Movement order in beginner template

I’m not sure if this should be in this section or the pain section. Please move if necessary.

Situation is this…I’ve started training with body weight exercises, HIIT, and rucking in June. I just started the Beginner program a week ago. Last weekend I managed to tweak my back when I took my son to a trampoline park. (I’ve dealt with low back on and off for a couple decades) It wasn’t horrible so I worked out as prescribed on day 1 and 2 without any negative effects. Yesterday was day 3 and my low back was still bothering me a bit. Not really wanting to push it with heavy deadlifts I decided to do RDLs but I still did them first. My back was tolerating it through the warm up sets and the first work set. When I completed second work set I decided to back off and did the same weight for 3rd set as I did on the first set. By the time I got to squats I was good to go and my back felt great the rest of the day.

So all that to ask, would it have been ok to do squats first and deadlifts last? I was thinking the light weight squat movement worked out the back kinks and it may have been beneficial to lead off with them.

On a side note, Thanks for all the great info and a refreshing perspective of what strength training can look like. Barbell medicine methodologies are what I’ve been looking for.

Hey Clint,

Thanks for the post and glad to hear you’re feeling better. It is quite normal for adults to experience low back pain, so I don’t think the history necessarily means much here. Additionally, it looks like you were able to tolerate loading on Day 3 and I’m not sure that doing squats first or last would make much difference. Rather, I think the act of getting into the gym and training, seeing what you can tolerate/proving to yourself you can tolerate barbell-based training, seems like the more important part of the equation to me.

So, while you can do whatever you’d like, I don’t know that it’s necessary or beneficial to make this modification.

-Jordan

Thanks Jordan