Paused Dealift - Ouch something went!

Hey Fellas,

Firstly, thanks for all the content you guys have been putting out especially related to pain and pain management! I’m from the UK and have been following your guys around the time Alan started his journey with Austin.

Sorry in advance, I might ramble a bit!

I’m posting this today 3 days after my first ‘proper’ injury! I was on my last rep or a second set of paused deadlifts 150kg Friday afternoon (in my lifting shoes and no belt). I got to the pause and then went to lock out and felt something pull laterally around my right lower back followed by what I can only describe and twisting like a Chinese burn. Dropped the bar and thought ‘Yeah, last rep didn’t really set my back…what a tool!’.

Obviously it instantly tightened up and felt the siatic pain down my leg to my foot. I moved around a bit and within a couple of minutes the initial shock had worn aware and the tightness started to easy and did a few air squats which almost stopped the siatic pain dead in its tracks and I thought BOOM! you got this.

Since I’ve seen most of the podcasts and vlogs recently pain has been a frequent featured question and all the advice and recommendation you guy shave give had really sunk in. I dropped the weight of the bar and pulled some normal deads with little to no pain for a 2 sets of 6 @ 110kg, this was quite reassuring.

I went on to my bench press and did a few warmup set and started my work sets. I found that trying to set my feet and arch started to product pain in the hip and back. Did a couple of set and thought nah! this is too much at the moment.

I then started my squats, I would normally do HB as I play football (soccer to you Americainz) on a Thursday and I’ve found that HB seem to not beat me up as much, anyway I did my warm ups and a couple of sets LB paused @ 100kg without much of problem. I tried to bounce out of the bottom but this at the time cause a slight twinge.

Friday afternoon my partner and I headed up to a festival where I’ve spent the evening and past 2 days walking and standing around which I think has helped massively since I’d have normally been sat around at home over the weekend which wouldn’t have helped at all.

Now I’m back home and 3 days later things have gotten loads better, especially from my back as it its self doesn’t seem to be in pain but there seems to be pain radiating from around the right side of the S1\ iliac crest\spine to the hip bone then with a dull ache starting at the hip (flexors\adductors) to about halfway down then quad which is at about RPE 7 going to 10 when as I’m trying to get to sleep. There is also some localised pain spots when touched around L5 S1 and the iliac crest\spine?

The main problem is the aching down the quads seems to ease then worse. Flexion, exertion, adduction and abduction all help but it’s not long lasting and I’m constantanly having to move my leg around?

I’m yet to do my next training session but am eager to get back and am pretty sure that some minimal loading will help!

Anyway sorry to ramble on a bit but I thought It would be good feedback regarding what happened and what’s happened since, will post how my first post working feels once I’ve done it.

Many thanks for taking the time to read
Steve

P.S. Just to add a few points that might be of use. Jan 2017 I pulled my groin during ‘Soccer’, this didn’t affect my training and I carried on squatting and DL but still get some pain from it sometimes but it never cuasing me any issues actually training or doing sports. And I’ve had key hole on my right knee for medial meniscus tear about 4 years ago.

Male 35 5’9" approx. 204lbs

Hey Steve! Sounds like you are on the right track dude. Keep us posted on how things progress and we can help guide the path if needed.

Hey there Doc, thanks for the response!

So…Hopefully I’ll keep it short!!!:sunglasses:

Monday night was a real struggle to get to sleep as the pain that was causing the most discomfort is coming from around tensor fascia latae radiating a burning sensation to mid-thigh (rectus femoris\vastas laterallis) which I’m assuming is due to one of the femeral nerves.

I awoke Tuesday to no pain at all until I rolled over, got out of bed and stood up! The pain coming from piriformis area to the hip joint seemed loads better than the day before but the aching\burning from the hip down the thigh was still about the same for most of the day at work while the other areas seem to get noticeably lesser.

My commute to work it about an hour each way and nothing really changed on the way to work but the journey home the radiating pain seemed to completely stop 10 minute in to the journey. I arrived home, got out of the car and noted that that radiating pain was still gone. I got in and prepped my pre work out, got changed ready for going to the gym and started watching Alan’s Untamed 5 year best moment (lmao), it was probably while I was changing that I noticed the radiating pain started to progressively come back to full strength.

Now at the gym, I started with deads, warming up from 60kg to a working set of 110kg without any issue, pain not getting worse, did my first set of 110kg for 6 fine, and decided to go up to 120kg for a set of 6 and then 130kg for a set of 6, with each set I got more confident but maintained focus on the start of each rep. After my last set I asked my partner how my form looked and she said back angle was good and holding though to lockout, hips not moving however, she did point out that I hadn’t been lifting 120kg or 130kg but 130kg and 140kg which I was quite pleased with since no rep had generated any more pain and in fact I had started to notice a reduction in the radiating pain hip to thigh.

I then decided to do 45degree Inc. press since I didn’t want to piss off my hip any more doing flat bench, again no pain from the back and the hip pain almost none existent.

Now one to my squats, put my knee sleeves and lifting shoes one and started my BB only warmup without my issue from anywhere except a very little tweak right side around S1L5 but nothing to shout about. Loaded the warm ups 60kg-100kg, knee sleeves up for 100kg and then started my first set of 5 @ 110kg, 120kg, and 130kgx2. Again no pain except for that little tweak. Finished up putting the plates away and noticed that the only real pain I’m feeling is around S1L5, the radiating pain from the hip down the thigh had complete gone. I knew it would be back soon but I was very positive with the performance of the session since I managed to Squat and Deadlift to about 10-20% off some of my current working sets prior to the tweak.

As expected the radiating burning pain came back about 30 mins after training, and again I struggled to ignore it in bed and even moving the leg around didn’t seem to work but I must have got to sleep reasonably ok because I slept through till about 5 or 6 when I woke up in a massive sweat, which I’ve put down to the fact my throat was starting to feel dry and rough late yesterday and was worse this morning. I then managed to get to sleep again for a few more hours after a quick toilet trip.

So today the worse of the pain is the burning in the quads RPE 8-10, which I assume is a nerve??? Although the piriformis and S1 L5 pain is still there with the odd tweak it is dramatically less and my movement feels better.

I’m back training my usually night tonight and will see how the next few days ago, not going to play football Thursday and training again as normal Friday. I’m a little concerned with the burning pain in the thigh but I’m hoping this will just clear up over the next week or so?!

Many Thanks
Steve

Hey Steve, just wanted to check-in and see how you have been doing? How’s training going?

Hey Michael,

I was going to post a response today about my progress, but was otherwise engaged - mainly suffering from this cold I started getting last week, blah!

Anyway thanks for asking how it is going and yes things are much better.

I trained my usual Wednesday, starting with squats and during my warm-up things improved massively with the aforementioned thigh aching. I could perform normal squats without having pausing and by the end of my.warm up the thigh issue had gone. Performed my squat work sets I about 4 or 5 set in total (no log book to hand) finishing the last 2 on think 130kg. This was just with knee sleeves on and no belt and it felt pretty good.

I did my pressing but need to put a belt on as it seem to help with the S1\L5 piriformis pain and this helped a lot. My upper body lifts are lacking and have recently been adding more volume in but that’s for another day…lol

Finishing my session I did rack pulls, think about 3 sets of 8 at about 120kg I think with out issue.

The thigh aching did start to come back shortly after getting home but not.to the levels of the previous day.

Everyday since then it’s gotten better to the point where it’s barely noticable and the same of the other area too. I did however start getting a heavy cold which ment I didn’t end up going Friday.

I did go Monday and squated with a belt for 4 set of 5 @ 140kg which felt good despite still suffering from cold.

So to sum up, training as normal with a back off of intensity and adding a little extra volume is working well. Should be trying to increase intensity steadily either for singles or more likely set of 5 with back off sets, which is pretty much my normal approach anyway.

Training tomorrow and looking forward to it!

Thanks for the support and will post back in a few weeks regard my progress!

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Awesome! Sounds like you are making great progress. Sorry to hear about the cold though. Keep up the hard work and dedication to the process.

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