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Can you hyper-extend your back whilst squatting?

brettswhey

brettswhey

New member
I have always been taught to sit back and stick your arse out as far as possible. The movement starts by your rotating your pelvis down and pokiking your 'tail' out. If this is true then you can't hyper-extend your lower back, but is this good practice?
 
That's pretty much the way I have been taught although we stress breaking at the hips and pushing your backside and hips back and sitting back hence the importance of box squatting to us although having said that plenty of people don't box squat and have great squats we have just found it a very useful tool.
 
Ideally you don't want to hyper-extend your back during squatting. That puts your pelvis into what's called an 'anterior tilt', and while that's better than a flexed (rounded) back, it's not the best position.
What you're after is a neutral spine, which essentially means flat with a slight natural lumbar curve.
When you're standing straight with the bar on your shoulders, squeeze your glutes and tuck your pelvis under, finding an upright position, and the neutral spine feeling. The best indicator is the glute squeeze, as it's impossible to fully contract your glutes in an anterior pelvic tilt position.
Once you have that position, sit back into the squat, pushing your butt out.
 
And the ugly- thanks for clearing this up. I think I tend to arch my lower back, sit into the squat and then contract my buttocks to launch myself up. Your method sounds alot more natural.

strong enough- can you describe how this feels? only I still have a sore lower back (its not sciatica, nor is it doms) that is taking a long time to heal. Seems to be worst when gettign up in the morning but 'loosens up' throughout the morning.

Does this sound similar?
 
yes it does but a sore low back can be lots of things. Many of them feel back in the morning and get better as the day goes on. Even a soft tissue injury and ligament injuries will respond that way.

it hurts to bend over. You get relief from sitting in pelvic neutral ie don't slouch or overly arch your back. It will really hurt to arch your back with inflammed facet joints - eg benching. It hurts whenever you get up or sit down - right at the point you lose contact with the chair. Like any joint injury it will respond well to anti-inflamms, ice etc. But many of these things are true for disc injuries and soft tissue injuries too. Usually though a disc injury will feel better when you arch your back - facet joint definitely doesn't.

See: http://www.physioadvisor.com.au/8339150/facet-joint-sprain-facet-joint-pain-back-sprai.htm google facet joint sprain and you'll find plenty of info. But you really need to get a proper diagnosis.
 
Sciatica is still there atm, but its only in addition to the other pain and is getting better. As for the soreness, its 4 days since last squat and its starting to feel a bit better. Guess rest and stretching is the way to go for now.

Cheers for the info.
 
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