thread of getting sw0le

i did something quite similar about a year ago. felt like the "belt" of muscles around my waist/lower back had strained on one side. it took maybe a month and then it was totally better.

Trying to figure out what I should avoid during recovery -- it feels like I could still do lunges but squats might be a bad idea. Upper body stuff shouldn't be a problem.

Yeah that's a good description -- it kind of runs from my right lower back into my right hip. That hip has been tight before fwiw, and I also get tightness in my right shoulder blade. I feel like it all relates and probably all conspires to fuck up my deadlift form.

this my current routine, everything is 3x10:

Push (Chest/Arms)
bench press (barbell)
incline bench press (barbell)
overhead/shoulder press (dumbbell)
skullcrushers (ez bar)

Pull (Back/Biceps)
seated wide-grip cable row
pull-up (this isn't actually 3x10, it's more like 3x4 bcz that's really the most I can do)
lat pulldown
concentration curl

Legs
goblet squat (kettlebell)
lunges (dumbbell)
leg press
lying leg curl

should I swap some of these out? overhaul it entirely? Dips are fun and would be cool to work back in, also I feel like the pull ups are kind of pointless bcz basically for the past year i've been able to do 3-4 per set and have not improved whatsoever

xp

Lower back problems suck! I'd recommend a "first do no harm" approach for at least a day or two ... I think you're right to suspect tightness on that side as affecting your deadlift form, but it will also affect your form on other lifts, especially while it is aggravated. I'd suggest doing workouts other than lifting for a little while until your back feels closer to normal.

I hurt the same part of my back several years ago. Stretching helps, but bodyweight exercises have done the most good, particularly the bird dog, superman, prone leg lift, single-leg deadlift (unloaded), and similar moves; also general core exercises like planks and side planks.

I guess this is conventional wisdom in 2019, but it's worth repeating that doing a lot of sit-ups, crunches, back extensions, good mornings, Russian twists, etc. -- any exercise that requires repeated spinal flexion under load -- is basically asking for back problems. Google "Stuart McGill" for way too much info about spinal biomechanics, rehab, and fitness.

Stevie -- I think part of the question is whether your main goal is strength, bodybuilding or some combination of both. For example arm curl exercise have very little added strength benefit but will make your biceps bigger. Similar with leg press and leg curl, and leg curl.

Also, is that the full routine you do at the gym every time, or are you doing different things different days?

for pullups, try adding incremental weights (weight belt, ankle weights, etc...), or add additional sets, more rest between sets, fewer sets-higher reps, etc...

oh I should also state I do a 2 minute rest btwn each set of everything

xp I'd say maybe both but leaning slightly more towards bodybuilding? like I def don't want to just get stronger w no physical results but I also don't want to just have huge muscles if I can't actually like lift things better and stuff, though fwiw I don't play any sports or do anything else athletic (except bicycle commuting). Also that's a 3 day split and I (try to) go 3x a week

Ok so you have a push day, a pull day, and a leg day? I would recommend changing it up then. At the amount of weight you're lifting, you will get better results lifting more frequently. Maybe do an A/B alternating split and cut one or two exercises from each muscle group. You could do a push/pull day and a leg/core day. At least with the major lifts (bench, squat, OHP) do more sets, heavier weights, and fewer reps. Consider adding deadlift or some variation.

I'm not a trainer, so take this with a huge grain of salt, but I'd consider cutting the skullcrushers. Also doing bench, incline bench, and OHP all in the same workout seems unnecessary, maybe just bench and OHP.

For pulling, I'd cut the curls.

For legs, the squats and lunges are best. Doing leg press too doesn't seem like it would do any harm, but I'd cut the leg curl.

I had a deadlift but I took it out bcz it was hurting my lower back but I think I could reintroduce it again

I am also doing deadlifts in a corner w a mirror in front of and to the side of me and my form is as A+ as I can get it

if it's hurting your lower back something is not right so I wouldn't do it. Maybe a session or two with a trainer first.

to be fair my lower back *always* hurts, and I started doing physical therapy for it a few months ago and it's gotten much better (and a couple of the PT exercises work on building core strength) so I think could safely revisit it

happy to hear about ppl recovering from lower back problems... in october I dove to catch a football and landed weird, and ever since then I have had a ton of lower back pain. Squatting and deadlifting hurts so bad, I haven't been able to do either since this happened. I was at my strongest ever in october, but I've since plateaued or gotten weaker in all my lifts. Even benching hurts sometimes...

I cry about it a lot, it's just so frustrating. And I'm only 23 years old! This should not be happening! I have been doing extensive stretching and foam rolling but the pain has been the same since the incident. I am terrified to go to a doctor. What if they tell me I need surgery? Or, perhaps worse, that they have no idea what's wrong with me?

Beyond the gym, this has been affecting other important aspects of my life - work, sports, sex, sleep - and it has me in a serious rut. If anyone has suggestions for stretches or exercises or just general advice about this, please let me know. Just to describe the pain, it's like a sharp, shooting sensation that radiates from the vertebrae of my mid-lower back whenever i strain the muscles in that area.

you gotta go to a physiotherapist asap bud. :/

Yeah you need to see someone about that. Could be a disc issue.

advice from a doctor >>>>>>> advice from strangers on a message board, go to the doc, it is the 1st correct step to dealing w this pain, doctors are great

a doctor is not going to say "I don't know what's wrong with you" but even if he did that's already exactly where you're at now, so

^ Yes, you need to see a doctor ... it's much better to get a diagnosis and a treatment plan than to not know what's going on and to be in pain all the time. Most doctors are good at what they do, and if they don't know how to treat something, they'll send you to someone who can figure it out.

Extensive stretching and rolling might be reasons why your injury is taking so long to get better. I have hindered the healing of a torn hamstring through over-enthusiastic stretching; when I tore the same muscle again last summer, I left it alone longer before I resumed stretching, and it healed much faster. When tissue is damaged, it needs time and rest to knit back together before you can do it any good with stretching.

It's great that you are 23! That means you're going to heal fast when you get treatment.

Yeah, I guess in the back of my head I've known for a while that I would have to bite the bullet and see a doctor. I was just blindly hoping that it would get better on its own eventually, like the other injuries I've sustained so far in my life. Anyway, thanks for the replies - it helps to have some rational, outside opinions to push me in the right direction. Like I said above, i'm pretty scared of what a doctor might tell me, but it's ultimately the only path to recovery at this point and I would be foolish to let my cowardice get in the way of actually feeling better

Are you in the USA? If you have access to a physiatrist, I prefer that specialty to orthopedics when it comes to lower back diagnosis and treatment (oh hi I have a degenerating L disk and have seen all the doctors and done all of the things except surgery).

That's supposed to be Lfive disk, but my numeral five (and six, and the dash) are all broken on my circling the drain chromebook.

With regard to both training issues and injury issues: if Internet-informed doing it yourself isn't helping, there are folks who make a living at helping you with this stuff. This is also true with regard to every other thing in the world.

hey stevie, two things i would do which have already been said i think, plus one thing no one has said:

experiment with fewer reps, more weight and more sets on your barbell bench press. i.e. 10-8-6 with heavier progression then drop a bit for a set of 8.
do a dumbbell bench press instead of your incline bb bench
imagine you're shoving someone you love into an upside-down bed

keep your concentration curls imo, they're great. fuck the curl-haters.

think about adding some dips or push-ups

also one thing i'm learning way too recently is that your lats should be engaged when you bench and your elbows should be close to your torso. i connected with this article about it:

https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/the-biomechanics-of-a-safe-strong-bench-press.html

this article is VERY LONG but the basic gist of it has really helped my bench: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/bench-press-bar-path/

Quincie, I am in the US. San Francisco to be exact - shot in the dark, but if you happen to be in the bay area I would appreciate a physiatrist recommendation

I’m on the other coast, sorry!

Alan Thrall vids helped me a lot on bench bar path/form. The idea that the bar path is not straight up and down is counterintuitive at first yet makes perfect sense once you learn to do it. Thrall says it helps to think of the way you would naturally shove someone away from you -- your hands would start below your chest but wind up at your chest level when fully extended.

Or I guess more accurately starts around your lower chest and ends at/slightly above your upper chest.

I am very far from stole right now. In January I detached my tibialis anterior ligament in January and after nearly a month stubbing around thinking it was gout or a sprain ended up having surgery to reattach it. Am seriously missing any kind of exercises. I've been flat on my back for the last week but even before that I was unable to do anything. Positively champing at the bit to get into physio but that's still three weeks away.

imagine you're shoving someone you love into an upside-down bed.

as part of the bench press! sometimes it's even a good idea to hold them there for an extra second or two.

so your suggestion would be:

flat barbell bench
flat dumbbell bench
dumbbell shoulder press

and then no incline?

map may disagree, but I think it's better to do the dumbbell press on an incline, it's just easier and less risk of injury that way.

it’ll help your over head press as well.

uh oh I guess everyone's going to have to have a lift-off to determine whose advice I'll take

Big time lurker here, but just wanted to respond to the guy with the lower back injury: I had a massive lower back injury when I was about 23. Ended up being a slipped disc. Kept me off my feet for a month, took me a long time to recover. Was just as emotionally devastating as it was physically.

I'm 32 now and in better shape than I've ever been. Lifting weights helped me strengthen my lower back again, and now it's like it never happened. Still irritate the injury once in a while, but keeping myself in shape has kept my recovery time down to a week or two at most.

BUT, I had to take a lot of time to recover to make sure my back was totally okay. For me it took a year or two (had never been to the gym when the injury happened, was pretty out of shape). You've gotta be really patient with yourself, better to take the time to heal now in your 20s, than push yourself and mess up your back for life.

Definitely go see a doctor, first. The news won't be as bad as you're expecting, I'm sure. I ended up getting some pain killers and anti-inflammatories that I took for a couple weeks. People injure their backs all the time. You should get any medical help you need, and just take the time to recover. It might seem frustratingly slow, but be patient with your body. Take the time to recover now so you don't pay the price in the future.

I do incline, bench, and flies. Different muscle groups on each.

Have a similar disc story to Travissss above, but as I FUCKIN' HATE pain pills, I went out of pocket to an anestheologist/pain specialist and got a spinal so that I could start strengthening PT right away (this was with doctor approval -- I lived across the street from a sports ortho clinic at the time and them dudes knew what they were doing.). That was absolutely the right decision for me -- remaining sciatica is minor, and only shows up when the weather is changing the day after I do my back work-out.

eating a pit beef sandwich and fries for lunch and leaving work early is the recipe for the best bench press sesh

that sounds delightful

i should add that this beef was very rare, it was still moving, it made me as strong as a bull

damn Ed that sounds awful! i hope you mend soon

peace and light to all your lower backs

damn my squat anxiety post is from a year ago:

"there is something mental, about fearing for my low back, that magnifies all the (relatively minor) stresses of squatting. like i said, it's not completing the rep but committing to the descent where i'm failing. i've tried to rebuild confidence by resetting but it hasn't done the trick :/ "

it really hasn't gotten any better, it's the weirdest thing. i've bounced around at sub 150lb weights, with some different set volumes, since then.

shame of shames, i've started using the smith machine, 4x5, 2x week, steady progression. my plan is so keep nudging up to somewhere over my bodyweight and then go back to the free bar at say 135.

all of the bro advice about how to get thru mental barriers is about as good as bro advice about everything else ie not.

also ftr i died lolling at goole's "absolutely disgusting" comment. the clip at the end of the weight peg is the icing.

― macropuente (map), Wednesday, February 27, 2019 4:54 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my only temptation to SPEAK TO A MANAGER is i reeeally want my Y to buy a stand-alone weight rack for the bumper plates on the olympic platform. the platform sits kind of between/in front of two power racks, and the bumper plates are all on the power racks' pegs. i've typed too many words about this but everybody fucks up where they go. people load up bars to squat with half narrow plates, half bumper plates, it's lunacy, i hate it

when my gym opened the bumper plates were of course perfectly evenly distributed and everything had a home. now there are racks that have way too many 45s to fit in the right place so more are sitting on the pegs along with the 25s, 35s, and non-bumper 45s. also some 45s have migrated from where the sleds are. it reminds me of an old cankles post where he proposed to eliminate STDs by only allowing people to have sex with others of the same age (i may be misremembering this). eliminate gym mess by only ever putting a plate back from where you got it.

Isn’t that the basic rule of using a thing? Put it back where it came from.

you would think but in my gym it seems to be forbidden

most people at mine are pretty good with plates but it annoys me that there's always the same bench in the way of putting plates on the bar in the squat rack because there's a smith machine in between the squat racks and of course people want to use a bench for the smith machine and of course the bench ends up getting shunted off to one side or the other of the smith machine.

also there's this guy who shows up about 9-10 who literally paces the entire gym all the time and does this weird snap turn around when he's ready for his next leg of pacing and it DRIVES ME COMPLETELY FUCKING CRAZY.