GHR lower back pain

[timelinex]

I bought a GHR a few months ago and have incorporated it in my routine.

At first it was HARD to even do unweighted reps. Slowly I progressed to 3 sets of 15. Then 3 sets with a 10lb plate held on my stomach till 15 reps. Now I'm at 15lb plate and currently at 11 reps in the progression.

The burn in the hamstrings is unreal and I love GHR so far because of that. (I'm a home gym so I don't have hamstring curl machines)

I've ran into an issue the past few weeks though. I've watched a ton of youtube form videos so I THINK I'm doing it right. But when I'm going from the bottom position to the back position, it's hurting my lower back. It's not super painful, but as I keep going up in weight/reps I think it becomes worse and worse. It doesn't cause a lingering pain once the workout is done, but it's making finishing sets hard.

It's not an "I'm lifting too heavy while deadlifting and my back hurts" pain. In fact I think it's the opposite problem. I believe it's probably from overextending the back the other way too much (hyperlordosis?). The obvious answer is "well stop overextending stupid", but I'm not sure how to get out of the bottom of the whole without posturing up as part of the process of going up in the GHR. I'm still feeling "the burn" and soreness in the correct spots after (mostly hamstrings and just a little calf).

Is this just a semi-normal side effect of these? Am I doing something wrong?

[mgil]

Is it just residual fatigue?

[timelinex]

Is it just residual fatigue?

You mean like soreness while doing it? It's definitely not a soreness feeling. It's much more sharp (if that is even the right word). Feels like the feeling when you are hyperextending your lower back on purpose, except if the feeling went from uncomfortable to painful.

[mgil]

Is it just residual fatigue?

You mean like soreness while doing it? It's definitely not a soreness feeling. It's much more sharp (if that is even the right word). Feels like the feeling when you are hyperextending your lower back on purpose, except if the feeling went from uncomfortable to painful.

Have you tried rolling it out or some sort of pressure release?

[timelinex]

Is it just residual fatigue?

You mean like soreness while doing it? It's definitely not a soreness feeling. It's much more sharp (if that is even the right word). Feels like the feeling when you are hyperextending your lower back on purpose, except if the feeling went from uncomfortable to painful.

Have you tried rolling it out or some sort of pressure release?

It only hurts while I'm doing the actual set. Are you suggested to try rolling out my lower back between sets to see if it helps during the set?

[mgil]

Yeah, it’s tough to diagnose pain over the internet and doubly so in a case like this where it’s intermittent.

It’s possible that some poking and prodding when the muscle/joint is angry might lead to additional insight regarding what’s happening.

[Hardartery]

[Culican]

It's not an "I'm lifting too heavy while deadlifting and my back hurts" pain. In fact I think it's the opposite problem. I believe it's probably from overextending the back the other way too much (hyperlordosis?). The obvious answer is "well stop overextending stupid", but I'm not sure how to get out of the bottom of the whole without posturing up as part of the process of going up in the GHR. I'm still feeling "the burn" and soreness in the correct spots after (mostly hamstrings and just a little calf).

Is this just a semi-normal side effect of these? Am I doing something wrong?

When I started using the GHR in the gym a few months ago I had the same issue. I would reach sort of a sticking point coming up and in an attempt to get past it I was overextending my back, which resulted in pain. I finally read (or watched in a video) somewhere that I had to keep my glutes tight. Now as I start to come up, I make sure that I tighten my glutes as hard as I can. I noticed that keeping my glutes tight seemed to result in me using my hamstings to come up whereas before I had been trying to use my lower back to drive myself up. I haven't had any pain since I started doing this and I've also started progressing faster (more reps each time) in the movement.

[timelinex]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

Your suggestions landed me on something that did seem to work tremendously. I read somewhere that if you have this issue you can try to focus on forcing a "posterior pelvic tilt". The que is to do the opposite of what you do to straighten your lower back before a DL.

I tried rounding like that and it got rid of 95% of the issue! Now I just start feeling something very slight by the last rep or two and that's it. I'm guessing it's just from me being tired by then and not keeping the rounding tight.

I didn't try to tighten my glutes, I will do that next time. I can see how that helps because tightening my glutes helps lower back fatigue in OHP for me. If I had to guess, part of the mechanism falls in line with what just helped me with GHR's. When you tighten your glutes, I think it's a little harder to overextend the lower back (it pulls the lower back muscle I think)

So I guess at the end of the day it did just end up being "If the pain is from overextending, try harder to not overextend your back stupid". The pelvic tilt que helped get it done.

[DanCR]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

Your suggestions landed me on something that did seem to work tremendously. I read somewhere that if you have this issue you can try to focus on forcing a "posterior pelvic tilt". The que is to do the opposite of what you do to straighten your lower back before a DL.

I tried rounding like that and it got rid of 95% of the issue! Now I just start feeling something very slight by the last rep or two and that's it. I'm guessing it's just from me being tired by then and not keeping the rounding tight.

I didn't try to tighten my glutes, I will do that next time. I can see how that helps because tightening my glutes helps lower back fatigue in OHP for me. If I had to guess, part of the mechanism falls in line with what just helped me with GHR's. When you tighten your glutes, I think it's a little harder to overextend the lower back (it pulls the lower back muscle I think)

So I guess at the end of the day it did just end up being "If the pain is from overextending, try harder to not overextend your back stupid". The pelvic tilt que helped get it done.

Squeezing the glutes and getting into a bit of posterior pelvic tilt (or, preferably, neutral hips) go together like peanut butter and jelly.

[timelinex]

Squeezing the glutes and getting into a bit of posterior pelvic tilt (or, preferably, neutral hips) go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Now as I start to come up, I make sure that I tighten my glutes as hard as I can.

Thank you guys a ton for this advice.

Today I had GHR and squeezing my glutes got rid of my issue completely. It's a lot harder to police my pelvic tilt during the hard reps than it is to police keeping my glutes tight. Now I don't even have to pay attention to the pelvic tilt and just focus on flexing my glutes. No more back pain.