Time for a deload week?

[krazyduck]

Within the past week I have sprained my foot and tweaked my back twice. All seemingly unrelated, I missed a step on the stairs while carrying my dog and got a midfoot sprain, tweaked the right side of my back carrying something and and yesterday hurt the left side of my lower back pretty bad during squats.

Is this all a coincidence or is my body trying to tell me something?

On a side note, any tips on dealing with the pain? Its right above my butt on the left side where you can feel that bony indentation. Its hard to find a comfortable position sitting without it hurting.

[tzanghi]

Sounds like you need some time off just to let the injuries heal. I'm going through and have gone through a similar injury. Rub the shit out of the area with a lacrosse ball or baseball. Others prefer foam rolling.

[krazyduck]

Yeah that what I figured. Its just that they all happened within a week after a really log time of no injure at all that got me thinking I might be pushing my body too hard. Its also around the same time that I've been hitting lifetime PRs.

[91blckgt]

While I didn't do it during standard LP, I did add an occasional deload week (usually a function of a reset) into Advanced programming and TM, and it's a foundation of the 5/3/1 and LRB/365 programs. The deload gives your body a chance to fully recover from the accumulated stress from successive high intensity workouts, without losing the consistent and groove that comes from a consistent lifting schedule. The original 5/3/1 had it occuring after every 3 weeks, with the new "Beyond 5/3/1" recommending 5 weeks. The right balance is going to be very individualistic based on age, conditioning level, what not. The trick, per Wendler, is doing the deload before you actually have *have* to do the deload, which is the state you find yourself in right now with a sprained foot and tweaked back.

For me, I find the deload gives me a chance to cure my various aches and pains. Those aches and pains eventually become a distraction during lifting, which causes me to compromise on form, which introduces new aches and pains.

And if you aren't already doing these as part of your recovery, I strongly encourage you to start:
* Defranco Agile 8 for lower body / deadlift days.
* Defranco Simple Six for upper body days

Both are a combination of mobility, foam rolling, and dynamic stretching which work great as a warmup but also as a means to recover.

[Meshuggah]

There is way too much talk about "Deloading"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo6VW4U7FCo#at=17

[krazyduck]

I ended up just skipping one training day and it helped tremendously. I also started including Wendler's dynamic warmup from his 531 for Football book.