Back Injuries from One Armed Dumbell Lifts

Henry Swanson

Henry Swanson

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Guys, for some reason I seem prone to tweaking my back when doing heavy one armed dumbell lifts, especially snatches and cleans (Rows, presses and swings are ok). It seems to happen more when I'm lifting with my right arm though. I checked my form and it looks fine, my lifting buddy said it looked good as well so I'm pretty much at a loss here.

I went to see a chriopractor and he suggested I stop doing these kinds of lifts altogether. Just wanted to get some input from you guys though and see if any of you have had the same problem.
 
funny you should mention, i always get back pain when doing these with ONLY my right arm, it's pain on the right side of my back also, i think it's important to mention that have a fused spine, but still, this is one of the few lifts that i thought i COULD do but i always injure myself
 
killer_kicks88 said:
funny you should mention, i always get back pain when doing these with ONLY my right arm, it's pain on the right side of my back also, i think it's important to mention that have a fused spine, but still, this is one of the few lifts that i thought i COULD do but i always injure myself
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Weird. I usually get the pain in the middle of my back and I'm unable to lift anything for a couple of days. I also seem to get some pain when I twist my torso.
 
Take my advice for what it'S worth, I'm no doctor, but in Judo we do alot of one armed pulling (turning to the side in hip throws) and I injured my back from too much of that kind of explosive work (it's pretty heavy trying to pull a guy your size forward and to the side to load him on your hips). It turned out that I had a muscular unbalance between my right intercoastals and my left (muscles in the back that help twisting it). It's the stronger muscle that hurted.
Based from past experience either you should give up those one armed pulls, or you should start doing more volume for the side that doesn'T hurt. It should be the weaker side.

If you decide to let it rest, don't give up abwork though, it has helped my recovery. At that time I could only do planks, the other stuff hurted too much. Now planks are for me a cornerstone of any rehab routine when I hurt my back, which has happened a few times but never lasted very long.

my 2 cents
 
I'm not trying to be mean AT ALL so please understand this, i just wanted to correct you, it's hurt, not hurted...please don't take this as a flame
 
i noticed that when my lower back gets sore it's almost always mostly on the right side.... i did some stiff leg deadlifts the other day and i barely felt anything on the left side of my lower back, but the right side was so stiff..... same thing when i do hyperextensions..... my left side is much weaker than my right side, should i do some extra sets on the left side or what?
 
Noskill said:
Take my advice for what it'S worth, I'm no doctor, but in Judo we do alot of one armed pulling (turning to the side in hip throws) and I injured my back from too much of that kind of explosive work (it's pretty heavy trying to pull a guy your size forward and to the side to load him on your hips). It turned out that I had a muscular unbalance between my right intercoastals and my left (muscles in the back that help twisting it). It's the stronger muscle that hurted.
Based from past experience either you should give up those one armed pulls, or you should start doing more volume for the side that doesn'T hurt. It should be the weaker side.

If you decide to let it rest, don't give up abwork though, it has helped my recovery. At that time I could only do planks, the other stuff hurted too much. Now planks are for me a cornerstone of any rehab routine when I hurt my back, which has happened a few times but never lasted very long.

my 2 cents
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I was thinking it may be an imbalance but I'm not sure which muscle groups. It could be the intercostals though.
 
Arent intercostals the muscles between the ribs?
 
dexter c said:
Arent intercostals the muscles between the ribs?
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Thats what I wass thinking, arent they the muscles that help you brethe out by contracting the ribcage?
 
Stop training for a bit. Come back with very light weight and slow and controlled movements for both sides. Then gradually work back up to heavy weight at a normal rthym. My left side was weaker once for my bench so i did this now i'm pretty balanced.
 
Sonny said:
Yes, but the site isn't always the source.
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Yeah, I wasnt meaning that to be a point. It was just a question to make sure I was thinking about the right thing.
 
dexter c said:
Yeah, I wasnt meaning that to be a point. It was just a question to make sure I was thinking about the right thing.
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Oh, sorry man.
 
For imbalances the trick is to work your weaker side more OR harder, but NOT work the stronger side more or harder..
 
Heres my 2 cents, dont do an exercise if it is counter productive, weightlifting at its best is a supplement to an MMA pre-fight program, the whole idea of an exercises is to strengthen a particular area and if you are getting injured and are unable to train then your not getting stronger, by all means percevere for a time, vary the loads, back off on the volume, periodise etc but if at the end of the day it isnt working then dont do it.
 
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