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Barbell Barbell Deadlift/Swing Protocol for Back Pain?

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FlatbushAve

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Hi Everyone,

Apologies of this isn't the right forum for this question, but looking for input from anyone who trains deadlift and swings with back pain/back injuries. Quick summary, I herniated my L5 about 10 years ago, but thanks to some great PT and being introduced to KB's it rarely bothers me outside of some discomfort. I'm 45, lift 2-3 times per week, do some grappling when I have time and try to stretch religiously. For most of this year, I did a variant of the Vodka and Pickles protocol that Pavel posted awhile back, but found the volume to be a little high (ie caused a lot of back stiffness), so switched to more standard M/W/F routine where I focused on Deadlift, Press and KB Squatting (can't do back squats). Lately I'm still finding that may back is constantly stiff and uncomfortable. To be clear, I'm not in extreme pain, haven't re-injured myself, have never had sciatica or any of the other complications people normally associate with disc injuries. It's just a nagging tightness all through my lower back and hips. So, question for the forum - has anyone found a protocol that they found actually helped with back pain?

Thanks everyone!
 
@FlatbushAve, there is an important difference between back stiffness and back pain. Speaking for myself, back stiffness is something I've learned to live with because it's better than visiting the emergency room having no feeling in part of one leg, which is what happened to me. I find that life wants to make my lower back looser than it needs to be, so I err on the side of letting it be stiffer than I might ideally like.

Such is life, such are the choices one makes.

Whether or not this describes your situation isn't something I can say. In your case, I would continue to experiment, carefully, with what helps you and what doesn't. I have found that improved mobility in my hips compensates in some ways - and for forum regulars, I am not using "compensates" in a bad way here because it's necessary for me - for my lower back problems. I found that learning to do splits was very helpful to me - I stretch my hips and hamstrings, not my lower back.

-S-
 
@Steve Freides Thanks very much for your reply. Interesting that you mention hip mobility. A friend who I used to train jiu jitsu with mentioned that he thought the discomfort I described was more related to tight hips than an old injury. Doing a quick Google search gave back a ton of hip stretches. I'll try some out. Again, appreciate your response!
 
@FlatbushAve, please consider trying one of the programs we partner with, Flexible Steel - there's a web site of the same name. They just released an inexpensive program you can, I believe, download and follow at home.

-S-
 
FlatbushAve said:
Hi Everyone,

Apologies of this isn't the right forum for this question, but looking for input from anyone who trains deadlift and swings with back pain/back injuries. Quick summary, I herniated my L5 about 10 years ago, but thanks to some great PT and being introduced to KB's it rarely bothers me outside of some discomfort. I'm 45, lift 2-3 times per week, do some grappling when I have time and try to stretch religiously. For most of this year, I did a variant of the Vodka and Pickles protocol that Pavel posted awhile back, but found the volume to be a little high (ie caused a lot of back stiffness), so switched to more standard M/W/F routine where I focused on Deadlift, Press and KB Squatting (can't do back squats). Lately I'm still finding that may back is constantly stiff and uncomfortable. To be clear, I'm not in extreme pain, haven't re-injured myself, have never had sciatica or any of the other complications people normally associate with disc injuries. It's just a nagging tightness all through my lower back and hips. So, question for the forum - has anyone found a protocol that they found actually helped with back pain?

Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...

I had severe back pain shortly after being medically retired from the United States Marine Corps. My back pain was related to the heavy loads that we carried in country and not related to my hip and leg injury. I created a routine of deadlifting and pull up bar hangs that quickly resolved any stiffness or pain. The pull up bar hangs were done using anti gravity/inversion boots.

In the last six months, about a decade after my retirement, I ended up in the emergency room because I threw my back out doing kettlebell swings. The cause of my back seizing up was my failure to not complete my stretching after each daily strength practice. I no longer skip the QL straddle stretches which help alleviate tightness in my lower back.

Based on my personal experience pull up bar hangs and QL straddle stretches have helped alleviate any back pain and my back feels great.
 
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