Lower back pump that isn't necessarily pain, but hard to stand

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello Jordan, Austin, Leah, whoever may reply!

i’m Sam, a former (and hopefully future returning) client of Jordan’s last year. Due to some mental health issues i have unfortunately been off the gym for about a year. But i have been back for 7 weeks doing the powerbuilding 1 template because it feels easy enough for me to manage at this time.

thanks again for everything, to the entire bbm team.

i had touched on this with Jordan in the past but i seem to be having an issue with getting massive lower back pumps aggravated by deadlifts and deadlift variations.

This issue is not new, and is in fact many years (6ish) old, and i feel like maybe has sometimes been worse than other times.

My main concerns are:

  • sometimes it can jack the rpe of a set of deadlift or variation up 2 points and be unbearable to continue.
  • Everytime i am done a deadlift or variation, it is really uncomfortable to walk. It feels like my pelvis wants to be slanted and is constantly squeezing some muscles there, my best analogy for this is “exhausting your biceps with curls, then holding a bar halfway curled up” that feeling is what it feels like to walk afterwards. Even when sitting it is fatigued and giving out, only get relief when correctly leaning back against something or laying down.
  • For weeks afterward, leaning over for any non lifting related reason will bring back that massive lower pump/fatigue feeling.

I’m really having a hard time figuring out if this is “pain” or something else. I understand a decent amount of your information about pain and injury, and at the same time, the most i can find in relation to this issue is potentially “extending my back too much” when trying to straighten my back for movements, i think it kind of makes sense that i may be constantly pulling my back from hyper extension to normal position during deadlifts and squats.

honestly though i think that while that line of thinking seems enticing, it is probably incorrect given what i’ve learned from you guys.

looking for any insights you can provide. Thanks so much!

2

Hey Sam,

I don’t remember off hand, but do you get this issue with squats? How about on lighter sets of deadlifts and variations?

-Jordan

3

Hey Jordan, Thanks for your reply!

I want to say like maybe a HINT of the feeling sometimes with squats. Probably worse with higher rep sets.

It seems to happen with all DL variations yeah. I am using 225ish for sets of 10 RDLs, and for sets of 5 regular DLs i am using about 325, both seem to make it feel equally bad.

4

I see. What about regular deadlifts at 275 or RDL’s at 185? Do you have the same experience?

5

I will give that a try this thursday which is my day 3 and update you. Thanks Jordan

6

So today i actually had it just as bad when using 225lbs for regular DLs. I can even trigger this soreness/pump feeling from brushing my teeth bending over the sink for 2-3 minutes. It doesn’t seem to occur during periods of (unintentional) layoffs from lifting. I wonder if i should try some tempo work in the 1 plate range maybe?

7

I think I would favor direct trunk work to improve load tolerance and function, though tempo work may also be reasonable at the same time. I’d probably favor rack pulls (sumo and conventional) + hip thrusts as the hinge variations + direct trunk work.

1 Like
8

Sounds good thank you