I just completed The Bridge 1.0 after what might have been an early exit from novice linear progression. Sometime during week 8 I tweaked my lower back slightly during a squat rep at an overconfident RPE with poor bracing. It’s nothing serious and I’ve had similar pain before in the same place but I’m fairly sure that it’ll persist if I don’t reassess my form at a lower weight.
I purchased The Bridge 3.0 before the tweak because I enjoyed the initial program and still believe I can benefit from multiple runs of it, but I’m wondering if it will be conducive to pain recovery and worth running at significantly lighter loads or if I should try another program and come back to The Bridge when I feel my pain has been resolved.
Yelm,
Thanks for the post and I hope you’re otherwise doing well. I understand that being in pain is no fun, however I would probably disagree as to the origins of your back pain. In other words, I don’t think it has anything to do with your bracing or your technique. I do think you may have increased your total load (training + environmental stimulus) a bit too quickly compared to your training level, so I would recommend trying to stick a bit closer to the RPE and adjust the weights as needed for the day **instead**of necessarily adding load if it’s going to bump the RPE.
I would also follow the advice written here: https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog…ining-what-do/
Excellent, I’ll take a look at this. Thanks for the response.