[quote]comtech123 wrote:
I’ve been avoiding the squat because of the intense lower back pain it creates for me the next day. … Any advice would be appreciated.[/quote]
Honestly, I added 100lbs to my deadlift- turns out, my lower back was just weak. Making sure my hamstrings were flexible enough, so my hips stayed angled right, helped too. On squats, “butt tuck” from tight hamstrings was preventing me from being able to use my glutes.
I think I may be in a similar situation. I can drop into a 3rd world squat no problem. But when I squat, whether with a max effort on the bar or just with my hands on my head, my form is perfect until right before I go parallel, then my butt sort of “dips” and tucks in rounding my back out. It causes a hell of a lot of pain when I’m done.
mike
[quote]comtech123 wrote:
I’ve been avoiding the squat because of the intense lower back pain it creates for me the next day. I don’t think flexibility has anything to do with it since I can easily go below vertical with light weight. I’ve had a couple of trainers watch me squat and they cannot see me doing anything wrong. Has anyone else experienced this kind of restriction and how did you overcome it? I know this is holding me back from achieving the gains I want to make. Aside from this aggravating issue I have no other joint or pain issues to speak of but I can barely roll out of bed the next day due to lower back pain after I squat. Any advice would be appreciated.[/quote]
I have had this exact same problem. My pain is not muscular however, its nerve pain around lower back and buttocks (not the correct distribution for sciatica, but similar).
Coaches think my squat form is good, i get deep as well. I’m afraid i have no solution for you Comtech. I’ve tried stretching every second day for 3 months, ive tried foam rolling - nothing helps. I just don’t squat. Either I go deep and get this pain or i don’t go deep enough and feel like im wasting my time.
Frustrating.
I had this problem as well, I’m also 6’2 and found squatting deep almost impossible. Now i start every session with Defranco’s agile eight and a 7 min video cressey recently posted up that shows great mobility exercises
[quote]Lunarisx718 wrote:
I had this problem as well, I’m also 6’2 and found squatting deep almost impossible. Now i start every session with Defranco’s agile eight and a 7 min video cressey recently posted up that shows great mobility exercises[/quote]
Yep - the agile 8 are great. V-sits particularly. They stretch glutes, lower-back and hammies far more effectively than any static stretch and increase my range of motion significantly. FWIW I get no value from foam-rolling though. I find it pretty hard work and have never felt any benefit so I don’t do it.
I’m a 30+ ex judo\rugby player so my joints have had a hard time. I find warming up on the rower invaluable to me. Its basically a hip extension like a squat but you can vary each rep to explore how each joint is doing that day.
Thanks for all the tips. It’s starting to sound like I may have the right solution already (just avoid squats) and do other exercises instead. I’ll give that 3rd world squat a try. Extensive stretching certainly hasn’t helped though. Even though I’m in the best shape of my life, perhaps at 44 I should not be hitting the squats anyway - LOL.
I’ve heard the “agile 8” from DeFranco is good, I’m going to try that for a few weeks and see how it goes.
defrancostraining.com/ask_joe/archives/ask_joe_08-10-03.html
scroll 3/4 the way down
I love this warm up routine
i always do one set of a full body circuit, maybe 20 reps each body part…then get goin. also warm up with the actual exercise im doing and stretch between sets. static stretching/foam rolling on off days. works for me
I’d suggest religiously foam rolling your IT bands before and after each leg session. Tight IT bands mess up everything in the lower body.
[quote]Cronus wrote:
My hamstrings, hip flexors, and glutes are tight to the point where I have trouble squatting properly. I stretch religiously for several weeks straight but then something happens a long the way where I miss 3-4 days and I feel like I am back to square one. Anybody else have this problem?[/quote]
I used to have serious problems with hip mobility (or flexibility or whichever), and used to spend at least 15 minutes stretching and exercise specific warming up before squatting. Now, I don’t agree with everything this guy says, and I think he takes the “russian” thing too far, but Pavel Tsatsouline’s book on stretching really helped me a lot. I think it’s called Relax Into Stretch.
I didn’t have time to read the entire thread as T-Nation is rather slow atm, so if anyone else has posted this, just ignore the previous babble and replace with “+1” 
Is it possible you have an anterior pelvic tilt or lordosis?
I believe I have that to some degree and have to do a lot of glute-activation.
I start with a few standing squats to loosen the joints, do two sets of 6 jump squats and then go right into:
225 x 3
275 x 3
315 x 3
365 x 3
405 x 3
315 x max reps
Sometimes my hip flexors are a little tight but loosen by set two.
I do stretching and foam rolling after my workout.
[quote]Humbug wrote:
[quote]Cronus wrote:
My hamstrings, hip flexors, and glutes are tight to the point where I have trouble squatting properly. I stretch religiously for several weeks straight but then something happens a long the way where I miss 3-4 days and I feel like I am back to square one. Anybody else have this problem?[/quote]
I used to have serious problems with hip mobility (or flexibility or whichever), and used to spend at least 15 minutes stretching and exercise specific warming up before squatting. Now, I don’t agree with everything this guy says, and I think he takes the “russian” thing too far, but Pavel Tsatsouline’s book on stretching really helped me a lot. I think it’s called Relax Into Stretch.
I didn’t have time to read the entire thread as T-Nation is rather slow atm, so if anyone else has posted this, just ignore the previous babble and replace with “+1” ;)[/quote]
Have you read his “Super Joints” book? From what I heard, the Relax into Stretch book doesn’t really develop flexibility, it is more about controlling muscle tension but I could be wrong.
If you wouldn’t mind talking more about your experiences with the book, I’d be interested in hearing it
You just need a proper warmup.
Try this:
anyone else just freakin hate foam rolling the IT band?
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
anyone else just freakin hate foam rolling the IT band?[/quote]
Yeah man, foam rolling sucks, especially the IT band.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
anyone else just freakin hate foam rolling the IT band?[/quote]
Yeah man, foam rolling sucks, especially the IT band.[/quote]
Hurts bad up near my hip. Quads were the worst when I first started working on them.
It hurts, but eh it makes my legs feel so good. Did it today. Quads were a bit tight, so started the leg workout with 5min of foam rolling and another 5 of stretching. When it came time to squat, legs were feeling just dandy. but to each their own.
[quote]Akuma01 wrote:
[quote]Cronus wrote:
My hamstrings, hip flexors, and glutes are tight to the point where I have trouble squatting properly. I stretch religiously for several weeks straight but then something happens a long the way where I miss 3-4 days and I feel like I am back to square one. Anybody else have this problem?[/quote]
I begin every leg session with foam rolling for several minutes, top to bottom, inner to outer, followed by several minutes of stretching. I consider this a part of my routine and necessary. [/quote]
I do the same with foam rolls. It is part of my warm-up routine. I also GREASE THE KNEES prior to squatting. This is a form of jump squat, but you go in circles. Also warms up the hips. I go in several circles in one direction and then reverse to the other direction. I then do them side to side.
I am 42 and have been an off an on lifter for years. Have been at it hard for the last year (more high intensity). I currently do one high intensity set of squats per workout after a warm up. I am up to 10 reps (close to failure) with 325 lbs. These are full, butt to calf squats. I focus on form, with slow/quality reps.
You only need one of these sets if taken to failure. The warmup occurs with the first 2 or 3 reps in the set.