Working Around Lower Back

I injured my lower back when I misjudged where the peg for the squat rack was. It’s pretty sore but feels like a pulled muscle. It hurts down by my tailbone when I bend at the waist or rotate around my waist. Does anyone know of any routine or exercises that I can preform while this is still healing? I was thinking maybe dips and chins and maybe leg curl/extension but I’m not sure. Thanks

I have found that it’s almost always better to just rest a back injury. Whether you realize it or not, the back stabilizes you in just about every exercise you might do. And as it is pre-fatigued and injured you are much more likely to re-injure it, or try to overcompensate and injure a different muscle.

Ice on 5 mins, off 10 mins, and rest.

RIT Jared

I echo that sentiment. I’m only just getting better from a bad lower back muscle pull, which I reinjured by trying to get back in training too quickly. I’ve been easing myself back in for the last two weeks and it’s holding up at the moment. After an injury like that, you’ll need to be very careful with some lifts, esp: deadlifts, good mornings, things like that. Also, I’d recommend doing double the normal amount of stretching of hams, abs, lower back.

Thanks guys, it looks like I’m gonna hang em up for a bit until I get better. Does anyone know of any type of barometer that I can use to judge when I can start easing back in? How long did you wait?

It was about two weeks before I started doing any training with weights again and I started back with about two-third to three-quarters of what I was lifting. That seemed to do the trick. I would highly recommend plenty of swimming if you have access to a pool. If not, do some light jogging and it will help loosen you up. The problem with lower back injuries is that they are likely to repeat so just be really careful and if that area feels a bit tired or tight when you do start training, don’t push it at all.

Used to throw discus and shot and finally had to do some unilateral training to balance the right side of my back with the left.

With lower back, I had to lay off for about 3 weeks. Then I started in with Hack squats only. The leg press and smith squats just put too much compression and aggravated it. Better off waiting, healing, then slowly stepping it up and then surpassing where you were instead of re-injuring it.