During my squat sessions over the past few weeks, I’ve sometimes been having some low back pain after heavy sets. When I sink into the bottom of a squat I feel a tingling sensation in my lower back followed by an uncomfortable burn in the same area while I rest for my next set. The only factor that has changed recently is that I’ve been cutting back on calories to get a bit leaner. Other than that, I haven’t changed any other training variable that I can think of (squat form, programming, sleep, stress, etc). Should I just increase calories and hope for it to go away? Is this an overuse symptom? I hope to figure this out soon because I want to push my squat up, but I’m hesitant to push through the pain on these heavy sets. And if it helps, I’m 21 M 5’11 180lb 390lb squat max.
Hey, thanks for the questions. There’s no need to increase calories based on the reasons you’ve outlined. Check out this article for our general advice for working through these sorts of experiences: https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog…ining-what-do/