Back pain after leg day

Leg press sucks!

Ever wondered why lower back pain is a big part of your day after you have had a leg workout ? especially after using the leg press machine, then wonder no more, often heard in gyms is the bro science and the wonder kid PT that knows everything but nothing with any form of factual based facts, squats or leg press? Wide stance or narrow? Well that discussion I’m not going to get into right now, plain and simple the two are as identical as could be in many ways.

Considering both the squat and the leg press have basically the same range of motion on the joints and muscles used, with some slight differences of loading areas, the leg press your seated and with squats your not, while standing my opinion would be more core activation, but again lets not forget the other options available with the leg press, adjusting the back rest will certainly move the target area of muscle force being used, moving the back support higher forwards will dominate more of the Gluteus Maximus muscles, but other twists to the recipe would be the release pattern of the footed plate back towards the pushing position, this can be more controlled in a safe way creating longer TUT (time under tension) in the eccentric phase, this can also be performed single legged, push with both, release back to pushing point with one leg, with rotation of course so both get the same work out. The leg press machine can also be used as a uni lateral machine, meaning using only one leg for concentric and eccentric movements, I personally feel it’s a safer way to be able to perform an explosive push and slow eccentric return if working out alone in the gym. So is the seated leg press such a bad option for training, it’s certainly functional in my opinion, so why do many complain of back pain after it’s use?

closer look:

So what is the common fail I personally see in the gym with people that use the leg press, sadly I have also heard personal trainers force this fail onto there clients, which by no means is intentional, I guess it’s just not paying attention to details or maybe not being experienced enough to see the problem.

So why do some people suffer from lower back pains after the leg press machine?

if we take a look at the picture above and you look at the thigh muscles, quadriceps femoris, (all 4 of the 4 headed thigh muscles, rectus femoris, vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, and vastus intermedius). This should be your actual stopping position before pushing the foot plate back to the extended position, note now that the knees are not into the chest and shouldn’t be, but why? I know, i know, I have heard the personal trainers and training buddies commenting it’s a cheat rep if you don’t, or your not getting full range of motion, but stop there, what actually will happen if the knees are pulled closer to the chest in this position while holding a fully loading plate?

let’s take a peek:

Looking at the above picture you can clearly see knees to chest, arrow 1 also shows the seated position changes as the knees position often cause the hips to lift, this chain reaction being a posterior tilt, the spine alignment on the lower back (arrow2) can cause pressure on the lower back, cause back pain or injury, remember this is also while under the load of the plated foot plate. the second point would be extending the legs back to starting position and locking the knees, which of course is wrong for so many reasons, this can be for another post. stay safe people, we hit the gym for results but lower back and knee injury’s certainly isn’t a result I wish on anyone. natural movement’s,and natural gains.