Recurring Lower Back Tweak

[John Brothers]

This has been going on for the past 8 years, staring when I was about 26. I'm just going to unload some thoughts and observations on this, and if anyone has anything helpful to offer about it, that'd be awesome. I don't even really have a question to ask; I just want to share this with an (possibly interested) audience.

I'm going through my NLP right now, and I'm in the phase where every rep is a grind. After my last rep, of my last set, of squats today (275 lb), I felt some odd pain around both of my SI joints, mostly on the left. It hurt a little to stand up straight, but I persisted through the remainder of my workout (press, and weighted chin-ups).

After leaving the gym, and the rest of today since then, I can't stand up straight. I need to keep my lower back rounded, otherwise it hurts like hell. No radiating pain down my legs or anything nerve related, but I have to hobble around all hunched over. I've never had this happen to me. At least I can drop a deuce pain free, though.

Normally, when I tweak my back, the opposite happens: I have to keep my back straight, because flexion hurts like hell. This has typically presented itself as a very sudden, momentary loss of tension on the left side of my low back, followed by quickly tightening back up, followed by an onset of pain. Last time this happened was a few weeks ago, when doing deadlift (got one rep at 305, then the tweak occurred trying to pull the second rep). Before that, it happened many months prior, doing a warm-up set of back squats at 95 pounds.

Last time, Tylenol and Ibuprofen fixed me up almost immediately; I didn't miss any training, thought I did drop my deadlift back 10%. This time, the drugs haven't fixed me yet, but I've got another 72 hours before my next training session. I'll probably be fine. But, it's still annoying as hell.

I've been chasing this for years with doctors of various sorts. Over the years, I've had two lumbar MRIs (no disc issues apparent), a left hip MRI with contrast (possibly a minor labrum tear, depending on the doctor reading the image), various x-rays (minor spinal curve, concave towards my left side). At the height of this problem (around 2012), it was persistent and painful enough that any activity involving spinal flexion was horrible (driving a car, putting on shoes, dropping a deuce, etc...).

[Nick D'Agostino]

I think your issue may be more related to managing your training load than your anatomy. With an 8 year history or regularly recurring back tweaks I would start making changes to your training sooner rather than later when you enter the grind. Meaning when things start to get real hard on LP starting changing your programming to weekly progressions (some variation of HLM or a 4 day split). When weekly progressions start to get real hard switch to a 3 week progression (I personally like Andy's 8/5/2 progression but many people have also seen good results with a 5/3/1 style). If you feel uncomfortable making these changes your self I recommend getting a coach to guide you through the process.

[John Brothers]

Thanks, Coach.

As a follow-up, that same day, my back got to the point that both flexion and extension hurt. Laying on my side and curling up in a ball helped, but that was it. But as I sit here typing this now (about 48 hours post incident), I feel fine.

I haven't looked into any other programming yet. I figured, since my NLP numbers are still so low, that I had a while to go before I'd need this.

I own a copy of PPFST and a couple of other references that I can start studying. I'll also write up a thread on my NLP so far.

[Nick D'Agostino]

You're welcome John. Don't worry about where your numbers are. You do not need to hit a specific number before making a change. Pay attention to how you are adapting to the training stress and make decisions based on what's is emerging from the process.