While bodybuilding is a great way to get fit, bad form makes it a great way to get injured. Two main factors turn your workout into a trip to the doctor: poor posture and improper training, leading to muscle imbalances.
Lower back pain and uneven muscle development are common symptoms of bad form while exercising. Poor posture trains certain muscles to be tense and others to be weak, though these muscles should be working together to support proper spinal alignment. A rounded back and stooped shoulders are common hallmarks of poor posture while bodybuilding. The lower back muscles are strained while lifting in this position, since the abdominal and hip muscles are not able to assist in the work.
Developing muscle imbalances can in turn produce and exacerbate bad posture. Many people at the gym are striving for the idolized 6-pack abs. While the abdominal muscles are certainly important, they are not limited to one outer layer; there are deeper abdominal muscles that are not strengthened by traditional crunches or "ab machines." Compounding this problem is the fact that the muscles of the lower back, pelvis and buttocks should be developed evenly with the abdominals, since these muscles all make up the core group. Overdeveloped abdominals will pull the pelvis out of alignment, disrupting the natural curvature of the lumbar spine.
Poor posture can cause muscle imbalance, and muscle imbalance can cause poor posture. Many bodybuilders fall into this cycle due to a lack of education about proper body mechanics. As overly-tight muscles exert a pull on the structures around them and posture deteriorates, the spine can be pulled out of alignment. This distortion can manifest in the spine being curved away from the vertical center of the body or being curved too far outward in some places and inward in others. Scoliosis and kyphosis are examples of such distortion.
Signs of spinal misalignment include back pain, shoulder height discrepancy, pelvic height discrepancy, one shoulder sticking out more than the other and one side of the pelvis sticking out more than the other.
Correcting muskuloskeletal problems is difficult for bodybuilders; stopping all exercise is not desirable, since valuable muscle tone and cardiovascular health would decline. Yet the cause of back pain and any existing muscle imbalances must be identified before continuing your workout routine to ensure you break the cycle that is causing your injury.
A doctor of osteopathic (D.O.) is a good place to start. D.O.s differ from M.D.s (doctors of medicine) in that they take a more holistic approach to healing the body and have extra training in the body's muskuloskeletal connections. D.O.s have training in chiropractic methods of realigning the spine as well.
Spinal adjustments would be fruitless, however, without a corresponding treatment of what caused the misalignment in the first place. This is where the physical therapist comes in. Physical therapists are trained to identify muscle imbalances, even ones that are not plainly visible. Through assessments of posture and movement, a trained professional can tell what muscles are compensating for weak ones. This will tell you what groups need conditioning and which muscles need relaxing.
Overly-tight muscles must be turned off before workout resumes, since they will continue their compensatory actions due to muscle memory otherwise. Tight muscles in the back of the thigh, hips, buttocks and lower back can be relaxed using a technique called self-myofascial release (SMR). This involves the use of a dense foam roll to relax the tension in the muscles. For other muscles, deep tissue massage can achieve the same effect as SMR by loosening the connective tissue surrounding muscles.
A physical therapist can then guide you as to what exercises are safe to perform. Posture exercises will likely be a part of your treatment plan, since your muscles need to be retrained. This may consist of yoga, tai chi, or simple standing exercises in which you hold proper alignment.
To prevent further damage caused by improper technique, see http://www.wellsphere.com/exercise-article/your-doing-it-all-wrong-top-5-bad-form-exercises/850171. This article outlines 5 exercises that are commonly done with bad form.
Chronic lower back pain is the sign of a problem. Don't ignore it or pop a pill to cover up the symptom. Get educated and find proper treatment to be assured that you are not harming yourself while seeking fitness.
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