Training modifications while experiencing pain during deadlifts

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Hello,

I had a couple questions on modifying training while I’m experiencing some low back/hip pain during the deadlift. I ended up writing a bunch of stuff so I understand if a consultation is preferred. I also read/watched the “Pain in training: What do” article and video which I think were helpful.

*** For context:

I just finished the Powerbuilding 1 template and my plan was to start Powerbuilding 2 this Monday.

My deadlifts were doing fine in the first half of the program, the E1RM went from 321 to 371 from weeks 1 to 5. After that the trend plateau’d between weeks 6 to 8 for reasons unclear to me (not much pain if any, just not as strong for whatever reason) and then plummeted in weeks 9 and 10 after I started experiencing a significant amount of pain specifically when deadlifting. No clear “injury” moment that I can distinguish. The only lifts that I’ve seen to suffer are my deadlift (I do conventional) and deadlift assistance exercises like stiff-legged deadlift and pendlay rows. My squat seems mostly unaffected, which is encouraging.

*** My questions:

  1. Because I can still seem to train my squat, press, and bench press productively I figured I would continue my original plan of starting Powerbuilding 2 and making modifications to the deadlift/deadlift assistance work as needed. (As opposed to switching to some kind of rehab programming.) Does this seem sensible? My pain is pretty manageable outside the gym so far so it’s not interfering much with my non-training life.

  2. The “Pain in training what do” article talks about finding an external intensity on the lift or tempo variation thereof with “tolerable” symptoms, which sounds good to me. Supposing I end up doing Powerbuilding 2 which has Romanians as an assistance exercise, would it be ok for me to substitute 5-3-0 tempo deadlifts there or should I just do the Romanians with a low enough intensity if it’s tolerable?

  3. In the last week to try to help with the pain I changed the resistance-training portion of my GPP to include nordic hamstring curls and cable crunches on top of what was already prescribed for PB1 GPP. Took around an hour to do and I would rate session RPE about a 6. Is it productive to add this stuff in my GPP if I can keep the session RPE low or am I probably better off keeping my GPP days shorter?

Thanks a lot for your time.

Best,
Jon

1 Like
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Hey Jon!

I hope you enjoyed our powerbuilding template despite your symptoms in your low back and hip. That’s a solid increase in your E1RM!

To answer your questions: 1. I think your plan to move onto PB2 and make modifications to the deadlift and deadlift variations is perfectly reasonable. I would likely add intensity caps and/or a tempo component to each.
2. I would start with evaluating if there is a load/intensity that you can perform the given exercise at that does not result in an increase in symptoms. Stated another way, I would try the RDL, but possibly cap your RPE at a 6 or 7 instead of the recommended 8 in that training block.
3. I don’t think this matters too much either way. Hope that helps. Let me know how things progress.

Hannah Mora

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Hi Hannah,

Thanks a lot for the help! Yes, I really enjoyed the PB1 template overall and even though I started experiencing some discomfort in the second half I think the template was a big improvement over other programs I’ve tried in the past, so I’m very happy to continue with PB2 and other BBM stuff in the future.

To clarify the answers on 1. and 2. taken together, do you mean that I should: first try the conventional deadlift and RDL unchanged (so without tempo) but just with lower weight/RPE and see if it doesn’t cause increased pain? Then, if no extra pain, continue; or, if causes extra pain, switch to a different variation, e.g. tempo?

(I ended up training today before I saw your response so I ended up doing 5-3-0 tempo deadlifts today instead of RDLs…)

Thanks,
Jon

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Hey Jon! Good questions. There are many different wants to approach your issue, lowering the overall intensity/RPE or adding tempo would both be appropriate strategies for different reasons. I would personally start with lowering the RPE before adding in tempo. If the strategy that you used in your training today (5-3-0 tempo deadlifts) worked, no reason to change it. Unless you hate 5-3-0 deadlifts. I hope this helps! Let me know how things progress.