Hi Guys
I’m a 30 year old male (87kg, 5’11) and have been training on and off since I was 15. I started doing SS about 6 years ago but wasn’t that consistent due to a lot of travel with work. About 18 months ago while doing Texas Method, I started to feel pain in my lower back, but ignored it until it developed into pain in both glutes and eventually down both legs. At that point I took some weight off the bar but continued squatting, although less often. When the symptoms started, I was squatting 140kg x 5, bench 105kg x 5, military press 77.5kg x 3 and deadlifts 160kg x 5. The pain gradually got worse and I was having pain in my glutes and down both legs while sitting and walking. I felt a lot of stiffness in my hips after sitting. I eventually went to a sports physio after 2 months of this. His treatment mainly involved massages and recommended some stretches, essentially McGill big 3. After about 6 weeks of treatment and no improvement, I stopped training and also stopped the treatment. I continued the stretches at home everyday After a few months I started training again, I noticed I could train without any symptoms, although I was barely about to deadlift more then 80kg- my deadlift felt very weak. The following day after training my sciatica was generally very bad, I stopped training again after a couple months, due to my work schedule. Over the next 12 months, my sciatica slowly resolved itself, some days it was completely gone, other days it would flare up.
At the start of this year I started training again, without any sciatica pain. I started off on SS for 2 months and did not have any issues with sciatica, although I didn’t push my squat or deadlift too hard. At the end of February I transitioned to the Bridge 1.0. When squatting without a belt, I noticed that my sciatic nerve getting slightly irritated and felt the symptoms the following morning. Last week the day after my tempo squat and deadlift workout, I woke up with full on sciatica- pain in lower back, left glute and calf. I have had very bad sciatica all week, generally my symptoms have been very bad first thing in the morning. I have a lot of stiffness in my left hip first thing in the morning, which generally goes away. When I start training the pain goes away, it returns a couple hours after I finish.
My plan is to start wearing a belt for all my squat workouts and drop the weight on squats and deadlifts. Do you have any other recommendations?
Once I finish the bridge 1.0, my plan is to transition to the bridge 3.0, but keep the weight low on squats and deadlifts.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.