When I start a weightlifting workout with noticeable trigger points, sometimes I will develop a serious muscular injury forcing me to abort the workout. This often results in a much more severe trigger point that makes movement difficult. Right now my lower back is killing me and I cannot move or function properly at all, it is also hard to locate the trigger points responsible. When I started squatting I noticed a significant trigger point in my buttocks and another in my low back, and then BAM -- on the last work set of squats, I totally tweaked my lower back and was writhing in pain.

Does anyone know what keeps causing these injuries? Is it muscular imbalances and patterns of compensation? Poor form? Etc.? Also why do I keep getting trigger points again and again in the same spots? Is it from too much lack of activity and then the body gets shocked when you actually work out? Is it from not warming up enough?

This will explain what trigger points are:

I did personal training for 5 months and will start up again in april. Never heavy weights but very proper form. Form is more important that heavy weight. Also, it is important to switch exercises after 3-4 weeks.

It maybe due to overwork, but weight lifting and all strenuous exercise causes the loss of magnesium and trouble getting rid of lactic acid as a result of Mg lowering. Low Mg levels also can cause muscle problems.

Rubbing magnesium chloride oil all over the body,just as applying a suntan oil is the quickest way to help build up body magnesium levels. You probably need to apply it at this level for a couple of months to get the levels of Mg up to normal.

https://www.swansonvitamins.com/SWU485/ItemDetail

Do you feel any pain if you do leg presses instead of squats? If not, then you are probably doing something wrong

How many sets and reps are you doing when you are squating? Just curious, because I would imagine it could be too heavy and possibly causing you to cheat and have bad form and also where are you placing the barbell on your shoulders? Is it resting on your traps or is it more behind your traps to upper back?
Most people who seem to get injuried from squats do them incorrectly or too heavy with lower reps.

I could not find any significant trigger points in my back. I am pretty sure I have a problem in my right psoas-iliacus muscles:

According to the The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, trigger points in this muscle can refer pain to the low back. Also the book says that if you bend the knees alot you are stressing this muscle and I laid on a small loveseat couch in the fetal position for over an hour before working out. This time I actually worked out with a weightlifting belt, but it did not protect my lower back, which tends to point to the problem not being improper back posture. I was trying to keep abdominal pressure during each set, and perhaps my already shortened right psoas puttered out from the strain.

The problem is I am having a hard time definitively locating my psoas major even after looking at numerous Youtube vids, also I am very uncomfortable even trying to massage there.

@Liverock:
I don't think it is magnesium that is causing all these problems. I have a multi-vitamin which contains 200 mg magnesium(50% RDA). I have not been taking it regularly lately, but I do take it enough, along with my non-junk food diet to not be chronically deficient.

@jbo:
I did not go too heavy. I wanted to do 3 sets of 5 repetitions with 65 kg, which was not heavy. The problem came on the last set, at 3 reps in, I noticed on the way up my low back hurt quite a bit so I racked it and waited a few seconds before continuing. When I continued is when the real serious injury came and I experienced immediate excruciating pain.

I'm not sure about your strength, but reps of 5 is really low, especially for legs, which makes me feel that maybe it is pretty heavy for you. I don't know anything about your strength, but the weight does appear to be extremely light but it depends on the individual.

5 reps for your upperbody is just fine if that's what you want to do. The popular program called MAX OT tells you to only do between 4 and 6 reps, but lower body is something different. You are walking around on your legs all day and therefore lowerbody people generally do higher reps with less weight, instead of heavier weight and less reps.
Not saying you should change your routine, but something is clearly wrong. Especially if you can do leg extentions, leg curls, less presses and it's only squats then something appears to be wrong with the weights or technique.
I prefer squats over leg presses, but if I had an issue that I think you feel it's not the weight or technique, then I wouldn't continue doing the exercise. I would do other exercises to work those muscles like less press

The rule of thumb is if you can do more than 20 reps, it is too light, less than 20 but more than 12, it is great for conditioning, less than 12 for building muscle. (This does not apply to supersets)

For a while now I have been reading some of the book: The New Rules of Posture: How to Sit, Stand, and Move in the Modern World. It is a new exegesis of Rolfing. The author Mary Bond says that when people lift weights it usually only worsens posture and imbalances that already exist:

"Strength building programs often overlay an imbalanced frame with muscular bulk that actually worsens posture." (p. 41)

Like I told the forumers here before I was wearing a thick leather weightlifting belt, I could not have had such poor lower back form to cause the severe pain I had. It was so bad I had to take off of work the day of the injury. I have been doing some exercises meant for the psoas and massaging it by laying on a tennis ball or softball, though not as often as I should. After a few days I noticed that the back pain left, and I actually starting to feel the tightness and discomfort in my psoas. Now I am mostly recovered but from time to time I feel the tightness mostly in my psoas, but rarely also in my low back.

You are experiencing the activation of the same trigger points over and over due to overworking the tissues. musculoskeletal imbalances + overwork = active trigger points. this is a simple explanation, the reality is that a trigger point can go from latent to active due to stress, improper sleeping position (muscles staying in a contracted position for too long), overwork, repetitive use of the tissue, inactivity followed by rigorous effort, weakened muscles.

your experience during squats sounds more like a muscle strain however.

you will continue to experience trigger points in the same areas due to the particular misalignment of your musculoskeletal system.

here are some suggestions to help minimize trigger point activation as well as deal with active trps:

- postural realignment would be your best bet to minimize the activation of trigger points. google proper postural alignment, and compare to your own. then alter your workout regimen in order to build strength in areas that are lacking. for example, if your shoulders are internally rotated, you lack strength in your midback (rhomboids specifically). many people suffer from trigger points in the area between the spine and shoulder blades (intrascapular region - rhomboids) due to this pattern of misalignment. the solution is to build strength in that region, as well as stretching the pecs to bring the shoulders back to correct anatomical position. apply this logic to whatever areas in your body are imbalanced. if you can see a professional, i would suggest a physiotherapist, or even better a rolfer or any other therapist who specializes in fascial work. this can be a great benefit and a kickstart towards better posture.

- see a massage therapist who specializes in trigger point work. they can deactivate the trigger points for you through massage. in the interim, you can use a hard plastic ball to deactivate the trigger points yourself. lie on the floor with the ball on the activated trigger point, and use your own weight and gravity to push the ball into it. if it is indeed a trigger point, you will experience a heightened sense of pain, as well as referred pain, either in the immediate area or in an unrelated part of the body. continue to press into the ball until the pain reduces, this indicates deactivation. it is important to follow up with a stretch to the affected tissue to flush out metabolic wastes from the area.

-i cant really stress enough the importance of proper alignment while exercising, if this is an issue for you, a session with a personal trainer can help you. with squats, the knees should never go past the ankles, push your butt out and dont round your back.

-i also cant stress enough the importance of warming up, stretching before and after a workout. 10 mins warmup followed by stretches for the muscles you plan to work, and stretching after your workout will minimize risk of strains, sprains, and trigger point activation. whenever i go to the gym i see a lot of people stretching improperly - you need to hold your stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds to get the full benefit, use your breath to go deeper into the stretch. you only need to stretch each muscle/muscle group once, repeated stretching has no benefit, and stretching more than 30 seconds also has no benefit. if you can catch a yoga class here and there, that is also a great option for stretching. yoga asanas stretch fascial lines in the body which can help with postural misalignment.

-when you work out, dont do your reps too fast, incorporate breathing (never hold your breath), and dont overload the weight. dont do heavy weights on the same muscle group two days in a row. also dont overly focus on one particular area of the body. i sometimes see people at the gym with overly build up upper bodies and spindly legs, this leads to musculoskeletal imbalance. make sure your workout regimen is all encompassing.

this is a lot of info but if you incorporate some of it, it should help.

i just read your other posts in the thread and see that you are already incorporating some of the things i mentioned.

regarding iliopsoas, you wont be able to feel it because it is very deep. the only accessible fibres of the muscle are found just medial to the hipbone (ASIS). you can dig your fingers into this area to feel the fibres, lie on your back on the edge of your bed with your knee bent and foot on the bed, and slowly extend your leg and then extend at the hip (dropping leg off the bed) while digging into the psoas fibres. this will provide a release for the muscle.


another stretch that you can do is lie on your bed on your side, hold the edge of the bed with your hands, and extend your top leg so that it hangs off the side of the bed. you will have to adjust yourself until you feel the pull in your anterior thigh, this will stretch psoas using gravity.

finally, check the way you are standing. if you lock your knees while standing and have anterior pelvic tilt, try standing with knees softly bent. this will reduce the neccessity of having to rotate the pelvis anteriorly. we should all really stand with our knees slightly bent for proper alignment.