Lower back involuntary relaxed while lifting

[seab1023]

Sometimes, though rarely, while doing a lift that heavily involves the posterior chain, something goes slack in my lower back and I lose stabilization for a split second there. Its like a spasm except its involuntary relaxation instead of contraction. It almost instantly contracts again allowing me to rack the weight or even finish the set if I wanted to, but in that fraction of a second the damage is already done. For the next few weeks I have pain every time I arch my back.

I can't figure out what is causing this. The first time it happened while doing deadlifts. At that time I attributed it to muscle fatigue because I had been doing relatively higher weight and volume than usual. The second time was on back squats, going relatively light, and I didn't feel fatigued at all when it happened. I thought maybe my CNS was just overloaded as I had gone pretty hard on deadlifts about 3 days prior, or maybe I had extended my back too far while coming up.

Today it happened again doing power shrugs, and I was feeling totally fine up until the point when that happened. I wasn't fatigued and theres no reason for me to suspect my CNS was overloaded either. Ive been doing the this routine for at least a month now and if anything I feel like I am not challenging myself enough now that I've adapted to it.

While this seems to be a recurring issue for me, the first time it happened was roughly 5 years ago, and the second time was about 2 years ago, so its not like something that happens regularly.

Still though, its awful when it happens, especially when I had the bar racked on my back doing squats, and I want to be able to prevent it but I can't figure out whats causing it. Does this sound familiar to anyone, and do you have any advice on how to prevent it?

[BromanianDL]

The recommended exercise to improve spine stability is the bird dog. You just really have to take is easy for a while. Backs heal slowly, and just because the pain goes away doesn't mean your back is healed yet.

[Szyszak]

Sometimes, though rarely, while doing a lift that heavily involves the posterior chain, something goes slack in my lower back and I lose stabilization for a split second there. Its like a spasm except its involuntary relaxation instead of contraction. It almost instantly contracts again allowing me to rack the weight or even finish the set if I wanted to, but in that fraction of a second the damage is already done. For the next few weeks I have pain every time I arch my back.

I can't figure out what is causing this. The first time it happened while doing deadlifts. At that time I attributed it to muscle fatigue because I had been doing relatively higher weight and volume than usual. The second time was on back squats, going relatively light, and I didn't feel fatigued at all when it happened. I thought maybe my CNS was just overloaded as I had gone pretty hard on deadlifts about 3 days prior, or maybe I had extended my back too far while coming up.

Today it happened again doing power shrugs, and I was feeling totally fine up until the point when that happened. I wasn't fatigued and theres no reason for me to suspect my CNS was overloaded either. Ive been doing the this routine for at least a month now and if anything I feel like I am not challenging myself enough now that I've adapted to it.

While this seems to be a recurring issue for me, the first time it happened was roughly 5 years ago, and the second time was about 2 years ago, so its not like something that happens regularly.

Still though, its awful when it happens, especially when I had the bar racked on my back doing squats, and I want to be able to prevent it but I can't figure out whats causing it. Does this sound familiar to anyone, and do you have any advice on how to prevent it?

On your place I would check whether you have anterior pelvic tilt dysfunction. If you having this and also doing heavy deadlifts it puts a lot of stress on your lower back, and the same is with squat. While doing squat there is a way to prevent it by doing box squat variation, or just put some weight under your toes. You have to correct ATP if you really have this, and you can also strenghten your entire core by doing hip thrusts, monster walk with band, some farmer walk and it's gonna take off that stress from your lower back.

[seab1023]

The recommended exercise to improve spine stability is the bird dog. You just really have to take is easy for a while. Backs heal slowly, and just because the pain goes away doesn't mean your back is healed yet.

I'll try that once its feeling a little better. Thanks!