Lower Back Pain When Squatting: Why It Happens and What to Do About It

The barbell squat can be described as one of the best strength exercises you can do in a gym. It is also an adventurous experience because of the feeling you get when your chosen weight for the day feels:

● … paper light!
● … heavy as a concrete block.
● … or, in the worst-case scenario, like a sharp spear in the back.

If you have experienced low back pain in any training-related (or not-training-related) context, you might know the mixed feelings of frustration, anger, fear, and hopelessness that easily sneak up on you.

First of all, because it can hurt like hell.

But maybe even more so because of the devastating thoughts of not being able to, or being too scared of, doing squats ever again.

But relax, buddy!

We are here to help you minimize your risk of getting pain or injury when doing what you love and understand why it happens.

Table of Contents

Understanding Squat Mechanics

The squat is not only a leg exercise.

While most people place squats in their leg day workout, you should be aware that a loaded barbell placed on the upper back will also load the muscles of the back.

It’s unavoidable.

But it’s also (to some extent) modifiable. More on this later on.

And even though your back muscles are working when you squat, the exercise should still be considered as a leg exercise. Based partly on the name of the exercise but also because it effectively trains your leg muscles. Especially if you perform them to a depth of 120 degrees of knee flexion or more.¹

Squat Technique and Execution

The squat technique can be discussed endlessly. And completely without a single conclusion due to the many different, but all correct, ways to perform a squat.

However, a good start to describe squat execution might be this.

How to Squat:

Place the bar on your upper back/shoulders. Place your feet firmly and straight under the bar.
Take a breath, hold it, and tighten your body.
Squat down as far as you can while maintaining a straight/neutral back.
Stand back up again so that both your hips and shoulders rise at the same time.

Barbell Squat Exercise — The barbell back squat

With this as a start, you can add additional technique cues and tips further down this article to reduce your risk of back pain or injury when squatting.

But first: why do we get low back pain from squatting?

One NOT So Common Cause of Lower Back Pain When Squatting

First of all, let’s confuse the crowd.

Or at least challenge one of the most widespread and believed thoughts on why people experience back pain from training.

A Bent Back Is A Doomed Back

Despite the confident claims of many that a bent back while squatting is a good way to set yourself up for pain and/or injury, there isn’t any good literature that confirms the bent back versus straight back statement.² ³ ⁴

In fact, instead there is evidence that all spines bend more or less regardless of how well a person tries to keep their back straight while training.⁵ ⁶

Note that we should make a distinction between the spine and the back, as the spine is only a part of the back, which includes many muscles, ligaments, and so on.

Interestingly enough, even trained coaches and therapists are unlikely to actually reliably see who is bending or not bending their spines when lifting weights.⁷ Maybe we should just accept the fact that it does and be happy with our bent spine PRs?

And if that’s not confusingly interesting enough: a bent back when lifting, in this case when someone intentionally lifts with a bent back, seems even associated with increased strength and efficiency for the back muscles compared to a neutral back.⁸

Yep, you read correctly (if not, read again).

Common Causes of Low Back Pain When Squatting

Okay, so with that thrown out over the world, let’s discuss what more likely could be potential risk factors for pain and injury.

First of all, it’s extremely hard to answer why someone gets pain or an injury.

Mostly because they are multifactorial phenomenons that involve more than just what happens during the task performed in which you suffered the pain or injury.

But, I’m gonna try to identify and explain what could be potential risk factors for back pain when squatting (since that’s what I promised in the article title).

Too much Too Soon, aka Acute Overload

Also described as “the gym crush trap”.

You’ve just finished your, according to plan, top set of three for the day when your gym crush walks in. Suddenly you feel a strong urge to load the bar to a weight that you only glazed at before. And there you go. You went out harder than what your body, for the moment, could handle.

To demand more of your body than what it is ready for can be a risk factor for pain and injury.⁹ so it might be a good strategy to keep the peacocking outside the gym.

This acute overload behavior and its connection to pain and injury might actually be the reason why people blame the bent back lifting for the same symptoms.

Why?

Because a person who tries to lift a really heavy weight is going to adopt a technique that allows them to solve the task. And, as written above, this might be with a more bent back since that allows increased strength and efficiency for the back muscles compared to a neutral back.¹⁰

It’s a typical fallacy of correlation versus causation.

High load = pain/injury (causation)

High load = bent back (causation)

Bent back ≠ pain/injury (correlation)

The high load is the common denominator in this case and the actual cause of the pain and/or injury. Not the bent back position.

High Bar vs. Low Bar Squats

A high bar back squat, with the bar placed higher on your trapezius, loads your legs more than a low-bar back squat which distributes more of the load to your trunk and back.¹¹

With this in mind, you could say that a low-bar squat style increases the risk of back
pain or injury due to the overload principle.

But, it’s easy to forget that a body adapts according to the demands we place on it over time, so that might not be completely true.

Overuse: the Silent Killer and Little Brother to Acute Overload

Whereas acute overload refers to a momentary overload, overuse can be described as a small overload over time.

Funny thing, the same description could be used to describe one of the most fundamental training principles we really want to access when training: progressive overload.

The difference between the two is a fine line, and balancing them is like walking on a knife’s edge, which also makes it hard to handle.

But! If you learn how to balance on the right side of these two you might just end up with a life of injury/pain free training and optimal gainz.

What You Can Do To Avoid Lower Back Pain When Squatting

Too Much Too Soon, aka Acute Overload

If you are firmly determined that today indeed is the day to get your gym crush’s attention, a study by Tim J Gabbett could be useful to calculate how much an adequate stake could be for that awaited eye contact you’ve been waiting for: The “acute:chronic workload ratio”.¹²

Easily described, you divide your squat workload for the week you currently are in (acute workload) by your average squat workload for your latest 3 weeks + the week you are in now (chronic workload).

By doing so you get a ratio between the two.

In a squat training scenario, weekly squat workload could be measured as:

Sets of squats per week x reps x sets x weight = workload of squats per week

If the ratio falls between 1.0 to 1.25, your training has a protective effect.
If the ratio is above 1.5 the risk for an injury increases approximately 3 times compared to a ratio between 1.0 to 1.25.

Though this study is based on other sports than squats it may not be a perfect fit.

But, it might be a helpful way to get some hard numbers on if you are at a heightened risk for injury and pain at the moment.

Technique (High Bar vs. Low Bar)

If you regularly train with a low bar technique, then overloading with an excessive weight or workload is a larger risk factor than the low bar technique itself.

This is in line with the “too much too soon” principle.

As long as the weight isn’t too heavy compared to your back muscles tolerance at the moment, you’ll likely be fine.

But, if you regularly train with a high-bar technique and, during your peacock attempt, switch to a low-bar style to be able to lift a heavier load, you might heighten the risk for pain or injury because a low-bar squat distributes more of the load to your trunk and back, which your back has not adapted to through gradual exposure over time.

Again: a low bar technique isn’t necessarily bad, but could be something that puts your back in a situation it’s unprepared for at the time of peacock season.

Solution?

A good strategy to solve this problem is the golden rule “progressive overload” with
emphasis on the “progressive”.

If you increase the load successively over time so that your body has time to adapt, you decrease the risk of an acute overload.

How slow a successive progressive overload should be is hard to say but a good guideline is to use the “acute:chronic workload ratio” described above.

More Factors Affecting Your Risk of Low Back Pain

I promised you a pain and injury-free life with optimal gainz.

But sadly, whilst sitting here writing, I’ve made myself guilty of sustaining a shoulder injury accused by the overuse gods.

So, I’m not completely sure that I can keep my promise. At least not for myself.

To balance between optimal training dose and overuse training is like balancing life itself. It’s freaking hard.

The perfect workload is always gonna vary depending on your tolerance for load at the moment you train.

And your tolerance is gonna depend on a lot of different factors.

A limited list of examples being:

Hours slept lately
Food consumed lately
External- or internal stress lately
How’s your acute:chronic workload ratio?

And the list goes on.

So, the best tips I can give here are to be smart about weight selection, keep track of your training (maybe with a workout log?), be observant of symptoms and feelings, and learn from your training journey.

Together with managing the above-mentioned (plus all omitted) tolerance factors of life.

It could also be a good strategy to replace some of your, for example, squat workload with other variations of squats or leg exercises.

By doing so, you still get the work in but in a slightly different movement pattern and, therefore, distribute the total workload across different body structures and not just the ones used in the squat.

But I Don’t Want To Squat

Good news! There are a ton of different leg exercises that train your legs effectively!

And many with less load placed on the lower back.

Some good examples are variations done on one leg. The biggest disadvantage with them is that you need to do twice as many sets and reps if you want to train both legs.

Here are some examples:

Weighted bulgarian split squat
Weighted walking lunges (or not walking)
Pistol squats or skater squats

And for those (me included) who certainly are not going to do twice as much work for the same result, exercises like the ones below are good for training your legs while placing less load on your lower back than the back squat does.

As long as you bend your knees to at least around 120 degrees, you are all set for gains!

What to Do if You’re Already in Pain or Injured from Squatting

Boring answer (but better safe than sorry): seek help from a licensed healthcare provider.

Even better is a licensed healthcare provider with specific knowledge around your cup of poison. In other words and in this case scenario, training related back pain or injury.

While seeking care, some small tips along the way could be the examples from the section What You Can Do To Avoid Lower Back Pain When Squatting:

Try variations to see if you can train around the pain/injury.
Be patient. Most acute pain and injuries resolve on their own despite being very frustrating at the moment. This is called “natural course” and the time of healing depends on the injury or pain.
Pain of more chronic history is a bit harder to handle and should be handled with assistance of someone educated in that specific subject.

It’s Not Over

So there you go! A sneak peek into the complexity of back pain associated with exercise as well as suggestions on how it can be managed.

In my opinion, the most important take-home message is that it’s hard to avoid injuries and pains from training completely due to the many uncontrollable factors that contribute.

There are risks involved with squats (and exactly 100% of every other form of exercise), but these risks are often the exact same reasons we get the results we want, as long as we balance the risks according to our ability: bigger and stronger leg muscles and also stronger and more resilient knees and backs.

So instead of being afraid and avoiding it, learn from your pains and injuries. See them as your guru-guide towards a life of more risks and training results.

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