Quick background on my training history: I’m 28 years old, and I almost completed your free Bridge program some time ago after getting rammed into the ground by NLP, but then COVID happened, so I did your At-Home template for several weeks. Once gyms opened back up, I completed the Bridge 3.0.
I’m now on the last week of Powerbuilding 1, but while doing this template I’ve developed some pretty gnarly anterior groin pain in my right leg that spikes the day after the 1@8 deadlift days; rarely, the pain creeps toward the back of my glutes. It’s gotten worse over time because I’ve been hoping it’d magically disappear, like most aches and pains tend to do. Now, the pain has progressed to being present for about 4 days after the 1@8 deadlift day. From what I’ve read online, it doesn’t feel like a hernia at all. The pain is most prominent when a.) Walking out of the squat rack (this is the worst), b.) Walking 45 lb plates around, c.) Standing upright during deadlift lockout, d.) Bottom of a below-parallel squat, and e.) anything with my leg fully extended with weight on it.
Prior to this injury, the plan was to start Strength 1, but that’s clearly a bad decision right now.
I wanted to get your opinion of how I plan to manage the recovery of this injury. How does this sound?
1.) Instead of Strength 1, go to Hypertrophy 1 (higher rep ranges and less absolute weight on the bar).
2.) All belted squats will be done beltless, and all squats will be at least 3-0-3 tempo or 2ct paused.
3.) All belted deadlifts will be done beltless, and only non-competition variations will be performed (any specific suggestions?).
Let me know what you guys think, or if you have any other recommendations for this injury. Thanks so much!
I think in this situation we need to really reduce the load in order to break the cycle of lift>pain. While I don’t care if you use a belt or not, I think all of your squats and deadlifts should be switched into the 8-12 rep range @ RPE 8 using tempo and/or paused variations that do not cause significant pain. From there, you should gradually work back towards the standard training at the end of PB 1.
Hey - just wanted to report how everything turned out for me.
As discussed, I started Hypertrophy I and kept all squats and deadlifts to either tempo or paused variations without a belt. Had some minor tenderness during some sets, but once the adrenaline kicked in I didn’t feel anything. The absolute weight was so much lighter, given the rep range and paused+tempo variations, that my injury wasn’t being aggravated.
Around week 3, I started using a belt with high-bar squats and did them at a normal tempo, since that didn’t seem to aggravate the injury.
At week 6, I attempted normal, unpaused sets of deadlifts with a belt and conservatively light weight, but still at a decent RPE. The next day, pain from the injury was at a 2/10.
At week 7, I did the same normal, unpaused sets of deadlifts, but increased the weight slightly. Next day, pain was at 3/10.
At week 8, the same thing as last week, but next day the pain was 0/10 (i.e., pain was gone). From this point on, I completed the rest of the program, concluding at the end of week 10. Right now, I’m on week 3 of Hypertrophy II and loving it.
One unintentional benefit through all of this is that my squat form has dramatically improved. I’ve gained significant depth, knees aren’t moving around, etc. - very pleased with how that happened, even though I wasn’t even planning for it. I can see how taking breaks from pure strength training can be beneficial now.
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