Type of Back Injury
There are four main types of lower back injuries: muscular pulls, pain in flexion, pain in extension, and sacroiliac joint injuries. As always, when working with an injury, make sure a doctor has cleared you for exercise before trying anything out. In part one of this four-part series, I will discuss working around muscular strains in the erector spinae.
Muscular Pulls:
Strained muscles are a common injury in the erector spinae muscle group. This can be caused by a lot of things such as the erectors trying to do too much work, not properly warming up, or simply moving in a range of motion with which the nervous system is not comfortable.
For training around this injury, you should try to load the erector spinae as little as possible. The erector spinae have two main functions - the lower portion of the erector spinae group keeps the lumbar spine in place when the lumbars are subjected to shearing force (such as when the body body is bent over), while the upper portion helps extend the back. When dealing with an erector sprain, we generally want to avoid both of these situations.
Side Note: Now, I am not saying that the best course of dealing with a muscular strain is to not work out the muscle group at all until it heals completely. I am aware the lighter loads can stimulate blood flow and improve recovery. The purpose of this article is for discussing how to train the lower and upper body at high intensities when working around strained erectors.
Training the Lower Body:
Since we are trying to avoid both back extension and shearing force, lower body work should focus on keeping the torso upright. Most single-leg (unilateral) work, particularly lunge variations such as reverse lunges, split squats, bulgarian squats are all appropriate (as long as they are pain free). If one movement irritates your strained muscles, try a different one or lower the weight.
Training the Upper Body:
When training the upper body after an erector strain, you should avoid exercises which require forward bends, such as bent over barbell rows. Additionally, any movement which requires erector action to stabilize the body (such as a seated row or a standing curl) may not be appropriate. Replace the seated row with a chest supported t-bar row.
Any machine that you can use with a chest support will significantly decrease erector spinae involvement.
Exercises to Avoid:
Squats - Squatting variations, even single leg squats, can result in significant erector spinae involvement. While front squats are generally prescribed for many lower back pain issues, the barbell front squat is not appropriate for recent lumbar strains. While this lift results in less compressive force than a back squat, the nature of this injury is not related to lumbar compression. Due to the bar placement, a front squat demands significant spinal erector involvement, making it a poor choice for someone with a recent lumbar strain.
All Deadlift variations (even single leg deadlifts) - these simply require too much erector involvement, both from the lower and upper portions of the erector spinae.
Barbell Rows - For the same reasons as the deadlift.
Seated Row - Your erector spinae generate the force necessary to stablize your body while performing a seated row, so these are not appropriate for recent sprains.
Exercises performed while standing - Depending on the nature of your erector strain, standing exercises such as curls and overhead press may or may not irritate the strain. This will require some trial and error to figure out, as it is highly variable dependent upon the nature of your injury.
Conclusion
An erector spinae strain is no reason to stay out of the gym. Simply by modifying your exercise selection you can get a full workout in despite your unfortunate injury. Tomorrow I will cover part 2 - dealing with pain in flexion.
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