Although given it’s been 11 years and I STILL get belt bite from it…
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I have a 10mm pioneer cut single prong belt.
Not as cool As @T3hPwnisher lever belt but the extra adjustment and ability to have it at different tightness for different lifts or as I get fatter or thinner sold it for me.
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Just want to add you may have to reduce the weight when you start using a belt in order to protect your back considering the injury.
A belt 100% offers extra support for heavy lift but bracing with a belt and bracing without one are two different ‘skills’. A belt involves you bracing out (pushing against the belt) to create tightness where as beltless you brace more inwards to create the tightness internally.
You MAY find yourself struggling to brace nice and tight at first using a belt which MAY cause issues if you have a compromised back.
Hope the back heals up soon and it’s nothing too serious
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There’s nothing wrong with manipulating activity even to the point where you take a short break, mate. Rest 1-5 days, go on walks and slowly build up again taking your current sensibility/ threshold into consideration. Don’t stop moving (!) but maybe stop loading shortly and you’ll be golden.
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Thanks again, everyone, for the additional belt recommendations, usage tips, and encouragement!
5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c16w3d6
Friday - 26 August 2022
Workout: No training
This post (link) pretty much sums up Friday and my decision not to train.
I felt pretty good through the afternoon and was able to walk down and back to my kids’ bus stop without much pain. Things flared up again in the evening and I didn’t sleep all that well, but things didn’t get any worse either, so that’s a win.
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5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c16w3d7
Saturday - 27 August 2022
Workout: No training
So I didn’t sleep great on Friday night coming into Saturday, and I was very tender all morning. Being Saturday, I was able to spend a lot of time stretched out on the couch (which actually drives me nuts), and it was pretty much the same pattern as on Friday: felt decent throughout the afternoon, but things got worse in the evening.
I did feel well enough to head over to the community park for an end-of-summer fireworks display with the family, and that was great. The lawn chairs we have didn’t do me any favors, but it wasn’t too much trouble until later in the evening when the fireworks actually started.
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5/3/1 for Hardgainers - c16w3 - summary
Well, I very nearly finished up the first cycle of Hardgainers with some decent momentum: Got the 300x8 rep PR on Monday’s squats, had a great bench workout on Tuesday, was humming along with daily work and conditioning, and even managed a 370x6 rep PR on Thursday’s deadlifts before all hell broke loose—it was shaping up to be a good week!
But then we hit that business with my back on Thursday and things went haywire. Not training on Friday and Saturday has proven to be the right call, because I’m sure I’d be in worse shape if I had just tried to power through. And the fact is, I might not have been able to do that even.
So here we are: the first cycle of Hardgainers was very nearly finished, and my body has handed me a deload. Even so, I made it far enough through the first cycle to say that I think I’m responding well to the set/rep schemes for each lift. Prior to this template, I’m pretty sure everything I’ve run has used (more or less) the same pattern for each lift, but Hardgainers does not and I seem to be doing alright with what it lays out:
- I love to hate 20-rep squat sets, but I’ve crushed them.
- 5x5 at the top set weight for bench is hard, Hard, HARD, but I’ve crushed them.
- My deadlift has responded well to 5x5 FSL supplemental across previous cycles, so despite my back acting up in Weeks 2 and 3 here, slow and steady seems like a good way to continue progress over the long run.
- 10x5 supplemental for press just makes sense to me: I get the volume of 5x10 but don’t suffer the same fatigue going 10x5—my reps have remained solid from start to finish.
That said, I DO NOT like 5+ PR sets week after week after week for squat and deadlift. I find PR sets to be really hard, mentally and physically. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that before, but I came to this conclusion well before these recent issues with my back, and it remains true now. I mean, I know they’re supposed to be tough—they’re PR sets. But given my personality, they are incredibly draining. @boilerman summed it up really well last week:
I’m not too smart, so I do things like try to follow-up a 370x6 deadlift rep PR with (290x5)x5 with nothing but a few assistance moves sprinkled in and, ultimately, force my body to tell me I took it took far.
Anyway, bottom line: Hardgainers is awesome.
I will absolutely finish out Cycle 16 just as soon as I can, and then follow it up with another 3 weeks in Cycle 17 to finish out a full 6-week run of the program as written.
But if I do it again—and I’d say that’s highly probable—I will likely tweak things a bit so those 5+ PR sets don’t grind me down quite so hard.
Or maybe the answer is to just get mentally stronger so those 5+ PR sets don’t grind me down quite so hard.
Right, okay. Looking forward, I’m calling this week a forced deload. My goals for the week are straightforward:
- Get healthy
- Move as much as possible
I’ve used the old diesel analogy before, and that’s never been more true than over the past two days: I’m sitting here right now feeling like my body’s crumbling—I stopped, and this old diesel’s wheels have fallen off. I mean: If you’re not moving, you’re dead, right?
But that’s just the mental game I have to overcome: Goal #1 is to get healthy, and I’m just not there yet. Goal #2 is there to help with Goal #1, I’ve just gotta be smart—and honest—about where I am with that.
In the end, I don’t actually know what the week looks like just yet, but my hope is to be in good enough shape to finish out last week’s missed work by the end of this week, and then start Cycle 17 fresh next Sunday.
So here we go—I told you it was going to be a wild ride!
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I have a 13mm single prong Pioneer belt. I love the Pioneer cut - I get pretty comfortable whether I’m wearing a sweatshirt or t-shirt, fat or lean. I think I’m the one person that would go 10mm if I had it to do over. Before this belt I’d only ever used 6.5mm, and this belt is a little too much for me; instead of wearing it everywhere I’d like, I end up not wearing it for a lot of stuff and then throwing it on for one or two sets when I’m at the heaviest lift and it sometimes changes that mechanic because I worked up differently. More of a nuisance than a problem, but it’s just slightly too much. I’d definitely do Pioneer again, though, and the lever thing looks super cool.
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I so feel this pain! My lower back/hips have given me problems since about age 30 and they do not get better with age…
FWIW I find that by being super diligent with using the foam roller and with doing this little routine it has made HUGE difference.
I hope you recover from this quickly - back pain is the WORST pain!!
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I had some back issues a while back and whilst the variety of excellent recommendations for a belt will help I personally found a few things helpful from recommendations I had:
Go and see a sports specialist who can give you a deep tissue massage, quite possibly the most painful 45 mins of my life but it helped massively.
Do glute bridges and hip thrusts
Take short long strides walk
My issues that were plaguing for a while subsided fairly quickly after this. As soon as I feel anything flaring back up I do the the bottom 2 for a few days and it goes. I know I should be more proactive with it though
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Forced Deload - d1
Sunday - 28 August 2022
Workout: No training
First day of the “forced deload,” and I opted not to train. Big wins for the day: I didn’t spend most of it on the couch, I was able to carry some loads of laundry up and down without having to think too hard about it, and I worked through many of the moves in the video @QuadQueen posted. (Thanks for that, BTW!)
As much as I hate training, turns out I actually hate being gimpy SO much more—beginning to go a bit stir-crazy.
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Forced Deload - d2
Monday - 29 August 2022
Workout: Conditioning, 1215-1230 (15 minutes)
Bike@120-140 bpm - 10 minutes
1-pump burpee - 1
KB swing - 28 kg - 1
Fasted. 10 minutes on the bike isn’t much, but it’s a start!
Noticing that things feel a lot like several months after that time when my right SI joint popped a few years back. Besides being on my left side and not my right, the biggest difference between now and then: I haven’t had debilitating sciatic nerve pain for weeks, and I’m here in the “dull ache, just kinda sore” phase within a few days, rather than a few months. Last time I didn’t stop and just kept pushing, so we’ll say I’ve gotten a bit smarter since then.
And yes, I actually did just 1 burpee and just 1 swing—the burpee was super-tentative and didn’t feel great, while the swing felt alright physically, but didn’t seem smart given what hurts. Slow and steady, Sven, slow and steady.
I’m toying with the idea of a weighted vest walk later. Maybe lighten the load, maybe shorten the distance, or maybe a combination, but I want to give things a few hours to see how I bounce back from the bike ride: the “dull ache, just kinda sore” feeling stretched down my left side, from the top of my SI joint to just below my calf, and seeing as how I’ve still got nerve issues like that on my right side, I’ll be operating with an abundance of caution this week.
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Have you gone to see a chiropractor yet? I know some of my lower back pain has been cured by this. My hip likes to go out of place occasionally and man it can cause some serious back pain. Also a tight piriformis can really wreak hell on your lower back. You have been doing an assload of squats so I would be surprised if your piriformis isn’t somewhat tight.
Have you ever tried the limber 11 by Joe Defranco?
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Haven’t seen a chiropractor, but there’s one in the suite next to my old office—perhaps it’s time to do more than just say, “Hello,” to him in the hallway!
And thanks for the Limber 11 video—that’s not one I’ve encountered before!
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Forced Deload - d3
Tuesday - 30 August 2022
Workout: Conditioning, 0610-0625 (15 minutes)
Bike@120-140 bpm - 10 minutes
1-pump burpees - 2
KB swings - 28 kg - 2
Fasted. Didn’t get a weighted vest walk in yesterday, but that was a weather and scheduling issue: I actually felt really good for most of the afternoon and evening.
Quick ride this morning and some more burpee/swing tests. Burpees continue to be painful—in and out of the plank, where my hips catch and release my weight—but the swings are okay. Not sure how far I’ll be able to take those before they hurt, but maybe I’ll try a real set later?
Would like to get a walk into today, so hopefully the weather cooperates. But I can always jump on the bike again if it doesn’t.
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I’m a bit more cautious than some others, but if it hurts don’t do it. Because you don’t know the root cause of the pain/injury, it could be that doing burpees (or other activity that hurts) is not causing further issue, but it could also be the opposite. You’re in this for the long haul, and taking a week or whatever of walking, mobility work, and other activity that allows you to rest and recover will be a good thing.
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Cheers, mate. Luckily, I learned my lesson last time I had real pain, and I’m just trying a few reps here and there to see how things are progressing.
I won’t be going full bore on anything while it still causes pain!
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Forced Deload - d3
Tuesday - 30 August 2022
Workout: More conditioning & stuff, 1155-1220 (25 minutes)
Dip - 60 - 14
Pull-up - BW - 14
Bike@120-140 bpm - 10 minutes
Dip - 60 - 11
Pull-up - BW - 11
Still fasted.
Weather isn’t cooperating again, so I sandwiched a bike ride between some dips and pull-ups. We’ll call the first two sets of those the make-up for not finishing them out last Thursday, and we’ll call the second two sets some kind of work for today. Glad to see neither of those caused any issues, and I didn’t even have to be consciously careful when moving about the weight room today.
I still want a weighted vest walk, which I’ll edit in if I get it in. But this may well be it for today… Guess we’ll just see how things go!
But now it’s time for food.
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This definitely resonates with me as well. Have you thought about capping the reps on the PR sets? I’m sure I’ve seen Wendler write about that somewhere. It feels like a good way to push the PR set whilst having some kind of tangible number to work towards.
Anyway, hope you’re feeling better soon dude!
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