Why and how did lifting weigths helped me get rid of back pain?

I believe Dr. Baraki will remember me since I contacted him on the forums, the facebook group, the personal messaging here and the Instagram direct messages. I was the poster of this topic: Lower back stiffness and hip pain. MRI pics and doctor advice included. - Medical Q/A with Drs. Feigenbaum & Baraki - Barbell Medicine Forum

I took two weeks of break after hurting myself, although Dr. Baraki told me otherwise, and the pain didn’t go away so I said “Well, you screwed your back up anyway, it probably won’t get any worse” and started doing the bridge. After the rack pulls on the first day my back pain, ankle pain and hip pain just went away in a day, leaving me with lots of questions:

1- Was it a coincidence or does lifting really help us fix the problems caused by lifting? If so, what’s the mechanism there?
2- Does it prove that my spine is fine as the brain surgeon I talked to told me? If so, what caused all the pain?
3- I’m loving the variaty and easiness of bridge 1.0 but after the pain went away I started thinking about whether I could milk 20 more kilos on the SS NLP or not because I ended my NLP very early at 80 kilo squats. Right now, following the bridge (completed first week today), I feel like I’m not getting much done after a workout. During the SS NLP I’d know that the last set of squats were going to feel like shit, and they always did, and I’d grind and grind and grind and when I complete a day, it’d give me a feeling of accomplishing something. Should I try the SS NLP once again? I’m kind of afraid that it may hurt me once more but I miss increasing the weigth on the bar.

Thanks for all the help and not blocking me. :slight_smile:

Glad to hear you’re doing better.

1- Was it a coincidence or does lifting really help us fix the problems caused by lifting? If so, what’s the mechanism there?

Each post you make here seems to confirm my suspicion that, despite reporting that you’ve listened to read our content (and insisting that you’ve absorbed it), it’s not really sinking in.

Pain is complicated. Similarly, the mechanisms by which exercise can help pain are also complicated and likely have effects on various biological factors, psychological factors, and social factors that ultimately result in desensitization and pain resolution for some lucky individuals (like you), whereas others don’t get nearly as robust of a response from exercise. Count yourself lucky for that.

Perhaps some of these resources (which I’ve provided you before) may help you better understand it, if our resources aren’t working.

https://www.painscience.com/articles…ame-in-lbp.php

2- Does it prove that my spine is fine as the brain surgeon I talked to told me? If so, what caused all the pain?

See above.

3- I’m loving the variaty and easiness of bridge 1.0 but after the pain went away I started thinking about whether I could milk 20 more kilos on the SS NLP or not because I ended my NLP very early at 80 kilo squats. Right now, following the bridge (completed first week today), I feel like I’m not getting much done after a workout. During the SS NLP I’d know that the last set of squats were going to feel like shit, and they always did, and I’d grind and grind and grind and when I complete a day, it’d give me a feeling of accomplishing something. Should I try the SS NLP once again? I’m kind of afraid that it may hurt me once more but I miss increasing the weigth on the bar.

This is just completely baffling to me. You did a program where every session involved “grinding and grinding and grinding”, “feeling like shit”, and you developed severe enough back pain that led you to seek out evaluation from multiple doctors and to get an MRI, which resulted in all sorts of fear and catastrophizing.

We recommended you instead ditch that training approach and continue training using a different approach – and once you did, your back pain promptly disappeared … yet now you want to go back to that?

There is nothing stopping you from increasing the weight on the bar on the Bridge, or literally any other program.

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I don’t really know when and by how much should I increase the weigth. SS NLP was simple: “Add 5 more pounds.” I actually don’t even know if I’m getting stronger or even following the program appropriately right now because I actually had to decrease the load on the bar to do the variations of the squat and I’m having a hard time being precise and accurate with estimating the RPEs. For example, shall I increase the load by 5 pounds for the same exercises and same RPEs this week? I did the tempo squats at 75 kilos @RPE8 this week. Next week, when I’m doing tempo squats and the program says RPE@8, shall I increase the load by 5 pounds?

@GorkemSahin I am not a medical professional, and I don’t know how much appropriate is the thing I am going to tell. I think you my friend need to consult with a professional not about your back since you have done it several times for now, but about your overthinking and un-flexibility.

This is discussed in the accompanying text.

Yes, “add 5 pounds” is nice and simple. It also ended up with you grinding yourself to death every workout, “feeling like shit”, and in pain.

Assume you’ve gotten stronger week to week (i.e., plan to add some weight next week) unless / until proven otherwise by your performance on that day. If everything is harder than expected, adjust downward slightly to hit the target effort. If everything is feeling light / stronger than expected, adjust your weights upwards accordingly.

One of the most common mistakes people make with this is thinking everything must be perfectly accurate. It is going to be OK.

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Thanks sir.