Hey all -
about once or twice a year for the last 4 years I end up “popping” my SI joint (or at least that area) during a heavy deadlift. Having been to one of your seminars and following a lot of your pain/training guidance for years this has helped me not freak out or despair but it does delay my progress for quite a while.
When this happens I have pain and stiffness but can usually work back up to where I was in a few weeks focusing on movement.
I feel like my warmups are adequate (basically work up to top weight from an empty bar). Admittedly, I don’t do any ab/core work.
Is this more of a technique issue? (Forgot to mention I lift conventional).
As you can imagine, this gets quite frustrating at times and it’s hard to not get discouraged as it seems quite random.
thank you in advance and I appreciate all you do!
Hey @Whip_Chop ,
It’s always frustrating when these setbacks happen, but it sounds like you’ve done a great job of managing them when they do occur.
In those instances when you’ve had a flare up, what did your programming look like leading up to it? Were there any other factors outside of training that could have contributed (i.e poor sleep, high life/work stress, etc.)? I would recommend looking for trends on the programming/load management front first. For example, if you notice that these flare-ups tend to occur when you push at a higher intensity (sets of 1-3 reps at RPE 8.5+), maybe try being a little more conservative with load selection and staying in the RPE 6-8 range. You could also try reducing your deadlifting volume across the training week and see if that allows you to still make progress while allowing for more recovery between sessions. Looking back retroactively at your programming and other lifestyle factors (sleep, nutrition, stress, etc.) leading up to a flare-up can often provide insights to help with mitigating risk of it happening in the future.
Sometimes modifying technique can be beneficial in the sense that you may be able to tolerate more training volume/intensity executing your deadlifts with one style vs another, but ultimately load management/programming and the distribution of training stress is where I would look to make adjustments first.
Hi Charlie.
thanks for taking the time and thoughtful response.
looking back at my training logs I did notice that these “tweaks” tend to happen right after a big work trip (little sleep, lots of stress, etc). I have 2 kids, a dog, etc.
since my last posting I’m about 5 weeks into the Hypertrophy 2 template and things are going great. I think the change in load, movements, and sets/reps has been nice. I’ll keep you posted.