Lower back pain from Barbell Rows

[PumpingIron26]

Hello all,

I have been having mild lower back pain and I think I finally traced the culprit to my barbell rowing. Here are the facts. I just wanted to see if you agree with me, and if you have any advice for me:

1) This back pain is mild. I am 26, I have only been lifting free weights for a couple of months, and I have no history of back problems or back pain. There is no tenderness and no visible swelling.

2) The pain is confined to just my spine. It will range anywhere from T4 (mid back) to L4 (lower back). It does not flare out any wider than my spine.

3) The pain is hard to describe. Usually it just feels like a mild pain coming from deep within my back. Other times it is more like a tightness.

4) I feel the pain when I am sitting and when I am lying down. I feel fine standing up.

5) This is now Day 8 of back pain. It is so mild that I thought it would go away quickly, but it is lingering so I am a little worried.

6) I thought I was keeping my back straight during barbell rowing. But the other day I took my shirt off and duplicated my barbell rowing position in front of my mirror at home, and I discovered that I was actually sticking my back up quite a bit. So my current theory is that this poor form pinched my vertebral disks and injured them all along my back. In the future when I barbell row, I will try to arch my back downward instead of upward, and I may also experiment with using a weight lifting belt. From my understanding, a weight lifting belt compresses your entire lower back, forcing it to stay in a straight position since your back needs space in order to bend.

To be safe, I have taken a complete break from weight lifting. I will probably resume soon, leaving out back-intensive exercises like Military Presses, Squats, and Barbell Rowing.

Is this pain something I should be worried about? I hear about older people with "bad backs" and "chronic back pain" all the time. Any idea when this pain will finally go away?

Thanks.

[oldballs]

Most likely it is a flexibility issue.

[RedJay67]

Get stretching. Don't just wait it out. Ibuprofen is your friend for this too because of the inflammation relief. When I had my bulged disc physio had me doing exercises right away:

- lie on back, both knees up to chest and hold. repeat 10 times
- lie on back, pull one knee up to chest/other leg straight, repeat other leg
- lie on back, knees bent, lower knees to the left side floor and then the right slowly with a hold at the bottom
- lie on back, one knee bent and the other calf/ankle over that knee, pull the knee up to chest stretching out the hip, repeat other leg.
- lie on stomach with hands in push up position, push head up looking skyward, arching back (keep hips/pelvis touching the ground)
- ice your lower back 4-5 times a day

repeat exercises several times a day

-sleep with a pillow between your legs if lying on side/pillow under knees if lying on back
-sleep with a small towel rolled up and stuff just north of your waist when lying on side to keep your spine as straight as possible.

If it continues, pick up a cheap kneeling chair (google for image) so you can sit comfortably when you have to. Second hand shops have them all the time.

[SuicideGripMe]

1. Build flexibility.
2. Change up routine and rowing style. Google Yate's rows, which is a bit easier to learn IMO but focuses on the lats more so some heavy rack pulls, deads, or cable rows will be needed as well.

[Tommy W.]

You may be rounding your back. BB rows can be dangerous without proper form. Very hard on the discs.

[theblaztoo]

Barbell rows are an exercise that in my opinion should be avoided for most people, if not done properly they can be terrible for your lower back. Stretch your hamstrings before a back workout.

Here's a row that I've switched to among others that I really like. Take a heavy dumbell, for me it's usually whatever is the heaviest in the gym, set it up on its side and stand overtop of it, grip the set of top plates with your fingers on the bottom and thumbs on top or off to the side. Make sure your posture is good bending over and pull up and touch your chest or stomach with the dumbell. With the center of gravity more in the middle it's easier to keep your back straight and put the focus on your lats or middle back. Sometimes the weight isn't heavy enough so slow concentrated reps do the trick.

I had a similar problem and has a ct scan of my back, I have a transitional vertebrae, meaning it is fused together on both sides and can't move when it is supposed to, if my forms off or a lift puts pressure in that area it causes movement where it shouldn't. Revamped my back program with heavy partial deadlifts, row variations, extensions, have not had nearly the same problem since

[PumpingIron26]

You may be rounding your back. BB rows can be dangerous without proper form. Very hard on the discs.

This sounds like what happened. Any idea how long this kind of injury takes to heal, and if there is any permanent damage?

Thanks for your responses guys.

[IDrinkBloodLOL]

Stop doing barbell rows and start doing dumbbell rows instead, since those use almost no lower back.

You're welcome.

[Bema]

If your backs giving you issues switch out the barbell rows until it heals.

One of the problems I've seen with people attempting bent over rows is underestimating the bend of the knees. They'll say they feel a big strain in the lower back during the movement and assume that's what it's meant to feel like. A few weeks down the line the back injury appears.

[Tommy W.]

This sounds like what happened. Any idea how long this kind of injury takes to heal, and if there is any permanent damage?

Thanks for your responses guys.

You probably caused a slight herniation of a disc. Very common for guys that weight train. It's best to not load the spine for awhile, especially while bent forward. You'll continue to exacerbate it. Ibuprofen, ice and rest....I know the drill very well, unfortunately. It heals IF you take care of it properly. Most guys just keep on aggravating it and then it's a nightmare to deal with.

[BombDonald]

Try not to jerk the weight around too much, and play with the angle of your torso. The more upright you are, the easier it will be on your lower back. You shouldn't be standing up straight, but leaning over with your torso parallel to the floor is usually something you just can't do with any appreciable weight. Keep your lower back locked in tight, there really shouldn't be any movement during the lift.

[Jasonk282]

Try not to jerk the weight around too much, and play with the angle of your torso. The more upright you are, the easier it will be on your lower back. You shouldn't be standing up straight, but leaning over with your torso parallel to the floor is usually something you just can't do with any appreciable weight. Keep your lower back locked in tight, there really shouldn't be any movement during the lift.

^This

The more parallel to the floor you get the less weight you'll be able to use. The position that I feel best for me is like a rack pull position with the weight going to knee level.

[DrD1000]

Stretch. Ice it if you need to. Remember to look up while you are in position doing the lift.

[k9pit]

Keep your upper body tight, contract your glutes hard to force them to stabilize the weight more than your lower back.

Your glutes and knees can make or break your experience with BB Rows. Since I figured that piece out, I've minimize lower back stress significantly and I'm able to go relatively heavy with no issues.

[jackedguy87]

reverse sit ups ( back up's) took away my lower back pain. couldnt stand for more than 30 mins without dull pain slowly getting worse by the minute.

[PumpingIron26]

Just a quick update for people that might search this thread. My back pain is pretty much gone now. Took about 10 days for it to clear up. I'm really glad the pain is gone and that there is nothing "permanent".

I definitely think that Barbell Rows with improper form were the cause. I didn't arch my lower back inwards like you're supposed to, and it resulted in my back curving upward and compressing almost all the disks in my vertebrae. The disks got irritated and were sore for days afterward until they healed.

I'm going to follow the excellent advice in this thread and take a break from Barbell Rows for awhile. When I'm ready to go back to back exercises, I will either do a different exercise such as Dumbbell Rows, or I will arch my lower back inwards, pinch my shoulder blades together, etc. so that my back is as straight as possible.

Thanks again for all your advice. I will rep everyone once my rep power builds back up.

[DBlueWolverine]

I had a back pain a few days back, at that time i wasn't sure what caused the pain, my guess was deadlift.. Thankfully the pain was gone after 10 days and these 10 days i wasn't able to do any compound lifts, actually i avoided. Anyway, last week I started doing compound lifts again and everything was fine until day before tomorrow's workout. I have been doing icf5x5 and this workout was the best i ever had but today morning i felt a little pain in my lower back and the pain increased quite a bit till evening. I am mow sure the culprit for the pain the last time and now is barbell row... Huh..i hope my lower back heals within 3-4 days.


What i noticed is, i started icf with pendlay rows and i never faced any issue. i have decided i won't be doing barbell row anymore, at least not for another 3-4 months.

[PumpingIron26]

Another update for anybody that googles this thread.

1) The culprit of my 10 days of lower back pain was definitely barbell rows. I replaced them with dumbbell rows and I haven't had a repeat of multi-day pain since.

2) The barbell rows caused permanent damage. Even though I stopped weight lifting because I've been busy, I still get very mild aches in my lower back a couple of times a week. And I am having noticeable discomfort when trying to sleep on my side for long periods of time because it forces my lower back into a certain twisted shape. I never used to have either of these issues, ever.

My advice to anyone that googles this is to avoid barbell rows. Perhaps one of those weight lifting belts would help one to do barbell rows with proper form (I haven't tried it, they should work in theory, they compress everything down there together as much as possible which makes it hard to bend, keeping everything straight, which is key because bending is what wrecks your disks). But I think the easiest approach is just to do dumbbell rows. Those work fine for me.

[oldballs]

You silly goose, you probably have tight ham strings.

[artvandelay02]

I had the same problem with barbell rows when I first started lifting. I stopped doing them for a long time (pain went away) and then I resumed the exercise after I could deadlift a decent amount of weight, and now it doesn't bother me anymore when I go rows. I would say stop them for a while until your back gets stronger, and then try them again because it's a great lift if you can do it safely.

[Tommy W.]

Do inverted rows if you want. One of the best exercises in my arsenal. Put your feet up on a bench for added resistance

[AliXerri]

try to warm up your lower back prior to the lift. Try back extensions with light weight.

[mrbackbull]

Inverted rows are a must to save lower-back but use the handle so as to be narrow grip.

[Tommy W.]

Inverted rows are a must to save lower-back but use the handle so as to be narrow grip.

Not necessarily