I wouldn’t go crazy with the hip thrusts right now, too much of a chance to ingrain an improper movement pattern. You don’t want your erector spinae or hamstrings to be all that active during that exercise.
Out of curiosity, are your erectors much bigger than your glutes comparatively?
I stopped doing the hip thrusts for that reason. What’s even worse is that when I do just normal glute activation in my warmup, I feel it mostly in my hamstrings and erector spinae. This just started happening as well, it wasn’t like this when I was training last week.
I wonder if that could be the cause of this whole issue. I’d say I have good sized erectors, but I’d also say my glutes are good size. I do remember spending a lot of time working my erectors during PT after surgery if that means anything.
Okay, I understand that you’re tight. Trust me that I understand what you are saying when you say that you are very tight. What I am telling you is that it will likely do nearly nothing to solve the problem and likely cause much bigger problems. If you are so tight that you need extremely deep work before you train, you shouldn’t be training. It is as simple as that. If you cannot get adequately ready to train via increasing warmth and light stretching movements (whatever method you want, AIS/dynamic/light static), you really have no place to be lifting heavy, sprinting fast, or doing throws/jumps. Very deep work immediately before a workout (via myofascial release nonetheless!!!) is going to cause significant, non-debatable problems with coordination and various other motor issues. Even something like ART should be used very carefully, let alone what you’re doing. Keep it for after training or don’t train at all if it is that bad.
Understood.
Would loaded single leg exercises like bulgarians cause tightness in my erector spinae?
It’s quite possible. I bet it is more likely QL tightness though that you are thinking is tightness in the erectors though (or at least, it is a significant aspect in addition to any erector tightness). Heavy unilateral work isn’t good if you have problems with QL and erector tightness. You probably also have a shortened PSOAS and/or weak obliques that are causing you to place all of the load on your back instead of evenly distributing over your pelvis and into the rest of your lower body musculature…
I’ve been told this before by my sports chiro. Now comes the question of what exercise am I going to use now to load the legs??? My guess is that I will once again gradually start back squatting again. Maybe trap bar deadlifts?
The way I see it now is that it is a waste of time to train with tight ES or QL.
I mean, you need to fix the problem before you start loading to a significant degree. Frankly, you may be the perfect example of a case where the leg press/hack squat/some sort of other machine exercise may be optimal for a period of time.
You need to work on strengthening the areas though. Stuff like dead bugs are great (you MUST do them with good form though, regardless of ego) for that.
Fogelson is spot on. The tightness is likely related to inhibition elsewhere, your erectors are tight because they are doing too much work. Your psoas is probably tight AND weak and you might have some adhesions on your obliques, QL and multifidi. Get your body moving the way it should and your performance will jump fairly quickly.
I would hammer the Pillar and Pedestal series and get your glutes working properly. I’m not typically an activation guy but I think it may be appropriate in your circumstance. This doesn’t necessarily mean glute bridges either, just being conscious of your glutes in movements and working on moving through the hips rather than lumbar spine can go a long way.
I’ve been doing a lot of sled dragging and split squats along with some light single leg RDL’s to work on rotating at the hip. The trap bar is a great option, it’s essentially a squat. Dan mentioned them as an alternative for athletes with spinal issues.
I’ve had a lot of success with the non-tripod movement. Very similar to the deadbug progression.
You might want to check out this blog also, some good stuff related to your issue: