lower back injury; deadlift

[Chewie_jrc]

On the 5th rep of my deadlift set, I used a lot of back to lockout the rep (starting from roughly halfway through the lift). Back immediately felt sore afterwords. I have had persistent pain now for a week and a half (time since injury occured).

The pain is located right above the tailbone. Hurts more when I put my back into extension or flexion, I don't really feel it when I'm neutral. I kinda feel it when squatting but with the help of my belt and really staying tight, I'm still able to complete my workouts (minus the deadlift) although I am very aware of the discomfort/pain if my form deviates too badly.

Heavy deadlifts are out of the question. I dropped my DL down to 135 and cranked out 15 reps for 3 sets but even that was really painful.

Using ice/ibuprofen. Any thoughts? This blows by the way...deadlift is my favorite lift

[jameson]

You're probably going to get a lot of personal stories in response so I'll go ahead with mine. Same as yours and I was told (by a chiro and with no scans, etc.) that I had all the symptoms of a bulging disk. Whatever it was, it felt awful. I took some time off, did some high rep rack pulls, and started doing a lot of stretching, etc. It may be that you just need to let your back rest a little while before trying the high-rep work. It's been my goal to create a stable c@re after that little incident. No trouble since.

[Greg C]

Chewie:

This sounds a lot like the pain I was having early in my progression. It was kind of right at the top of my sacrum and about 3-4" in diameter - sound right?

This was actually not an injury per se, but muscle belly outgrowing fascia - and it hurt like hell. (Rip pointed this out)

What I did was stretch like hell - Lots of hamstring stretches if you can believe it. Ibuprofen, ice and - 2 tennis balls taped together and rolled on them 3-4 times a day.

As for actually doing DL - if you have PPST - you'll remember that light weight at high volume is STILL A SIGNIFICANT stressor. You need to either take it easy or live with it (caveat, it may bean actual injury that you need to let heal, you have to decide what to do). If it is an injury, some time off completely, and then maybe 1 set of 5 to keep the grove and feel, but not so much weight that it "hurts" would be my recommendation. It'll heal, but you have to let it.

Again, not a doctor, but this sounds familiar to me personally.

[Chewie_jrc]

Thanks for the responses, truly.

@jameson
Yeah I doubt it's a disk problem, i'll go see my chiro/ART guy though, he works wonders. That sounds good, rolling/ice/stretching/massage has always been a powerful healer in my book. I like the tennis ball x 2 idea.

@GregC
Yeah, you pretty much nailed it. You're most certainly right about the high volume/low weight stuff being a stressor...especially with the DL. I'll just have to live with the fact that the DL will have to sit on the back burner for awhile. I'll go with your 1x5 at something I can manage to keep the "groove greased".

Guess this gives my upper body time to catch up?? (my presses suck balls, always have). Gotta try and see the positive

[beastmaster103]

Chewy:

I had a similar lower back injury from my last rep on deadlifts as well. The pain didn't really dissapate until 10-14 days. The best thing I did for it was utilize a foam roller for my lower back, 2-3 times per day. That, rest, and a reset of my DL by 30% of my 5RM when the injury occurred has me back in business.

[Chewie_jrc]

Chewy:

I had a similar lower back injury from my last rep on deadlifts as well. The pain didn't really dissapate until 10-14 days. The best thing I did for it was utilize a foam roller for my lower back, 2-3 times per day. That, rest, and a reset of my DL by 30% of my 5RM when the injury occurred has me back in business.

Thanks beast. when you rested, did you work the other lifts or just take a break all around?

[beastmaster103]

Sorry for the late response, chewie...

I tried to squat, but I knew after taking a workset off the rack that it wasn't going to happen. I immediately felt a pinching type pain in the area of the back that was sore.

Essentially, I was able to press and bench, but not squat and DL for about a week. After a week, I slowly got back into the squat and DL, albeit at lighter weights (the 30% reset of the 5rm).