Hello,
I have been a Group Programming member for 2 months now, to be precise I am in the competitor group. When I started the first block, I felt a minor discomfort in my left lower back during belt-less squats. It wasn’t serious enough for me to worry about it, it usually got better as I warmed up more and I could finish the session strong without any problems. When I entered the Block 2 the belt-less squats changed to paused squats, I did those without the belt too, the minor pain was there again, but it was less painful than last time, which made me pretty happy. Though after day 4 of the first week I had two non-lifting days during which the pain got a lot worse. I couldn’t bend over or get up without pain, but I didn’t panic and started doing some air squats and etc. Went to train the following day. I tried to follow my training program and instead of using RPE I used pain to guide my intensity. I have been doing this for the last two weeks, but it doesn’t seem to work the way I expected. Bench and press are just fine, deadlifts are also ok ( I just seem to unload the left leg in fear which is causing my form to brake down resulting in lifting 20kg less than usual), the biggest problem is the squat, where I am only able to lift very little weights without a belt and a little bit more with it. And yes, I have tried to do different squat variations, but they all hurt the same. The pain still persists even when not in a gym.
I probably have to modify my training a bit more than I did so far. I was thinking, about dropping the intensity of the squat and the deadlift, as the bench and press are just fine and I am making progress on those lifts. Currently I am doing a singles and triples on the comp. and primary variations and sixes on the secondary variations.
What I am not sure about is how to approach this reduction in intensity and the strategy of building my lifts back up. To be more specific. How much should I increase the volume? Should I stick with the current variations, choose different variations that allow me to hopefully train with less pain or do I just perform the comp. variations on all three slots, as I will not generate too much fatigue with the decreased intensity? How do I add weight without adding too much? And the last thing is. Should I use a belt? I feel I could benefit from not using it on some days, it could help me remove the fear from having pain when not wearing it, but on the other hand it allows me to lift more without pain.
I know this is a bit long, but I am really frustrated by this and I wanted some help from the professionals.
I am grateful for any insights.
@jiri_loucky Hwy - sorry to hear about the recent symptoms. It sounds like you are on the right path with modifying programming but need to make more modifications. There isn’t a “perfect” way to go about this process but I think you’d find some useful information from Austin’s recent blog - Pain in Training: What To Do?
If you need further individualistic guidance, then I recommend getting a consult with us so we can take a closer look at programming and your current symptoms.
Belt - I likely wouldn’t recommend a belt in your scenario because it is likely allowing you to overreach a bit and that’s the wrong focus for training, rather you are training to get back to baseline and not chasing after any particular numbers.