I am a 31 year old male, 200 lbs, 6’0". I started SSLP back in November in an effort to try to strengthen my lower back and move past some lower back pain that had been especially irritated since August. At the time it was just my lower back that would hurt. I have spent a lot of time since then reading your articles on pain, listening to all the podcasts, watching videos like Alan’s video on back pain, etc. Enough time to be sure that building strength and keeping moving was the best thing I could do for it. I started with the bar for my squats because that was what I could do without causing any shooting pain if I paid strict attention to my form. I submitted form checks pretty shortly after I got started over on the Starting Strength facebook group page. Aside from a couple of tweaks my back pain that I was familiar with has stayed constant or slightly improved. Shorty after I started in November I began to feel a different sensation which at first just felt like a tightness in my left leg. Eventually by January it began to be very uncomfortable to take a full length stride as I was walking. By the end of January it turned into what I realized people referred to as sciatica. I began to have a burning pain in my butt, down the back of my leg and into either my calf or the front of my shin, sometimes into my foot. Around this time I began to wake up after a few hours of sleeping and started having a lot of trouble sitting beyond a few minutes. I visited my doctor who thought 5 days of a steroid could reduce swelling enough to let my body relax and calm the sciatica. I felt a lot of relief the 2nd day but before the end of it was back to not sleeping well, lying down in my office to work and kneeling at the couch to eat my dinner.
I thought my form in my lifts was probably similar to most who started on SSLP, lots to learn but actively working to brace properly, keep my head down, control my descent, etc. I kept submitting form checks and making sure I worked to improve my technique but decided I better seek out a starting strength coach. March 16 my wife drove me a couple of hours away to meet with the closest coach. I had worked up to 3x5x255 for squat, 1x5x275 for deadlift, 3x5x135 for bench and 3x5x107.5 for press. He gave me some great cues and coaching, reset my working weights a little below where I had been, suggested that I add an 80% day midweek for squats and begin deadlifting on the A-B rotation rather than every workout. Instead of powercleans he suggested I might try training chins on those days to lessen irritation on my lower back.
Since then I have worked back up to 260 for my squats and 285 for deadlift. I started adding in chins and currently am at 6 sets of 3. Generally I feel much better once I get up to my work sets for squats during my workouts. I don’t usually feel significant pain during my workouts but my last deadlift set I had the shooting pain down my leg during the set, felt like I couldn’t get equal weight on my left leg and failed on the last rep. The past few times getting to step 2 on the deadlift setup has caused a lot of increased pain down my leg.
My symptoms from the sciatica have largely stayed the same although about a week ago I started to get numbness in two of my toes that is constant. I am pretty exhausted from not sleeping well for a few months and am frustrated by the pain in general and my inability to function normally through my everyday activities. At a follow up appointment my doctor suggested trying a 2nd round of oral steroids (felt relief on the first day but didn’t didn’t last beyond the 3rd day). She also wanted to have imaging of the lumbar spine done which my insurance company would not approve until a full course of physical therapy was completed anyway.
My understanding from following all the information that you guys have put out is that an MRI is very likely to show some kind of disc damage (similar to the rest of the population, regardless of whether or not they are experiencing back pain) and that this will be blamed for my sciatica. If programing and technique are satisfactory and the pain is prolonged for a significant period of time would there ever come a time where you would agree with the recommendation to have imaging done?
Is there reason to think having my programing evaluated would be a proper step or that I could be hindering recovery by continuing to train without any alterations? I have been seriously considering signing up for online coaching but realize that this usually is more useful for someone who is post-novice and am worried that I could be wasting my time at this point.
Overall my mindset has been “keep training and this will go away on its own like sciatica tends to”. Maybe this will be the only recommendation but my frustration level is high enough to put this out on the forum and see if something jumps out at someone.
Thanks for taking the time to moderate this forum and help people improve their understanding of barbell training. It is very much appreciated.