Non-Specific Low Back Tweak - Are My Accessory Lifts Too Fatiguing?

My question is if my primary deadlift accessory (Sumo Deadlift) could be causing too much fatigue. I actually deadlift a lot more while deadlifting sumo (425x5x6 beltless) whereas my “comp” deadlift is conventional was my best pull in 495.

  • This stiffness and pain sensation occurred on Wednesday (4/10) after this volume PR on sumo deadlift Saturday (4/7). I guess the main question I am asking is should I plan my accessories to where they are “under-loaded” as compared to my comp deadlift? So instead of doing sumo deads on Saturdays that would be considered an overload, should I do something like a deficit that would cause less fatigue?

[* ]Last Wednesday (4/10), I had a workout where everything was just feeling a bit heavier. Using RPE I hit my top single of deadlifts and back down sets. During my last back down set, I felt a massive “pump” in my lower back but not like a normal pump, kind of hard to explain. After the set, everything stiffened up and I was forced to do RDL’s with around 95lbs instead of the 245lbs I had planned on. The pain sensation was a lot more present during rest periods rather than my working sets. I went about my training week following the RPE guidelines for each lift and had a significant performance decay due to this sensation in my lower back. I have only had one prior experience that was maybe 6 years ago with my lower back where I heard a pop during deadlifts and catastrophized it. I have gotten over that a few years ago and my deadlift was trending in the right direction. I had my squat focused workout today which there was still a performance decay but it was minimal (~10%).

I don’t think your supplemental lifts are too-fatiguing based on the variation alone, as sometimes using overload variants can be helpful. That said, you may be generating too much fatigue overall in the context of what you can tolerate presently.

That all being said, if your performance drops for a few days after a “back tweak” and then comes back, I probably wouldn’t do anything about it based on the “back tweak”.

Also, what programming are you doing?