I have received a lot of DM’s asking what to do about persistent low back pain when squatting. I wish I could give everyone a definitive cure-all, but sadly, all I have to offer is a check list of potential issues to fix. 

You need to be able to brace your core in order to squat heavy without low back pain. For the sake of simplicity let’s assume you have sufficient abdominal strength. Before you unrack the bar you need to take a deep breath into your belly. Most people will take a deep breath into the chest which would cause your rib cage to flare up. Don’t do that. To steal a cue I read on JTSstrength.com, you want to breath your spine into its correct position (more on this later) and then tighten your abs as if you were trying to push them out in all directions. When you are set, your rib cage should be in a neutral position (not flared up) your core (abs, obliques, low back) should be tight and tense enough that if I punched you, it would hurt me! 

It might take some reps to get a feel for this bracing procedure so I’d substitute goblet squats for a couple weeks. Breathe-brace-perform a rep and repeat. Slowly add weight as bracing becomes a little bit more muscle memory and a little less trying to memorize American presidents. 

Make sure you are squatting with a neutral posture. Often times people with back pain are either squatting with a rounded low back posture or an over-extended low back posture. 

Get onto your hands and knees and have a friend place a dowel rod or a hockey stick across your back from your butt to the top of your head. Align the hockey stick or dowel rod so that it contacts the back of your head, your shoulder blades and your butt. You might have a little bit of a gap between your lower back and the stick, this is ok. This is considered a neutral posture and squatting with a neutral posture is a solid way to avoid back pain. 

Much like bracing your core learning how to move with a neutral posture might take some time and practice before you are ready to load it with a heavy ass barbell. Take some time and work on performing exercises such as dumbbell rows and goblet squats with a neutral posture. Work on it until it becomes your default position.

Stand up tall and straight, let your arms relax. Look down at your hands, if your thumbs are pointing at each other and if your palms are facing behind you, you might, like many people have some tight shoulders. 

Why do you tight shoulders matter if were talking about squatting? If you’re using a straight bar for squatting, tight, internally rotated shoulders will make it difficult for you to achieve a neutral posture with a barbell on your shoulders. Tight shoulders lack external rotation and external rotation is important for proper bar placement. With tight shoulders, you are likely to experience pain or tightness in the back of the shoulder when you squat, or you might compensate by over arching your lower back. 

If your shoulders are all jacked up you should spend some time working on shoulder mobility or, if you know you’re just not going to spend any time on mobility, use a a safety squat bar. The handles allow you to perform squats without screwing with your shoulders. Or, again, you could just work on your shoulder mobility.