Friday Deadlifts

It's deadlift day once again and today I managed to pull another PB. Here's what happened.

Raw Deadlifts - 225lbs (sumo)/6 reps, 225lbs (conv)/6 reps, 315lbs (conv)/6 reps.
*put on belt*
Deadlifts - 405lbs/6 reps, 455lbs/2 reps.

Bellow Knees Rack Pulls - 405lbs/3 x singles, 455lbs/3 singles.

Swiss Ball Crunches - 4 sets/16 reps.
Machine Crunches - 4 sets/12 reps/120lbs.
Lat Pull Downs - 3 sets/8 reps/160, 185, 210lbs.

A very good work out. During the swiss ball work I did lots of stretching. I've been doing some research regarding the lower back pain I've been experiencing. Tight hamstrings are the culperate.

Read the following.


Powerlifters, weightlifters, cyclists, sprinters and rugby players: if you regularly deal with these types of athlete, then this article may be of interest to you. Athletes participating in these sports have something important in common; they all perform powerful movements of hip extension from varying positions of hip flexion. The muscles responsible for this action are of course the hamstrings and the gluteal muscle group, but more importantly for the scope of this paper, the adductor magnus also plays a significant role in this movement. Repetitive overuse of the adductor magnus may potentially lead to hypertonicity/trigger point development within the muscle. The short case studies to follow will illustrate the importance of this muscle as a contributor to dysfunction.

Case study 1

the powerlifter with lower back painA 24-year-old state level powerlifter presented to the Agilitas clinic with a six-month history of left-sided lower back pain, exacerbated by heavy squatting and deadlifting, and more recently lumbar flexion. There was no history of trauma before onset of the pain. Previous treatment had consisted of anti-inflammatory medications, previous physiotherapy treatments focusing primarily on the development of muscle control using transversus abdominus and multifidus, and at late stage an epidural cortisone injection around the L5/S1 disc. His pain had not improved for the duration of the six months, with only temporary relief following the epidural cortisone. Plain x-rays were normal; however, CT scan showed a small left posterolateral L5/S1 disc bulge without nerve root compromise.

Examination

This showed full range of motion of the lumbar spine in extension, pain limited lumbar spine flexion, reduced hip flexion range of motion especially on the left, a hypomobile or 'blocked' left sacroiliac joint with a posteriorly rotated ilium and increased muscle tone through the right TFL/psoas and left gluteals and adductor magnus. With squatting movements, the patient demonstrated a right lateral pelvic shift with increasing depth of squat (increasing hip flexion). His transversus abdominus activation was reasonably good and was maintained with leg loading.It was reasoned that the patient had indeed suffered a L5/S1 disc injury, although I was not convinced that poor muscle activation of his deep stabilisers was the primary cause of the problem. I felt that his lumbar spine-SIJ-hip mechanics on the left side might be influencing the loading of his left-sided lumbar spine during squat and deadlift movements. Based on the assessment findings of a blocked left SIJ, poor hip flexion, and the relative abduction of his left femur demonstrated while squatting (pelvis shifting laterally to the right), I decided to focus my treatments on improving these by releasing the tone through the left gluteals and adductor magnus.

Treatment

Gluteal releases are performed with the patient side lying with the hips in flexion, and direct elbow pressure applied to the taut 'bands' felt through the gluteals, particularly the posterior fibres of the gluteus medius. Discouragingly, release of the left gluteals only marginally improved his forward bending pain and SIJ mechanics. Persisting further, I then targeted the left adductor magnus. I performed this by applying direct pressure to the posterior fibres of the adductor magnus (just inferior to the ischial tuberosity) whilst the patient was prone lying. It was interesting that only a small amount of pressure produced a significant amount of discomfort for the patient; however, the pain response reduced significantly after a few minutes. The releases continued for a good 10 minutes, finding multiple spots of increased tone through the adductor magnus. On reassessment, the movement of his left SIJ improved markedly; more excitingly however, his forward bending was completely painfree.Treatment over the next few weeks continued with releases of the left adductor magnus, and painfree forward bending and normal SIJ mechanics were maintained. The patient was shown ways of self-releasing the adductor magnus, and this was continued at home. The easiest way to do this is sitting on a firm chair with one end of small dumbell under the adductor magnus. The patient resumed light squatting and deadlifting four weeks after initial treatment, and within two months had progressed to similar loads on the squats and deadlifts pre-injury. One year following onset of symptoms, he was still painfree and progressively improving his PB's on both lifts.

This article made lots of sence. I didn't have any kind of trauma that would indicate some kind of injury. Also when ever I stretch my posterior chain and hamstrings my lower back feels much better. I'll continue to stretch regularly and see if it helps.

Snowdaddy