I have. If you heel drive hard and arch your back you can tweak it if you're not warmed up. I usually do seated cable rows before doing bench because it helps to tighten up and warm up your back to have a solid base

when people mire your lifts at the gym

feelsrareman

Hey guys, just started doing SS about 4 weeks ago and I'm trying to perfect my form for the squats right now. Before I had a problem with not squatting with enough depth resulting in my quads doing most of the work, since then I had began remembering to push my knees out at the bottom so I can go below parallel.

Now when I squat below parallel my lower back seems to be doing all the work resulting in lower back pain and soreness. I had to lower the weight because it was stressing my lower back so much now. My question is, is this normal because I have a lower back or is it because something is wrong with my form? I looked in the mirror and noticed that my lower back is arched a lot normally. Should I be sticking my ass out or no? maybe the placement of the bar is not in the right place?

Take a video and p[ost it next time. are you high bar or low bar squatting?

There is one and THE only reason why you could and would tweak your back. Lack of core stability.

And no core stability doesn't mean having great abs, it means you aren't able to stabilize your axial skeleton during your lift...

With bench press being the compound lift that it is, it's not surprising at all

tour de france is sneaking up reall soooon... prob wont post, don't wanna demotivate you new guys ;)


my 2 cents, you should only be having big back archs and legs way back on bench if your going for HEAVY weight im talking 3plates+, anything lower should be flat and use heal drive

that's not actually that bad...

I know of a guy who has a 4 plate bench max and can only deadlift 2 plates, squat for 1 plate and that's if he decides to do them

you should aware your guy there are a few muscle groups below the nipples.

That's pretty imbalanced.

it starts from the feet

if you find yourself not pushing through your heels and are unstable through your base thats pretty painful on your back

I'm low bar squatting, I can't take a video right now because I"m not working out till tomorrow, but I want to try to get this sorted out before my next workout.

maybe your legs are stronger than your lower back. have you only been lifting for 4 weeks total ever?

Actually Scott told me to push my legs further back. Felt uncomfortable but did the lift anyways. Worst mistake of my life.
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It can be a form thing or it can be just your mechanical leverages. If you have relatively long legs and a short torso you'll naturally end up bending over more at the bottom of the squat in order to keep the weight over your heels.

If you want to bend over less, and therefore put less stress on your lower back, you have to either work on your mobility so you can squat with a wider stance or switch to a high bar squat (assuming you are squatting low bar right now).

PS, having your back arched a lot normally is not good. Google anterior pelvic tilt and how to fix it!

I started the program 4 weeks ago so yes basically pretty much. I do shitty dumbbell squats at home before but those aren't really worth mentioning. I've only been going under parallel for maybe 2 weeks now so maybe my back is more weaker then my legs? I don't know. It's not much pain just the fact that I think i"m putting to much stress on my lower back. Could the rounding of the back cause this?

Fine, no more tips for you!

PS. Maybe I should have mentioned I did a lot of foam rolling and stretching of my back and hip flexors before I bench.

I had this issue when I first started lifting. My lower back would round so much that I'd start to get severe pain while playing hockey, or staying on my feet too long. The squat is hard to perfect, but lower the weight till you get the form totally down.

I found that once I started doing low bar squats, it was easier to avoid having my lower back round.

It's not bad if you just started lifting, and it's definitely far from being "pretty beast." The guy you know sounds like a typical brolifter. That, or he has back issues.

By rounding of the back do you mean your lower back rounding when you get to the bottom of the squat? If so then yes, rounding of the back is very hard on your back. Only squat as low as you can without your lower back rounding. Work on your mobility (especially hammies) and you'll eventually be able to squat lower with a neutral back.

Don't worry about us... make sure you post progress pics!

Oh, he's a brolifter for sure, there's no doubt about that

perhaps you should have tried it on a light weight first before going right into it :considered:

Yes I mean by when I go down below parallel, I think my back round. My friend said I lean to forward at the bottom, could this be related to my lower back issues? Nevertheless I guess I'll have to lower the weight until I get the form down to perfection...and here I thought I was doing pretty good squatting a plate on my 4th week =(

I place my feet. On the bench to prevent myself to arch my back eh.

I was being sarcastic in my post... as I am not a believer in arching my back during bench press, but let's not open that can of worms.

Would not advise that, takes the stability of your core out of the picture for bench resulting in less power output.

For me personally, a back arch for bench is more natural than keeping a flat back. Obviously you don't need a ridiculous bridge like:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c5...J/Hellarch.gif

but enough that your traps are digging into the bench.