T Nation

Deadlift Recovery

#1

Two weeks ago i maxed out Deadlifting after multiple single attempts i finished pulling 505 with relative ease.

as i was putting the bar down i fucked up my lower back. for about a week i couldent even bend over to put my pants on. now i am recovering slowly (2 weeks) and i still get pain in my lower right side of my back. ive never had any sort of pain ever after deadlifting and usually never even sore.

to get to my question is there any recovery excercises i can do to speed recovery and prevent this from happening again or is time the only real solution. i just wanna fuckin deadlift again.

#2

Work on mobility and foam rolling.

Next time, just slam the deadlifts down instead of contracting your muscle to lower the weight so "it doesnt make noise".

#3

or just drop the pile of iron. =D

what he said, massaging will help a lot.

#4

It happened to me exactly the same. Hit a PR at 455 then on my cool down DLs, about 225, while listening to TV and ignoring my form, felt a sudden "give" in my lower right back. I stopped and it felt fine but in a few hours I was barely able to change position.

It was OK as long as I didn't move. I couldn't lift for about 2 weeks (could hardly walk) then slowly restarted upper body only. You would be surprised to find out that there's not much one can do without using his back. In about a month of slowly increasing weights, I decided to restart DL and again, at about 225 I think, I felt a very distinct "pop" in exactly same spot. Needless to say I went thru same ordeal again. It's been about 3 months since and yesterday I first added RDLs at 185. So far so good, I'll slowly go up from here. My advice, pay strict attention to form and take it easy!

#5

Anything that happens to the lower back, whether it be an injury or just normal fatigue and soreness after a workout, takes time to recover, and alot of it. There are no exercises. The only thing I would say wouldnt hurt you is swimming. May not help either but at least you can move around quite a bit. Just bite the bullet and leave it alone.

#6

Resting the lower back especially after first injurying it is always best. After a few days have someone rub Icy Hot into the area with their lower palm to really get into these affected tissues of the back. Hot showers, light stretching, walking, 25+ reps or more on a reverse hyper, etc., will all add to the recovery. Some injuries can take a long time to recover.

I've had lower back surgery in the past and that was done before I started powerlifting. Since training I've had my share of continued lower back injuries and sometimes how they happen make no sense at all. For example, right now I have been out of training for almost 8 weeks.

I have no idea how this injury happened. In the past, when I had a training injury I knew it right away. Not this time. It's crazy and aggravating. I've gone from doing front squats with 340 for reps with no belt down to a broomstick.

I'm doing all the things I mentioned above and not much progress has been made. For whatever reason this is a real long healer. My point in telling you this is that you cannot rush it and you have to let it heal on it's own.

Take care of your lower back with active recovery techniques, but realize that as long as you are in the iron game and putting stress on your lower back from squats, deadlifts and other exercises that there will always be a risk.

That is why one of the four greatest fears to all athletes is the fear of injury and it can mentally block you from progress in sport.

#7

thanks for the advice guys, i have surgery comming up where i have to take about 5 weeks to recover where i cannot do any lifting of any sort at all. (ear surgery cause im half deaf).

#8

Exact same thing happened to me a few years on a 315 pull with bad form. Lower right back felt "tweaked" so I had to lay off deadlifts for around a week and a half.

I'm fine now, just have to remember to keep my back straight and not turn into a pretzel.