How do you tell if you fucked your lower back?

[MikeAlstott]

So I was laughing with my PT the other day about this trainer in my gym telling me I need to squat ass-to-grass or nothing. My PT was explaining that if you don’t have the proper mobility, a2g can be cause your lower back flection to kick in and possible disc popping which is what happened to him before. Anyways, I was in the gym later that day doing squats and on my last set I subconsciously went pretty low (all this talk about a2g mind fucked me) on my first rep and felt my lower back tweak. I immediately said, “ok, no” outload and just reracked and finished the rest of my leg exercises. I swear I felt a little pop or something but maybe not.

It feels sore and it feels like I strain or something, but it’s nothing excruciating. Like I said, I was able to finish off with leg extensions and ham string curls. Feels like it’s gotten a bit better since it happened a couple days ago.

Would I know if I popped a disc or did anything serious?

 

[EpicFlash]

In my experience…yes…you would know by now. I have had lifetime back issues with 3 herniated discs. And almost every time I have “thrown “ my back out, I knew it within 24 hours. also in almost every instance, it was not thrown out from a heavy movement…it was something stupid like and awkward bend or shift…not from any strenuous load. Currently the only thing I can do is have spinal fusion which I have heard too many horror stories to want to try… I am not any expert in the medical field, this is just been my experience with lower back concerns for many year.

 

[ForgotMuhName]

So you, having never squatted lower than your usual depth, decided on your LAST SET to dive bomb it into new territory without warming up that range of motion prior with warmup sets/work-up sets?! This is some /fit/ humor thread level shit OP lol. I’m sorry, but I gotta laugh at you a bit for this one. I doubt you are seriously hurt but you definitely just made your body engage muscles in a ROM that they were completely cold and unused and it’s not surprising something didn’t agree with this! It’s like those guys who always bring the bar down to 90 degrees on bench then suddenly they take a working weight down to touching their chest and it pops a pec or shoulder because their muscles were never trained to function under that load in that portion of the movement.

There is literally no reason to NOT go all the way down on squats if your flexibility allows for it, even powerlifters train a lot of their squats full depth despite only needing to hit parallel in comps. I’d suggest that you try a squat session where you go all the way down from the beginning of your workout till the end and see if it doesn’t feel a lot better and doesn’t cause any problems anywhere. You’ll probably have to back off the weights about 10-20% but the added ROM will work parts of the quad you’ve never used before and you’ll know which areas I’m talking about because they’ll hurt like hell the next day. A2G squats develop the best teardrops. When you see guys flexing their legs, if they have a shitty teardrop but big bulging upper quads and a nice sweep then you know they bullshit their ROM on squatting.

 

[MikeAlstott]

@ForgotMuhName no, if you read my post I said I “subconsciously” did it. It was not a conscious decision.

Thanks for the tips guys.

 

[Aoi_611]

@MikeAlstott

Do you notice any sciatica? Or any kind of weird stuff going on indicating a herniated disc?

If not, that’s great but still go get it looked at.

 

[Trestfan]

@Aoi_611 said in How do you tell if you fucked your lower back?:

@MikeAlstott

Do you notice any sciatica? Or any kind of weird stuff going on indicating a herniated disc?

If not, that’s great but still go get it looked at.

This! Pain in the glutes around where the piriformis is, numbness in legs or feet, pain at the back of the knee. Ofc the worst case scenario is stuff like loss of bladder and bowel control.

 

[MikeAlstott]

@Aoi_611 @Trestfan thankfully no sciatica or any of that. I ended up taking a couple days off and it’s A LOT better now. Past two days in the gym it hasn’t given me any problems. I think I just had a really minor sprain/tweak and was sane enough to just rack it and stop immediately.

Will have my PT check it next time I see him. Thanks for the help fellas.

 

[jager]

You’ll know when you have injured your back because you will have tears in your eyes, you’ll probably scream from the pain when you hear that pop.

I remember when I did mine in, loud pop on the squat. Four letter words starting pouring out of my mouth, it was like someone hit the nerves in my lower spine with a cattle prod.

8 weeks later I finally started making improvement, I thought I was gonna be crippled, couldn’t sit at all, I had to stand or lay down. Even to this day I don’t sit for more then 30 minutes, I use an adjustable standing desk at all times when I need to work.

I don’t squat anymore at all, that intense pain is something that is nightmarish. Back pain is some of the worst chronic pain you can have, can cause the grey matter in your brain to shrink, depression and even suicide, it’s not something you want to play around with.

So get a good weight belt and lift with proper technique at all times, play it safe. Just think Ronnie Coleman if you want to see what back pain is all about.