Lower Back Twinge during Conventional Deadlift

When I pull conventional, the weight flies up until I hit a certain weight.

When it gets heavy, the bar gets off he ground easy, but about 33% of the way up, I feel a big stab in my lower back. it isn’t painful, but more it feels like I’m all of a sudden weak in that area. It never hurts, but it alarms you.

at 3:13 I start my 500lb PR (which should be way more btw, I can pull 465 for 11 reps or so). Right at about the 3:19 mark is when I feel that smack in my back, and you can see the pull starts to slow down drastically. Sometimes I can power through it, most times I can’t.

My questions are, what is causing this? Bad form? Weak lower back? I’m guessing a combo of both, I can fix strength back there, I need help figuring out what to fix for form.

Also, I simply can not grab the bar, then get into form, I have to grip and rip. I believe this from my belt being a 13mm combined with a very large belly. I plan to try out my old school thin leather belt on Friday, but it keeps flying off due to being so worn.

First off great job on hitting a deadlift PR looks like you have more in you as well. But addressing lower back issues is a very broad thing and if its a frequent issue I would strongly recommend getting seen by a doctor or a chiropractor, or even a good deep tissue massage. Have you had any significant low back injuries that you can remember? I honestly wouldn’t put the blame on either your form or having a weak lower back, you squat high 500’s your back is plenty strong. It could be a bracing issue, or some kind of hip mobility issue as well. Coming from a guy who has hurt his lower back plenty of times its best to figure out why and fix the issue before you really move on, what really helped me were reverse hypers and glute activation drills.

15 years ago I woke up one day and couldn’t move. For 13 years I lived with it, walking then all of a sudden a sharp pain in low r back, takes me to my knees.

I fixed it with three months of rehab with a chiro and physical therapy, which enabled me to start lifting again.

But, for 13 years I compensated for the pain, little things like not bending when getting a drink of water.

So I had an issue, but it’s gone, which is why I feel I may be weak once I hit a threshold.

Ah ok that makes sense then, I think some stabilization things like mckenzie press and cat/camel stretches might help you. As well as a stronger core and glutes, it never hurts to get stronger.

I plan on that next cycle, couple weeks from now. What about my ability to do 465 for like 12 and barely able to do 500 once? Today I failed on 495 3 times. If I would have got it up once, I bet I could have done a set of 5

Thats kinda strange, do you do touch n’ go reps or stopping at the bottom for those reps? And do you normally train in a higher rep range for deadlifts? Focus things to improve your setup starting position to help bolster strength off the floor.

Touch and go is like 12, of i set it down, do not let go of the bar, pause on the ground for a second, then like 10.

I did 5 3 1 last cycle, since my max is low compared to my calculated 1rm, I end up doing obscene high rep deadlifts. For example, I will need to do a set of 3 at 465, but do as many as I can, hence, the 12

So I went back and looked at my training videos for the past 18 months or so, and as I suspected, my gains stopped right around May of last year. May of last year signified three things in my training:

  1. New belt purchased
  2. I started form changing
  3. I starting getting weird, sharp, dull, and weakened pains in my left arm, right above my elbow.

The new belt helped my squat, a lot.
The new belt prohibited me from pulling conventional that good, so I started sumo, hence the form changing
The pains in my arm didn’t affect my deadlift at all, only my bench, as I physically lost strength when it was hurting, like dropping weight on my chest at 80% load.

I had cheap leather belt before, but I wore it out, the prongs wouldn’t stay in the holes anymore, hence the inzer 13mm level belt. I could do sumo, but not conventional, I never really knew why, and sort of forgot about it. When reviewing videos before belt, and after belt, I found that I am literally an inch or two higher on the start with new belt opposed to old, hence, less leverage / power. I just can’ get into position. That is why I started the grip and rip technique, I could get into position a little better, but it’s a crap shoot every-time I grab the bar, sometimes form is good, others I’m above the bar, etc.

My arm pain ended up being my body building bone, ya, wtf I know, but basically, my body had to build more bone for the stress it was receiving, makes sense as I had about a 100lb gain in my squat in a little over 3 months, then pretty stopped for a while so I could work on form / depth as I wasn’t consistently hitting depth before.

so, at this time, I feel if I get a smaller belt then I’ll be able to get into position better. The alternative is losing weight, which will also get me into position better. However, when I bought the belt, I was 30 pounds lighter, and It affected me then also, so I’m going get another belt for deadlifting, something thin that won’t affect my leverage.

I’ll try to post back after I get it and let you know how it all goes.

Also, I’m in IT and Quality as my profession, so I do a lot of root cause analysis, this is my root cause analysis as of now :slight_smile:

The mechanism for low back pain at that position is likely anterior translation of the lower vertebrae on each other. In other words, the more horizontal your low back is, the more the individual bones are trying to be pulled forward, as if they were going to “slide off” of the one below.

This is even more likely in your case with your past history of injury. The discs are well equipped to deal with compression, but the “sliding” takes a lot of stabilization. With prior damage, it may get to a point where it is just overwhelmed. Therefore, the more upright you are, the less translation; it becomes more about compression.

A new belt that allows you a more upright starting position is certainly worth a try. I would also give serious consideration to sumo. That is a MUCH more upright stance and really limits anterior translation.

[quote]Dr J wrote:
The mechanism for low back pain at that position is likely anterior translation of the lower vertebrae on each other. In other words, the more horizontal your low back is, the more the individual bones are trying to be pulled forward, as if they were going to “slide off” of the one below.

This is even more likely in your case with your past history of injury. The discs are well equipped to deal with compression, but the “sliding” takes a lot of stabilization. With prior damage, it may get to a point where it is just overwhelmed. Therefore, the more upright you are, the less translation; it becomes more about compression.

A new belt that allows you a more upright starting position is certainly worth a try. I would also give serious consideration to sumo. That is a MUCH more upright stance and really limits anterior translation.[/quote]

I pulled sumo for a bit, I don’t have that weird twinge, but I also don’t have near as much power, or so it seems / feels.

I will, however, play around with the sumo this next cycle once I get my new belt. It is always good to train both anyways.