# No squatting or Deadlifting for life!



## Junkboxer (May 17, 2011)

I'm going insane. i took 6 months off from the gym to repair a lower back injury (buldging disk i think). nothing is fixed. my doctor says i need to face the facts and rule out squatting and deadlifting. i made an AWSOME routine from "Strippid Down Hypertrophy" to start next week. it includes squats. is there any good hypertrophy routines i can do without squatting/deadlifting?


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## Marat (May 17, 2011)

Does this doctor frequently spend time with athletes? Perhaps you may want to get a second opinion.

If you legitimately cannot squat/deadlift, I suppose the boring answer is to replace them with whatever you can do.


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## Klutch (May 17, 2011)

im in the same boat, no deads or squats for me either,, i do lunges with dumbells, leg presses, hindu squats, jump squats


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## Junkboxer (May 17, 2011)

Marat said:


> Does this doctor frequently spend time with athletes? Perhaps you may want to get a second opinion.
> 
> If you legitimately cannot squat/deadlift, I suppose the boring answer is to replace them with whatever you can do.


yea, general sports doctor. ive gettena  second opinion before. overall same answer. ive known this deep down for a while but i guess i just have to come to terms with it.


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## Junkboxer (May 17, 2011)

Klutch said:


> im in the same boat, no deads or squats for me either,, i do lunges with dumbells, leg presses, hindu squats, jump squats


 never heard of hindu squats. ill look them up. they dont aggravate lower back?


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## MDR (May 17, 2011)

Junkboxer said:


> yea, general sports doctor. ive gettena  second opinion before. overall same answer. ive known this deep down for a while but i guess i just have to come to terms with it.



I had a couple of discs done about two years ago, also in my lower back.  Rehab took awhile after surgery, but I have fully recovered.  I am able to squat and deadlift just fine.  Not recommending surgery or anything; everyone is different.  Just saying it worked wonders for me.  Plus, after blowing out my discs, I really didn't have much choice.  Hope things get better for you.


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## nechcs (May 17, 2011)

Same Story here man L1 S5 Bulge.  Most my leg work consists of lunges, leg press and dumbbell squats. 
But honestly the best gains in strength and mass in my legs were seen when I spent hours at the track working on my 100m, really hammering those fast twitch fibres.  Also Stretching out the hamstrings and glutes should be done religiously.


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## Junkboxer (May 17, 2011)

hmmm. my chiro reccomended streaching my hammstrings to take a lot of load off my lower back but how do you stretch the glutes?


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## VolcomX311 (May 17, 2011)

I had a slip disc at L3. I was able to dead lift again about year later, however, my problem is that once my deads reached 455, I would face a re-aggravation in the form of real debilitating, sciatic nerve pinching strain/pain.

I can squat and do heavy shrugs without issue. Stress coming down on the axial skeleton is perfectly fine with me, it's the stress at that angle, particularly the initial lift of the dead lift that will cause a re-aggro, however, my situation is unique. I never had surgery to fix my slip disc because it must have been a small bulge, but enough to pinch that damn sciatic nerve, so when my body healed, my erectors formed aroud my lumbar in a slight tilt, so I have slightly uneven hips. Nothing you can percieve unless you're lining my legs up on a chiro table, but this slight tilt is why I can't dead lift beyond a certain weight before that slight tilt becomes a real problem. 

If your lumbar recovered straight all the way down, then just restart slowly and you should be fine. I'd wait up to a year though, just to be safe. I'd also suggest wearing a belt initially or go real light until you've re-established that core strength so it can contract hard enough to guard your lumbar.

My Chiro told me no more squats, heavy shrugs or deads forever, as well.  I can do all but the deads and that has more to do with how my body recovered (wrong).


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## SuperLift (May 17, 2011)

Oh man that's horrible. Same type deal happened to a good friend of mine. Was rough on him


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## tommygunz (May 17, 2011)

I had a knee replacement about a year ago and my doc said I just had to go lighter and not as deep in squats. I think form is super important for lifting with skeletal issues.


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## ovr40 (May 17, 2011)

when you said bulging disk "you think" is this because your doctor is being vague or it is it not able to diagnose with x-rays or mri,did you wait the 6 months before you saw him or did he tell you to hold off the 6 months and re-asess. How did the injury happen, suddenly, or over time? with the other posts there seems to be an optimistic possibility, hope it works out 4 u.


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## ponyboy (May 18, 2011)

Doctors will often tell you "Don't do it" because they don't want to assume liability in case you decide to deadlift, make it worse and then try to sue them.  

Squats should be fine as long as your lower spine doesn't go into flexion (which will cause problems with a bulging disc) which means less range, and you also might want to remove any back loading (which means BW only, or even front loaded could be fine).  

Deads same idea - you may just have to adjust your range and do something more like a rack pull and ease the weight up VERY carefully.

Just as an example, I have a woman in her 50's who had a car accident years ago and had her spine fused and two broken vertebrae.  Six months later she can deadlift 100 lbs.    

Good thing you took six months off and nothing has changed - must be an excellent treatment program you were given!


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## nechcs (May 18, 2011)

Junkboxer said:


> hmmm. my chiro reccomended streaching my hammstrings to take a lot of load off my lower back but how do you stretch the glutes?



This is the stretch my physiotherapist suggested I do every day(best imo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE6mJ0VjK7Y


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## Mr.BIG (May 18, 2011)

VolcomX311 said:


> I had a slip disc at L3. I was able to dead lift again about year later, however, my problem is that once my deads reached 455, I would face a re-aggravation in the form of real debilitating, sciatic nerve pinching strain/pain.
> 
> I can squat and do heavy shrugs without issue. Stress coming down on the axial skeleton is perfectly fine with me, it's the stress at that angle, particularly the initial lift of the dead lift that will cause a re-aggro, however, my situation is unique. I never had surgery to fix my slip disc because it must have been a small bulge, but enough to pinch that damn sciatic nerve, so when my body healed, my erectors formed aroud my lumbar in a slight tilt, so I have slightly uneven hips. Nothing you can percieve unless you're lining my legs up on a chiro table, but this slight tilt is why I can't dead lift beyond a certain weight before that slight tilt becomes a real problem.
> 
> ...


 
I had this same problem after years of straining my back by bending over roofing! I had surgery to take out the disk and my hips where out also, I found a way to get it straight! Google rolfing, a good rolfer will adjust the facia to line you up, its a little expensive but it does work! If you have any other questions PM me!


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## CaptainNapalm (May 18, 2011)

I wonder if you could do high-rep sets for squats with lighter weight if you for example supported your back with some form of brace or squat suit.  Sure, most doctors will tell you not to do them ever again but let's face it, this is mostly to protect themselves from possible law-suits.  They have to assume that you're a go-getter and even if they feel doing lighter weight prepetually will not cause you any harm they assume that like most people eventually you'll feel stronger and against their orders you'll start to go heavier again.  You can develop awsome gains from doing high-rep squats with light to moderate weight.


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## VolcomX311 (May 18, 2011)

Mr.BIG said:


> I had this same problem after years of straining my back by bending over roofing! I had surgery to take out the disk and my hips where out also, I found a way to get it straight! Google rolfing, a good rolfer will adjust the facia to line you up, its a little expensive but it does work! If you have any other questions PM me!


 
hmm, thanks for the suggestion.


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## Junkboxer (May 18, 2011)

I duno guys...

I think the docs right. I went to the gym to try some squats the other night, NO weight, just the bar. I wanted to get reaquainted with the movement and form and have access to a big mirroe like the one at my gym. I just did a few sets and they felt good. Lower back was SHOT the next day.crazy painful ache everytime I started o bend over. I think my doc really is right


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## VolcomX311 (May 18, 2011)

Junkboxer said:


> I duno guys...
> 
> I think the docs right. I went to the gym to try some squats the other night, NO weight, just the bar. I wanted to get reaquainted with the movement and form and have access to a big mirroe like the one at my gym. I just did a few sets and they felt good. Lower back was SHOT the next day.crazy painful ache everytime I started o bend over. I think my doc really is right



My suggestion was to wait a year or so, if you were injured recently then this is way too soon.


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## Merkaba (May 18, 2011)

ponyboy said:


> Doctors will often tell you "Don't do it" because they don't want to assume liability in case you decide to deadlift, make it worse and then try to sue them.
> 
> Squats should be fine as long as your lower spine doesn't go into flexion (which will cause problems with a bulging disc) which means less range, and you also might want to remove any back loading (which means BW only, or even front loaded could be fine).
> 
> ...



I agree about doctors and liability but shit you can't assume anything for this mans condition.  Squats front or back will load the column period.  

I mean shit sometimes people get fucked up situations that limit them. I know it would be severely hard for me to accept.  

 I would get a second and third or fourth opinion but shit it happens and I wouldn't assume one is the exception just because the exception happens in spite of doctors.  You might really need to not do any loaded squats.  Don't know why body weight squats would be out if you can still walk and function normally though.


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