Here we go again!

Some of you may remember that I got a pec strain a few weeks back.  I’ve successfully rehab’d that injury ( though I’m still not regularly benching over 300 yet).  I am routinely back up in the high 200’s and feeling comfortable.

Unfortunately, I managed to acquire another equally (and much more common) strain in my lower back.

Before anyone jumps to conclusions; no it wasn’t during deadlifts. 

I was doing very light, deep speed squats and I managed to lose my focus and tightness coming out of the bottom. 

Keep in mind that I squat well below parallel.  I had been working on technique and speed.  I lost focus for just a moment because I was using less than half of my warm up weight. 

I dropped fast into the hole and fell out of my groove.  There was a slight wobble at the bottom and I felt a twinge of pain.  That was all it took. 

At first I wasn’t even sure it had really happened since the weight was so light.  I went down again and had virtually no power coming up.  I racked the weight and called it a day. 

I was through.

As soon as I got home, I immediately went to ice.  I took a hot shower and went back to ice before going to pick up my son.  I made sure to keep active and walking around.  It was excruciating and I literally was walking around hunched over at times.  I couldn’t move very fast and I was suffering from muscle spasms.  I took some aspirin to thin the blood and didn’t do much else the rest of the day.  The next day I started with the heat pad and very mild stretching.  I got my son to go out and throw the football around a little.  I will be rehabbing this injury for at least two to three weeks.

All of this could have been avoided by staying tight and focused on my technique.  My incident proves that everyone gets complacent and does something stupid every now and then.

Usually, my technique is close to flawless unless pushing near max.  That is where technique usually breaks down.  It is easy to go through the motions of your warm ups without focusing on technique, but that is exactly where a more experienced lifter can get hurt.  Before a lift, you should be able to mentally visualize yourself performing it perfectly.  Everything from the setup to the racking of the weight should have been rehearsed in your head as if you were lifting at a meet.  The saying goes: “Train as if you were at a competition and compete as if you were training”.  You might not get hurt every time you take your eyes off of the ball, but eventually you will. 

Gym members that saw my incident could not preach about the risks of lifting heavy weight; I wasn’t.  Still, they sounded off with the usual chorus of “ you should be wearing your belt for squats”  or the ever popular “ that’s why I don’t squat anymore”.  I tried to explain the fact that the body would adapt to using a belt all the time and then I would always have to use it or risk getting injured ( per Dr. Siff in Super Training, 1993).  They could not grasp that simple fact and would immediately fall back on “I always wear a belt when squatting”. 

This reminded me of the sheep in George Orwell’s Animal Farm who would always chant “two legs bad, four legs good” as a reply to any problem. 

I went further in my explanation while trying to ignore my pain. I stated that I never put a belt on unless I’m going over 400lbs and I haven’t had a back injury from lifting in my 41.8 years on the planet.  I thought that statement that would have caused them to rethink their ideas. Again came the chorus. 

Finally, I changed the topic and all was well.  Ironically, I’ve only ever hurt my back doing light yard work before now.  It’s going to be an interesting week.

To the other gym members that suggested never squatting, I had no reply. 

A statement like that cannot be answered without thoroughly insulting the individual from whose lips it came.

 

Never squat? 

Never climb under a quarter ton, unrack, and drop into the hole like a demon on his way to hell? 

Never feel the pressure in your head shoot up like it was gonna blow off your shoulders completely? 

Never hear all the sounds in the gym garble and slow as you force the weight to change direction? 

Never hear yourself let out a battle cry as you push out of the hole and lock out the weight with plates rattling against each other and the bent bar on your back whipping around and flexing like it’s going to snap?

Never perform one of the few exercises that increase the strength of your entire body; not to mention increase bone density more than any supplement you can take?

Why even come to the gym if I’m never going to squat?

I might be able to survive a while as long as I can still deadlift, but seriously … there are only a few medical conditions that should keep anyone from squatting.

  If anything I would avoid the bench before the squat.   It just makes more sense.

In conclusion, we should keep it simple.  “Squat good; getting loose and not focusing on technique are bad”.  The positive side is I get to practice rehabbing a back injury.  I don’t usually get these because my back tends to be bulletproof … from all the heavy squats without a belt … and the heavy deadlifts without a belt. 

The body adapts to what you do.  Just remember to take it slow and focus because it’s never fun to be injured.