Jefferson Curl

Hi,

I have recently started foundation one, and notice that Jefferson curls are introduced part way through. I am a little apprehensive about this as I have tried to do these a number of times in the past and although they feel fine at the time, they always result in lower back pain for me, not a muscular soreness but a deep back ache to the point that it prevents me working out and interferes with my ability to sit during my work day. I really don’t want to derail my progress, if my body doesn’t get on with an exercise is there any scope for using alternatives?

Hi Martin,

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the forum!

I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing low back pain. Are you using any weight for the JCs? I recommend to begin with a dowel (with no weights) until you are confident with the movement and once your form is good, you can gradually start to increase the load.

Please submit a form check for us to be able to give you any more specific advices. 

I have only ever used a broom handle as weight. I will film a video tomorrow and post it up in here to see if anyone can spot any glaring issues with my form.

Thanks!

Hi Martin, It may be worth checking in with a physical therapist if this continues (unless form check shows you're way off). I'm recouping from some back pain that started whenever I sat in the car or at work. Turns out I had irritated an SI joint and QL muscle due to some imbalances in the hip/glute area, and my L2/L3 were twisted slightly.

It didn't manifest as something more than "I sit too much" until I stepped up my core/handstand training, demanding more out of my body. Now that I'm (mostly) healthy, I can certainly feel those muscles we've been working on rebalancing kicking in to help me roll up from the J-Curls.

Hey Martin, What did you end up deciding to do? I'm also apprehensive about this as about a decade ago I herniated my L5-S1 disk and have spend the last 10 years doing physio to avoid flare ups.

Martin there is a chance you have some kind of previous irritation or injury that you do not know about, just as Jennifer had. You should definitely find out what is happening with your lower back from a medical or other specialist, that is resulting in pain after the curl. There is a good chance you might have something happening which is flared up and irritated by curl. Personally, the curl gives me no pain but rather makes me feel amazing. Remeber guys that the curl is NOT a maximal strength endeavor, it is loaded mobility.