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After I got back from my bike ride, I was feeling energetic so I did some ring pullups and then attempted some goblet squats. As I finished up the squats I was putting the weight back in a sort of twisting motion and pulled something in my right lower back.

Today I was putting the percussion massager on my back and noticed it was my right lat muscle that felt tight, not the actual area I injured.

  1. Can weak lats lead to lower back injury?

  2. How can strengthen my lower back to prevent this from happening again?

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  • Any muscular imbalance could cause compensatory injuries, but I'm not sure I follow the chain from "I did pullups" -> "I tweaked something in my lower back" -> "There's tightness in my right lat" -> the questions. What makes you think there's a connection between right lat tightness and the injury? Lower-back exercises should, in general, be easy to search for and find.
    – Dave Newton
    Aug 16, 2021 at 20:28
  • It sounds like either these are all coincidences an dnothing to really worry about or you pulled your lat muscle. Either way, throwing out your back can happen very easily when using unnatural motions. I can lift a large amount of weight or squat it but I pulled my back just lifting an empty barbell before to set it into position. I wouldn't worry about it, but spinal erector, lower back, trap(middle and lower), rhomboid and thoracic rotation should help
    – Ace Cabbie
    Aug 17, 2021 at 15:15

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I am guessing that you strained your right QL muscle, and that the tight lat is a mere coincidence.

You can test this assumption by performing a side plank with your hand on a handrail or other object ca. 1 m high. Record the time. Then switch sides. If one side is a lot weaker than the other; then a strained QL is probably the culprit.

The fix is to gradually strengthen the weak side by performing side planks and one arm carries.

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I think you may have strained your QL when you did the “twisting” movement. Our lumbar spine not really designed to twist. Most rotation of your upper body comes from your thoracic spine.

Your core needs to be strong to reduce the load placed on your spine. Maybe you can work on your core and also glutes. Glutes is a major hip stabiliser and most often of not, if they are weak, your spine/lower back muscles are going to get hurt.

But first, put the weights back in a proper fashion. Why twist when you can turn your entire body 😉

  1. May be referred pain. Get a professional to checked it out. But your lats inserts near where your QL is

  2. Don’t strengthen your lower back first. The issue is not usually there. Strengthen your core and gluteus muscles. You may want to check your form for cycling, squatting even your pull up.

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