Lower back injury - not major, but uncertain if I should take a break

[Irishman301]

Hey, I've had this problem in my lower back on the right hand side for years now (I believe it's the L-5).

This problem started to really bother me about 1 1/2 years ago, so I went to the doctor, and I got x-rays. The x-rays showed that everything was okay, but the doctor told me that a disc was just slightly moved to the side and pinching a nerve.

Funny thing was that this problem went away once I started squatting and deadlifting 1 year ago. I guess that building up the muscles in my lower back made the injury go away.

Well, I've been considerably moving up in weight lately in your program, and just the other day (saturday) the pain came back. I felt the pain while squatting heavy, so I took it easy and went light that day. I also skipped power cleans that day too, because I was hurting pretty badly.

Monday came around, and my back felt like it was 100% again, so I started to warm up for my heavy squatting again. I then did 2 of my working sets after a good warm up, and no problems. I did my 3rd working set and bam, the pain came back even worse then it was on Saturday. I didn't want to risk further injury so again, I just finished my workout using lighter weights and higher reps. I did a bunch of high rep deadlifts with 135 lbs. because it felt good on my back.

I'm thinking that maybe it's my squat form that's causing the problem. I think when I get to the bottom portion of the squat I lose the lower back tightness. Maybe I'm going TOO deep on the squats???

It's now Wednesday, and the pain is still there a little bit, but not that much. I'm scheduled to lift either today or tomorrow. I'm thinking tomorrow would be a better idea so that I get another rest day.

I was thinking that maybe I should just take it easy on the heavy squatting and power cleaning for a little while. Maybe just do some high rep work with light weights until I feel back to normal again. I dunno though. I still want to lift heavy if it's still safe. What would you suggest?

Thanks for reading.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think you're right, it's probably your form, so post a video.