I want to thank all of you for the work you do. As a preface, I developed patella tendinopathy a few months ago and used the knee rehab template prior to embarking on my third cycle of 12W strength. Training was going well and I managed to hit a few minor prs (455 squat) prior to hurting my back this past week (week 13 of the 12W strength program).
Background: M | 185lbs | 22y/o | PRs - Squat: 455lbs, Bench: 335 I Deadlift: 515lbs. I have a video of the lift (435 for what was supposed to be a 1 @ 8) that I will post below along with a video of the 455 squat I hit 2 days prior. I don’t have any sharp or searing pain, just a constant ache that starts at my lower back and ends midway down my glutes. You can see the initial onset of pain about 3s into the video. I’m not sure what caused this, but I’m principally concerned with getting back to normal.
I graduated college in May and started working full-time in banking (June) so I’m at a desk for 12-14hrs / day on average. The pain was elevated for the first 2hrs of my day and slowly subsided to about a 3/4 for the remainder of the time. This morning, my lower back and upper glutes were incredibly stiff. At the gym, I was unable to go through my normal warm-up with just the bar, so I performed pvc pipe deadlifts to just above my knee-caps and tried to do some paused high-bar squats with the same pipe. I’ve never pulled sumo before, but for some reason it largely felt fine. I worked up to a 3x5 at 115lbs. The only time I felt pain was at the very bottom of the rep. I definitely could’ve pushed the weight, but I wanted to be conservative to avoid putting myself in a deeper hole. After this and benching, I went back to trying to do conventional deadlifts. I was able to work a bar past my knees over a few sets. I can post a video of my last set if that would be helpful?
Pain: Most noticeable when sitting, walking, bending over (i.e. to tie shoes or put socks on) and turning (I noticed this last night while sleeping). Laying on / getting off the bench was troublesome. Stairs are no problem - this was the biggest hurdle when I injured my patella tendon.
Questions:
(1) Low Back Pain rehab template? Or can I follow the same procedure I used to rehab my left knee using the knee rehab template?
(2) Do you think this is a hernia / bulging / slipped disc? Or could it be an issue with the periformis given the upper glute stiffness?
(3) Is it a coincidence that I’ve managed to injure myself past week 9 of the 12w strength the last two times I’ve cycled through it? Should I consider a different BBM program for my regular training?
Thanks again - I truly appreciate the content all of you manage to create in between having demanding careers.
Hey Tom, sorry to hear about you aggravating your back. I’m going to take your questions first then expand a little more at the bottom.
(1) Low Back Pain rehab template? Or can I follow the same procedure I used to rehab my left knee using the knee rehab template?
With your current report of symptoms I think some simple modifications should be fine. If this is relatively acute, which is sounds like it is, you can likely drop load and work within tolerable ranges for the next few sessions as things become normalized out. If the stiffness has been persisting a little longer, you may be better off switching to pin/tempo squats and pulling off blocks (the sumo adjustment is fine here as well) then slowly reintroducing cadence and depth.
(2) Do you think this is a hernia / bulging / slipped disc? Or could it be an issue with the periformis given the upper glute stiffness?
No, and no. Typically trying to attribute symptoms to a specific structure is not advantageous and outside factors like the change for sitting for long periods, stress of new job contribute as much as any structure abnormality. Discs don’t slip. When we are going to attribute symptoms to a disc symptoms have a distinct pattern that you are not reporting.
(3) Is it a coincidence that I’ve managed to injure myself past week 9 of the 12w strength the last two times I’ve cycled through it? Should I consider a different BBM program for my regular training?
This is a complex question to answer. How honest or “dialed in” would you say you are with hitting RPE? How have you been sleeping recently? Any outside stress? All of these things factor in and a host of others. If you have ran the program through a few times, a pivot to a different program could be warranted as well. Working to a single over the course of three blocks. In regards to the overall approach to low back pain, I would recommend reading and listening to the links below.
(1) Will do. For this, would you recommend the same 7-week time frame? Or given the nature of this injury - could I shorten the timeline if I feel better earlier?
(2) Listening to the podcast now. Any time something happens to someone’s back, I automatically think its an issue with a disc. It’s helpful to see that I’m not thinking about back pain in the right way.
(3) I’m alright. I can definitely push it a bit too far, but the rep @ 9 (video) seems to be an appropriate rating. Despite working long hours, I’ve still managed 7hrs+/night over the course of the past three months. I have to pass licencing exams and work has been stressful, but I feel like most jobs are fairly stressful. I’ve been doing the 7W hypertrophy in-between 12W strength cycles without breaks in-between. I’m running the 3-day modification (split over 4 training days) on 12W strength. Was thinking about possible modifications I could make to reduce the recent prevalence of injuries. but I’m not sure what’s driving the issues - RPE-ratings? Volume? 3-Day modification? I guess that’s life!
