet, faster when I eat a lot.

[TylerR]

Ok, thanks. I did have some numbness in the heel and on the top of my right foot the first few days. That's gone, however.

To be more specific, here's my main question: When can I get back to squatting heavy? As soon as I can as long as it's not painful? I'm thinking of working my way up to 225 today, and if that goes well, try a normal, heavy, squat workout on Saturday (last set of 5 was 300x5 so were not talking a ton of weight here). Is it stupid to think of loading the back that much 9 days after an injury?

[Subsistence]

Hm, numbness usually means disc which means be fucking careful. I would not jump back up to 300. If 135 felt fine maybe do something like 185 for 3x5 next, if that feels fine try go up 10-15lbs next session, and continue like that back up to 300. For all of these let warm ups be your guide and if it starts to hurt back off and go lighter next time. You may be able to be more aggressive but I wouldn't really risk it. A real slipped disc can fuck up your training indefinitely, whereas with 30lbs/week increases you'll be back to 300 in 4 weeks.

Clearly I am not an expert but that is what I would do.

[yellowmamba]

I would stop deadlifting for at least three months, and maybe even stop low-bar squatting as well.

My friend had similar symptoms last year from a botched attempt at a 4 plate deadlift. A month later, he worked his way back up. Another month later, he herniated his disc at L4/L5 bending down to pick up his wallet.

I'd do something like a mix of high bar squats/front squats and higher rep RDLS (5 sets of 8) instead for at least three months. I would also do reverse hypers, GHRs and high-rep back extensions for their "flushing effect".

[TylerR]

Hmm... thanks for the words of advice guys. Not really sure what to think. I didn't see the last reply before I went to the gym today. I was planning on following Substinence's advice and doing 175x5x3 but I couldn't help myself. Worked up to 255x5 on 20lb jumps. No discomfort at all when I'm squatting. Haven't deadlifted over 135 yet. Back feels pretty good in general. I can "feel" that the injury is there, and get some discomfort at times (especially when sitting) but nothing I'd call "pain."

I think at least one factor in my injury was pressing right before deadlifting. I hadn't done that in a long time, and I had never done it since I've switched to Rip's "new" press technique. I'm sure my press form is off as well. I pressed yesterday, and the layback is the only thing I've done yet which noticeably irritated my back. I just did one heavy rep like that, then switched to an upright style of pressing the rest of the reps. Those were fine.