Strengthening lower back

It's probably not just your lower back, but your entire posterior chain

reverse hypers
weighted bridges
RDLs

avoid DLs until you know you are strong again

hollow body and arch body holds and L-Sit progression. Use bodyweight to strengthen it for now.

GHD w/ bands
Back extensions w/ bands
Good mornings w/ bands
Stiff leg deadlifts

Work in these and it will help. Some others have posted some good things too.

Make sure you get everything activated and firing properly before you start loading on the weight. Try rolling out your legs and lower back before you get started.

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Make sure you get everything activated and firing properly before you start loading on the weight. Try rolling out your legs and lower back before you get started.

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this is another thing that helped me

I was working out in the morning and kept tweaking my back

I switched to the evening and have had no issues since

I think the fact that I was super stiff in the mornings and not fully warming up enough was part of the problem

BTW everything everyone said is great. Especially the reverse hypers and other lower lumber specific exercises.

IF you can not do the hollow body hold and arch body hold(look on youtube, think lying superman and v-situp hold) for at least 30 seconds each then you have a core strength issue. All of the exercises mentioned above by others will strengthen the back but you should start with the exercises with the least amount of external load to start with then move to the more advanced loaded variations after you build a proper foundation.

The exception to this would be reverse hypers, start those very light immediately if you have the ability.

Yea everything here is awesome. I’m going to focus on building my core and maybe glutes. I’m going to lay off the barbell squats and DLs until about February and make sure everything is fine tuned before going back. Thanks everyone. All of the advice was awesome. I’m going to def incorporate a lot of this into my routine.

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Just do lower weight.

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I have been but have still been tweaking it. I went from 355 on squats to 315 to 225 and there’s still no relief.

i think you probably need to rest more, its not completely healed

I actually sprained a ligament at L5-S1 and slight bulging disc doing Romanian deadlifts and few weeks ago. It is feeling better but am just now doing reverse extensions. Will be a while before I am squatting and deadlifting again.

I love doing kettle bell swings and cleans to strengthen my entire core and lower back. I find those, one legged Romanian deadlifts with a focus on extending the raised leg and lifting tabs high as possible, and an exercise called Bird Dog’s where you get on hands and knees and extend right arm and left leg straight out and then switch arms and legs to be very good lower back exercises