I Squatted 400 lbs and Still Had Back Pain Here's the 3 Tests That Found Why.

I thought I had a strong back. I could clean a jerk over 320 pounds, squat over 400, but every year or so, I'd get a back tweak that would leave me with horrible muscle spasms, unable to even bend over. And I'd have to take a step back from what I love to do, lift in the gym. So I did what most people do. I'd get down on the ground and I'd try to pop my back and just wait for the pain to go away. Then I tried to rebuild the strength of my back with heavy back extensions. That was my fix. But then I found this study from Dr. Stuart McGill that flipped everything for me. I was asking all the wrong questions. I asked, how strong can my low back be? He asked, how long can your spine stay stable? You see, here's what I didn't know. A lot of people who have had back pain have lasting core and back endurance deficits that persist far after the original pain has faded. Now, I had built a strong back. I can do back extensions with 115 pounds on my back, but I lacked endurance. And once I switched that mindset to not only building a strong back, but also one that had endurance with some of the exercises I'm going to share with you later in today's video, everything changed for me and I haven't had a back tweak since. So grab a timer. In the next few minutes, I'm going to show you the three tests that are able to expose problems between having a strong back and a core with real endurance. I'll also show you what to do based on if you fail any of those tests. This first test is going to assess the endurance of your back muscles. This is called the Sorensen test and it dates back in research all the way to 1984. You can do it at home with a Roman chair or even a GHD machine. What you're going to do is set the pad low enough to where the top of your pelvis is over it. You're then simply going to assume a parallel position, flat to the ground. Start your timer. See how long you can hold it. Now, this test stops usually at about four minutes and research has shown on men that those who could not hold for greater than three minutes had a significantly greater risk of developing a low back injury over the next year. Conversely, those who could hold this position for greater than 198 seconds had a significantly lower risk of developing that same back pain. So, hands are going to be in this position, parallel to the floor. Start your timer. See how long you can hold this position before you drop down. I want to know what your times are. Test number two, we're going to look at your lateral core endurance. We're simply going to perform a side plank. Now, testing position is key with this. We're going to have your elbow down one foot in front of the other and your free hand is going to be resting on your shoulder. Simply pop up into position. Start your timer. See how long you can hold this straight line position. The timer stops the second your hips drop. Rest for maybe about a minute or so and switch sides. I want to see what each side times out to be. Test number three, we're going to look at the endurance of your torso flexor muscles. Here's what you're going to do. Especially if you're by yourself and you don't have someone to hold your feet down, just hook your feet underneath some heavy dumbbells. Then you're going to lean back until you're at about a 45 or 50 degree angle and just hold this position. See how long you can hold this. The timer stops the moment you come back more than a few inches. All right, grab your numbers. Here are the norms from Dr. Stuart McGill's research that was done on college age men and women. If you don't hit these exact markers, don't worry. What's more important than hitting a very specific number, really nowadays we know is more so the balance between them. Here are three things to really look out for. Side plank, if you have a greater than 5% difference between right versus left, that's a problem. Second, the balance between flexion and extension. If your flexion endurance is as good or greater than your back extension endurance, that's a problem. Last, if your side plank scores are greater than three-fourths of your back endurance score, again that's an imbalance where the back extensors are not pulling their weight endurance wise. That's what most people, most influencers get wrong. It's not about developing a stronger back, but rather research points to a lack of endurance that actually is more so associated with future back troubles. So a stronger back doesn't bulletproof you against injuries, a more endurable spine does. Now Dr. Stuart McGill created a plan that actually helps address these endurance deficits simply called the McGill Big 3. Now I'm going to walk you through one perfect rep of each of these so you know exactly how to perform them. Now the key to each one of these movements is to start with a light lateral brace at the core. So here's what you're going to do. Stick your fingers into the sides of your abs, relax a little bit, and then stiffen your core muscles, activate your abs in a way that push your fingers out to the side. This is how you're going to start each one of these movements. The first is called the modified curl up and this is going to work your anterior core. This is how it's performed. You're going to lay on your back, one knee bent, one leg straight. It doesn't matter for most people which one is bent and which one is straight unless you're having back pain that creates radiating symptoms. Typically that will be the knee that will be bent. You're going to take one hand, put it underneath your low back. It is there to maintain a neutral spine posture. I do not want you, when you perform this curl up, to flatten your back to the ground. We want to actually maintain a neutral spine position which has a slight arch in it. So this hand goes under the low back. We're going to take this other hand and push it right into your lateral abs so you get that feedback as to whether or not you are bracing correctly. That's what most people do wrong with this. We're going to start in this position, hands here. We're not going to take a huge breath right now. We're just going to literally get a little bit of lateral ab engagement. So I want to feel your fingers push your abs out to the side. Once you're locked in with your core, you're then going to raise, pivoting from your upper chest, head, neck, and shoulders, come off the ground just a little bit. Now, once you're up here, again, as you did this motion, you should not have felt your back move. Everything is locked in. Once I'm up here, I'm going to take some light breaths in and out. Can you maintain a light breathing pattern while your core stays braced? For a lot of people, they struggle with this. They can get their core to turn on, but the second they start breathing, everything falters. It'll feel like a switch turning on and off. You're going to hold this position for 10 seconds, then relax back down. That's one rep. For the side plank, we're going to start with one foot in front of the other, the testing position. You're going to get a little bit of that lateral ab engagement, and then again, pop up. Ten-second hold in this position before then coming back down. Now, for some people, that can be a little provoking of some problems, so I may have some people start from their knees or eventually progress to going feet stacked, but again, making sure that your hips are off the ground enough, you will feel your downside core working hard. The side plank is great because it only works half of your spine at a time, so you're going to feel this downside core working really hard. Ten-second hold. Slowly come back down. The last is the bird dog. Now, this is the one that's butchered so much on the internet. A lot of people make fun of bird dogs on the internet, but they've never done them like this. The bird dog is not just a core exercise. It's a full-body movement, so we're going to treat it as such. You are going to start in an all-force position, and you're going to involve your upper body. Push the earth away. Once you're up into this position, you're then going to get that core braced, so you should be able to feel that lateral ab engagement. From here, we don't just quickly go out and come back in. We don't bend the spine or extend the spine. We're trying to create spine stiffness and endurance in those positions, so we're going to stiffen the core. Push the earth away. We're going to lift. Notice my back didn't move yet. Then I'm going to extend out. I'm going to make a fist. My foot is going to stay an inch or two off the ground, because if I raise it too high, my back moves. I'm going to stay in that neutral position. Once I'm out here, I'm breathing. Ten seconds. Then I will stay tight, stay tight, stay tight until I get all the way back in. That's one rep. If done correctly, four to five reps on each diagonal are going to create a lot of fatigue. You should have a little bit of a sweat built up after doing the McGill Big 3 correctly. Like I talked about at the beginning, I was getting back tweaks every so many months until I started this routine. I started with six reps of each for 10-second holds, and eventually, as my core got more and more durable, I progressed to heavier and harder things. Now, we'll only do about three to four reps as just general maintenance, even on my off days. If you want to see some of the higher-level progressions for building core endurance, check out this video next. It will show my top 10 core stability exercises that most people skip.