Lower back feels 'pumped' all the time

[Jason Donaldson]

Yeah, the first thing you should definitely stop doing is deadlifts. Your Pilates teacher will be proud of you.

I heard those are bad for your back.

[ML67]

To be clear, RDLs are temporarily replacing deadlifts while I rehab an injured glute/hammy, initially injured decades ago in a younger life training takedowns – single and double leg entries. It has reinjured from squatting or deadlifting more than a couple of times over the past six years of training. While implementing RDLs as part of the rehab, I noticed a lack of lower back pump – and shared this w/ OP as subject of this thread. Concurrently, I stopped post training stretching, which further helped. This latter is counter to my previous beneficial experience w/ post training stretching.

I plan to return to full deadlifts once glute/hamstring heals. I’ve learned from previous experience not to rush back too soon.

Pilates? Really?

[Jr_Geezer]

Yeah, I'm not sure what Pilates would have to do with the 400-500 lb deadlifts being discussed here. In any case, I stopped doing deadlifts in favor of RDLs at the advice of Coach Santana. Those were working well until I did the 405x2 DL set (not sanctioned by Santana). Until I hear a good reason to do otherwise or get useable advice on how to program deadlifts back in, I'll stick with the RDL progression again (I'm currently on vacation, will be another week or so before getting back in the gym).