I have frequent non specific low back discomfort, like achy low back joints. I would say it correlates with overall fatigue, but I cant prove that dose = more pain. In other words, there have been times when very easy sessions have triggered “flare ups” and other times when ive over reached yet my back is fine. I know that pain does not equal pathology so I try to train around/through it but no matter how hard I try I am not as strong when experiencing NSLPB.
However, in an effort to get ahead of the curve and prevent low back pain/fatigue or whatever you want to call it, I have considered doing an U/L split so that i am only training low back 2x week as opposed to 4. Would this be an appropriate programming decision? And, do you all experience low back pain/achyness/discomfort and if so how do you handle it?
Yes, we both experience back pain from time to time and the management looks a lot like this: Pain in Training: What To Do?
As far as changing to upper/lower programming, I would not expect this to make much of a difference. If the volume is the same, but now it’s concentrated in two days instead of over 4 training days, I wouldn’t expect that to control fatigue much differently. Next, upper body exercises also place demands on the trunk muscles.
So, I’d be curious about what your goals are with respect to training, what you’ve been doing lately, how many back tweaks you’ve had in the last 6 months, etc. That may help you make some programming decisions.
Thank you for your response Jordan. Great article.
The goal is to increase my powerlifting total. Previous to now I have done 12 weeks of low fatigue style with DDS, 13 weeks of BBM strength III, 8 weeks of TM for powerlifting (which worked really well to prep for my meet BUT I probably was benefitting from the 13 weeks of BBM to build the base, then TM actually sort of acted as a taper with some heavy singles practice) and for the last month have sort of floundered but typically stuck to 4 day/wk full body sort of BBM style.
I really dont consider the back to be tweaks, its more of a dull achy discomfort on the same side that seems chronic. It comes and goes in waves and I try to blame it on fatigue but in reality I dont know the reason and I guess it doesnt matter. When its really sore/achy it makes deadlifting not fun, and usually drops my strength by about 10%. Doesnt really matter as much for squats and bench.
Typing this out I guess I realize I should utilize RPE/autoregulate, find and entry point for the day if there is pain, and be more consisitent with my programming. Sound good or am I missing something??
If you have back pain that is consistent and impeding your programming right now, I don’t think that a PL-specific program would be my recommendation. Similarly, I do not think that RPE/autoregulation in and of themselves are likely to fix this issue. Rather, I think an overhaul of your training to address the back pain in a way that maintains the majority of existing training adaptations, fills in some gaps, and sets you up for success in future programming endeavors would be my recommendation.
In other words, I would not just do programming as usual at this point.