Lower Back Spasms from Bench

Hey all.

I deadlifted heavy on Wednesday and yesterday after getting in position and benching the bar I quickly jumped out of position and my lower back spasmed. I recovered after a couple of minutes and finished benching and squatting. When I came home I took ibuprofen and alternated applying heat and cold to my lower back and today I feel fine.

I don’t have a planned session until on Monday which includes some heavy benching and light squats and until then I will continue resting, applying heat and cold as well as taking ibuprofen.

My question is:
Should I knock down the weights on the deadlift and slowly build up again (we’re talking … reducing the working set weight by 33 pounds (15KG). I’m doing madcow so that’s resetting the weight by six weeks)?

Of course I want to continue building my deadlift but it’s not like I’ll make any progress if I manage to seriously injure myself. Some advice would be appreciated.

just do some banded good mornings(band around bar and squat rack back up, til the bands are tight, then gm away)

i do these after every deadlift session for this very reason.

I had this issue when benching in a meet. Benching with a belt again seems to help; I don’t know why I ever stopped.

Have you tried static stretching your lower back?

[quote]black_angus1 wrote:
I had this issue when benching in a meet. Benching with a belt again seems to help; I don’t know why I ever stopped.[/quote]

x2. I also found getting my hamstrings looser helped.

Don’t arch your back so much when your back is super sore

More salts in your diet. I have the same problem from time to time, but it helps if I take in some extra form of salt/electrolytes.

After a few days rest I feel a lot better. I’ll play it by ear on Wednesday when I deadlift; if anything feels off I’ll back down.

Thanks for the tips!

Hey man, I’ve had this before… your back is for sure sore from pulling, but I’m very certain the spasm doesn’t have as much to do with your lower back as much as it does from tight hips, which is almost definitely the reason your low back is so lit up from pulls.

Just do some static hip stretches and dynamic moves daily, defranco’s agile 8 works very well.

and do not stretch your lower back, that’s a muscle that’s supposed to be tight, stretching it could lead to injury.