Training With a Glass Back

Going to try and keep this short but to ask and answer this question requires some background.

42 yrs old worked as carpenter in construction hands on up until 2014. Suffered chronic low back pain off and on for years. Job changed to sales and management and I gained weight, almost 270 at the high point. Back pain was effecting quality of life so in 2015 I made some diet changes and in Dec 2015 started LP with Stronglifts. As the weight started falling off and the strength went up, back pain got alot better. Signed up and started competing in local powerlifting meets in 2016. In June of 2016 back pain flared up to the point I could train squat or DL. Went to see a PT and sports Doc. Was back under the bar in 2 weeks and squatting full training weight in 6 weeks.

Fast forward to Jan of this year back/ SI flared up again. Tried training through it with mixed success. Between Jan and now it would cycle through flare ups and this was really affecting my training.

Training wise was briefly coached by Jordan between July and Oct 2016. Due to financial reasons I had to cut coaching short. Competed in Nov 2016 and then resumed training using a modified/ tweaked version of this basic 4day RTS 6 slot upper 6 slot lower full body training. In hindsight I probably ramped in too much volume. Eventually due too back and work constraints switched to a 3day RTS/ RPE plan in early 2017. Then the mad program hopping began. Tried HLM, u/l split, then OLA, Still managed to make progress, though squat has stagnated since about March of this year but bench and DL and have both climbed.

After reviewing everything from my training logs I realized I had moved away from what was working when I should have most likely dialed back the volume and or intensity and just worked through these flare ups. So I just restarted the program from July of 2016 that Jordan wrote, with a minor tweak or two (ramp in period and move Comp DL to Fri to space away from Comp Sq). Since I am/ was recovering from the latest back flare up (6 weeks prior to my last meet Sept 30 2017) I decided to ramp in the volume and intensity. I was on week 2 Day 2 last night when I felt a sharp pain in my low back on rep 5 of my last block pull set. I could not stand upright at first but after unloading the bar performed DLs with 95 and 135 with no pain while DLing. Finished my training session, last exercise was lunges which I was able to complete.

This morning initially I could hardly walk but performed air squats and air dls at home and in the office and everything feels pretty good currently, still some pain but overall mobility is good. Plan to continue to train as normal as possible until this flare up subsides. Also am using ibuprofen and icing in 20 mins on 40-50 off twice at night. Anything I am missing here?

This is what I am currently doing outside of training for the last 2-3 mos:
Chiropractor every 2-3 weeks for SI and back adjustments.
Small pillow in the car seat and working at a standing desk as much as possible.
Air squats and air deadlifts occasionally throughout the day at the office, not an every day thing but fairly regularly.
Conscious adjustments to posture and change in movement pattern- ie squat to pull something from the bottom of the cabinet instead of bending over.

This has really seemed to help. In general back feels better than I can remember.

Here are my questions:
Anything else I can do outside of the gym?- really getting sick of having to continually train around this SI/ low back pain.
Training with a belt up on presses, squats, and DLs, even assistance work. Is this the safest way even though the training load goes up?
My thought to counteract this, especially on DLs is too start using a snatch grip. Does this sound like an acceptable alternative to going beltless? Anything beside pause or pin squats to lower the squat load? Maybe some more Tempo work- about 2 wks programmed now?
I pull with a mixed grip and even if it is not visible I can feel a pull/ uneven rotation on my spine when loads get to @8 or @9. Thinking of using straps to pull DOH on my worksets and save the mixed grip for singles. If this works may try hook grip. Does this sound logical?

As this has some bearing on the answers current E1RMs are as follows:
Comp Squat: 380-385
Comp Bench: 295-300
Comp DL: 510-515

Best PRs x1 as follows:
Comp squat: 185kg in comp, April 17
Bench: 135kg in comp, Sep 17
DL: 230kg in comp, Sep 17
Gym Prs are 5-10lbs less.

5’8" tall, 222-224lbs BW

Current Programming:
Day 1
Comp sq, Comp B, Bench assistance
Day 2
Secondary DL, Secondary Bench, Sq assistance
Day 3
Secondary Sq, Bench assistance, Press
Day 4
Comp DL, Secondary Bench, DL assistance

Any help, thoughts or suggestions I can try would be appreciated. Sorry for the length of this post and thanks for your help!

As you noted, this is a very detailed/individualized situation, and specific detailed recommendations are getting into consult territory.

Overall, I think that your frequent activity outside of training and wearing your belt for everything in the gym are good ideas.

If mixed grip pulling irritates your back, I would switch to hook grip and/or straps immediately.

I would not choose snatch grip deadlifts in your situation, but would probably choose more of the shorter ROM deadlift variants when building back from a tweak (like block pulls), as well as stuff like very light RDLs (even with partial ROM to just below the knee, if needed, and increase that over time).

On the squat, pin squats can sometimes be jarring for people with sensitive backs, and I’ve found paused squats can also be irritating for some as well. I’d opt for lighter belted squats, tempo squats (if tolerated), high bar squats, or front squats and their tempo variants, or belt squats / leg press (depending on how many slots you need to fill).

I would keep the majority of your training volume between RPE 6-7 (or less), being rigidly strict about your technique, and after you’ve recovered from your tweak and are starting to build momentum towards a meet, start adding in singles @7 for a few weeks, then later up to @8 for a few weeks before your meet.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Austin. Do you guys do consults? I know about coaching which at the moment is not financially an option but may be open to a one time consult if this does not work. Getting frustrated having the back flare up every 3-6 weeks!

Will modify intensity and training immediately, thanks for the help.

Yep.

Good luck!