Programming : Exercise Selection Check

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

I’m working back up from a pretty lengthy back pain issue. Long story short, I started your rehab program with Dr. Dickson in September and finished up in December. Since then, I’ve been slowly building back with good success. I’m nearly back to where I was pre-injury and my symptoms have stayed under control.

I’d like to check in and make sure my programming makes sense. I’m running the 3-day Low Fatigue Strength template, but really just repeating week 2 over and over since I don’t seem to be tolerating extra volume. It’s working fine, though. I’ve added some movements I learned from my rehab coaching that I didn’t want to give up. Here’s my day to day:

Saturday: All sets and reps as programmed for Day 1.

  1. LBBS, 1 second pause
  2. Feet Up Bench;
  3. RDL’s Sunday:
  4. LISS: Run or bike
  5. 3 sets of curls at RPE 8 or 9
  6. 3 sets of French Press at RPE 7 or 8
  7. Planks or sit ups Monday: All sets and reps as programmed for Day 2.
  8. Comp Bench
  9. HBBS, 1 second pause
  10. Overhead Press Tuesday:
  11. 3 sets of Pull ups at RPE 7 or 8
  12. Planks or sit ups. Wednesday: All sets and reps as programmed for Day 3.
  13. Deadlifts
  14. Pin Bench, 2-1-0 tempo
  15. Bulgarian Split Squats Thursday:
  16. LISS: Run or Bike
  17. Box jumps if I’m feeling good. Friday:
  18. Barbell Rows: 3 sets at RPE 6 or 7.
  19. Upright Rows: 3 sets at RPE 7 or 8. Thanks!
2

Looks pretty good to me, though I think you may aim for some reduced load variations on some of the lifts if you can’t tolerate a volume increase. For example, hip thrusts in for RDL’s, leg press in for HBBS paused squats. This is kind of a tricky (and stylistic) area of rehab. I think that it’s clear you can tolerate a lot of movements now, but training tolerance is a bit low. If we can’t get there with higher fatigue variants, I would aim lower and ratchet the volume up there.

3

Thank you for the feedback! Being specific, the deadlift slot is the one I occasionally feel I should trim off one of the back-off sets. As you’ve said in your podcast, I’m sure I could do the extra set, but I’m just not convinced I should! I’m happy with the gains I’m making at the current volume so I just haven’t had the incentive to add more sets.

But I get it - if I plateau and still don’t feel comfortable with more volume, I’ll swap in some paused deadlifts for a bit. I’m gonna be stubborn on the RDL’s, though - That movement has been really helpful throughout this process.

Last thing - Thank you for fighting the good fight. Informative, uncompromised resources like Barbell Medicine are few and far between these days!

4

Thank you for the kind words. We are trying our best!