For many athletes, back pain is common. Find out what you can do, what damage can happen and what to do to avoid it. For bodybuilders and other strength sports, post-workout back pain is common. Today's article will try to answer what to do if your back hurts after a workout. We will also try to tell you today how you can avoid the appearance of pain in the back.
All athletes know that basic movements are most effective when gaining mass. Very often, beginners try to perform these exercises and do not follow the simplest safety rules.
Ways to avoid back injury
With intense strength training, the joints and back are at the highest risk of injury. To reduce the likelihood of pain in the lower back, you should adhere to several rules:
- When performing all exercises, special attention should be paid to technique. To a greater extent, this applies to work with a lot of weight when performing basic movements that load the back.
- Introduce back strengthening exercises into your workout routine. This can be, for example, hyperextension.
- If pain appears at the time of performing squats with a large working weight, this exercise should be replaced with an alternative one. In this case, squatting with dumbbells may well be.
- When doing a heavy, basic exercise with a lot of weight, remember to use a weightlifting belt.
- Try to control all movements as much as possible.
Helpful Tips for Preventing Back Pain
One of the weakest links in the human body is the lower back. This part of the body must be constantly strengthened using a variety of exercises. Such movements include hyperextension, "good morning", deadlift (this movement is not suitable for beginners), etc. Thanks to such exercises, the athlete will be able to strengthen the muscular frame of the ridge and back. This will allow you to control and better work your leg muscles while doing squats. You should also remember about the press, which acts as a kind of supporting mechanism for the entire body when doing squats.
It is not recommended for beginners to use deadlift in training. For a start, it will be enough to use isolating movements without applying large working weights. As your body becomes stronger, then deadlift can be gradually introduced into the training program. Remember to warm up well before doing squats. Of course, a warm-up is required before each exercise, as well as stretching. However, this article focuses on back problems that athletes often experience. You should knead not only your back, but also your legs. Before moving on to working with a working weight, you should perform several warm-up approaches with a large number of repetitions. Also, use a weightlifting belt to protect your spine. Novice athletes, usually working with low weights, most likely will not need a belt. But in the future, he should become a permanent item of your equipment.
Squats, like all other exercises, must be performed technically correctly. Athletes receive a fairly large number of injuries precisely because of poor technique. There is a machine called the Smith machine that can make your life so much easier. When using it, most of the load is removed from the back, which is transferred to the hips. At the same time, do not think that the use of this sports equipment will not allow you to properly develop your leg muscles. Many professional athletes speak well of the Smith machine, and some of them are even sure that they achieved their results largely thanks to this machine.
If back problems persist, then it makes sense to reduce the weight of the weights when squatting, or even exclude this exercise from your training program.
Major back injuries
Intense training with large working weights has a strong effect on the spine. The causes of back injury can be both acute trauma and chronic micro-injury to soft tissues. At the same time, the training experience does not matter here, and pain in the back can appear, both for experienced athletes and for beginners. Among the most common back injuries are:
- Sprains of the muscles and ligaments of the back. Conservative methods such as analgesics and physical therapy are used to treat this type of injury. It is also necessary to limit the activity of the athlete.
- Spondylolysis. For treatment, conservative methods are used - anti-inflammatory medications and physiotherapy exercises. Unfortunately, if you do not start treatment quickly, then the development of chronic forms of the disease is possible.
- Spondylolisthesis occurs when the upper vertebra is displaced relative to the one below. Most often, surgery is needed to treat the disease.
- Hernia most often develops in the lumbar region. This is where the maximum load comes into play when working with large weights. Treatment options can only be determined after a thorough clinical examination.
These are just the main types of injuries most commonly experienced by athletes. In most cases, conservative treatment is sufficient, but it can also come to surgical intervention. It is also very important to use physiotherapy exercises during the treatment of back injuries, which, in addition to a set of special exercises, also includes aqua aerobics and swimming.
In today's article, we tried to answer the question of what to do if your back hurts after a workout. As you can see, if you neglect the safety rules when doing the exercises, the consequences can be very bad. Any back injury that seemed to have healed for a long time can relapse. Take the utmost care of your back to reduce the risk of injury.
For more information on how to prevent and get rid of back pain, see this video:
