I strained my lower back about 8 weeks ago. Anyways I’ve been stretching and doinng PT and the diagnosis from PT is that my hamstrings were extremely tight (true) which put the strain on my back. Anyways on friday I’m going to do back extensions and if that goes well I will start deadlifting on tuesday. This is the plan the PT put in place. Anyways I know to start light but I’m really confused on how to work back up to my original weights and getting back into 5/3/1. Its really bothering me. My 1RM for the 5/3/1 program was 375 when I got injured, my true 1RM was 405. How do I know what to work up to so that I can get back into the 5/3/1 program?
My concerns are:
getting back into 5/3/1 with too high a 1RM and stalling
getting back into 5/3/1 too far below my 1RM and losing a lot of the progress I made
ANybody who has come off an injury and returned to 5/3/1 or anyone who is experienced in this area I would extremely appreciate your help.
Oh my press is in the same situation but I figure if the deadlift question is answered I can translate that to my press.
i strain my low back a lot and sucks—one thing i find helps is to roll out the glutes as hard as you can with a baseball–this seems to releive a lot of strain on my back—other than that you’re just going to have to be patient while it heals—i actually strained mine badly a little bit ago but after a few days of pain and rolling the fuck out of my glute it was gone in aweek. as far as getting back to your program just take it slow
Thanks man I have been foam rolling the hell out of glutes as well as other areas. This may sound like a dumb question, but its one I have a hard time wrapping my head around sometimes. I’ll use my situation for example. I sprained my back and couldn’t deadlift for like 10 weeks. At the end of those weeks am I still as strong as I was before but just need to build up slowly to avoid reinuring? Or did I actually lose any considerable strength? I’m really curious as to how this works
ALso when did you know you were ready to get back into deadlifting? LIke I don’t have pain anymore but it just feels really tight and I don’t want to restrain it.
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
ALso when did you know you were ready to get back into deadlifting? LIke I don’t have pain anymore but it just feels really tight and I don’t want to restrain it. [/quote]
probably should wait till everything feels 100 percent normal—figure out whats keeping it tight and adresss it…for me the tighteness goes away almost immediately after rolling out my glutes with a baseball
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
Thanks man I have been foam rolling the hell out of glutes as well as other areas. This may sound like a dumb question, but its one I have a hard time wrapping my head around sometimes. I’ll use my situation for example. I sprained my back and couldn’t deadlift for like 10 weeks. At the end of those weeks am I still as strong as I was before but just need to build up slowly to avoid reinuring? Or did I actually lose any considerable strength? I’m really curious as to how this works [/quote]
you probably lost some strength, but it shouldnt take you long to get it back after youre healed up
My tightness is kinda always there, goes away after stretching / foam rolling but comes back once I get cold. It’s not as bad though. Thanks for the help. I was hoping to take only a month to regain my strength level once I’m healed. Sound realistic?
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
My tightness is kinda always there, goes away after stretching / foam rolling but comes back once I get cold. It’s not as bad though. Thanks for the help. I was hoping to take only a month to regain my strength level once I’m healed. Sound realistic? [/quote]
yes that sounds smart—healing is a very individual thing
i really thought id be out of commission for a month after my last strain but at this point in my lifting career i have my lower back rehab down to a T—my god ive had so many issues with it over the last 5 years
I’m sorry to hear that. Atleast you have the rehab process figured out. I struggle with that part of training, I stress out too much over losing strength and how I’m gonna get back to where I was. Ill try the baseball trick you mentioned before and see if applying some liniment before stretching helps keep the area warm.
The PT says I’m good to start doing back extensions and see how it goes… I’m not down for trying something and “seeing how it goes”. I’ve already lost 10 weeks and I don’t want to have that all be wasted. Well see I’m still figuring out what I’m gonna do
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
I’m sorry to hear that. Atleast you have the rehab process figured out. I struggle with that part of training, I stress out too much over losing strength and how I’m gonna get back to where I was. Ill try the baseball trick you mentioned before and see if applying some liniment before stretching helps keep the area warm.
The PT says I’m good to start doing back extensions and see how it goes… I’m not down for trying something and “seeing how it goes”. I’ve already lost 10 weeks and I don’t want to have that all be wasted. Well see I’m still figuring out what I’m gonna do [/quote]
with my experience with these injuries—pt’s are practically useless—ive had a lot of nagging injuries over the years and ive never felt any pt or chiro was able to help me out.
how old are you? i wouldnt stress about losing strength–you have your whole life to lift. i remember when i was 18 and i first hurt my back i got depressed too.
I dont think i have the necessary qualifications to reply - but heck i strained my lower back pretty bad a few years back and have learned the essentials of Rehab from T-Nation rather than PT’s.
I would suggest step ups - lots and lots of step ups. the key is proper form or else you may end up straining it more - use a very low height first and then slowly progress. I was frankly very surprised at the way step ups builds hamstring definition. There are a few very good articles on T-Nation about step ups
stretches - esp spiderman stretch to loosen the flexors
magnificent mobility - every day
planks - esp side planks
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
My tightness is kinda always there, goes away after stretching / foam rolling but comes back once I get cold. It’s not as bad though. Thanks for the help. I was hoping to take only a month to regain my strength level once I’m healed. Sound realistic? [/quote]
Don’t set a time period in your head as to when your strength will be back, that just sets you up to reinjure yourself. As for choose a weight, start lower than your ego is comfortable with, a weight that would disapoint you even. Then start working your way back up your goal should be to be stronger deadlifting your old training max once you get back to that point again, thus reducing the risk of re-injuring yourself once you get there.
Lots of single leg work and “core” work in the mean time should preserve strength. I used 5/3/1 for a long time and found that after injuring my back (lumbar disc herniation) deadlifting every other week seemed to work best for me and that didn’t hurt progress.
The more you try to rush back, the weaker and worse you are going to get, trust me.
I have had back issues since November, and would take a week or two off, come back, and do shitty, then re-aggravate my injury. I have finally decided to take a month or more off squats and deadlifts.
Train around the injury…work on your seated military press, or other neglected upper body pressing movements. Maybe focus on some high frequency upper body stuff. Work on really high rep lower body joint friendly movements.
Pistols, rear foot elevated squats, goblet squats, belt squats and the like for conditioning and hypertrophy.
You should be able to go fairly level on bb hip thrusts, which should preserve or increase strength in the associated muscles you are concerned with.
Once you get past the initial frustration, it might be a blessing in disguise.
“Then start working your way back up your goal should be to be stronger deadlifting your old training max once you get back to that point again, thus reducing the risk of re-injuring yourself once you get there.”
by the previous quote do you mean basically to reach my previous training max for the program, or past it?
@ 666 Rich Yeah my bench has gone up quite a bit in this time frame, I’ve been doing my best to train aroudn the injury and still make progress.
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
“Then start working your way back up your goal should be to be stronger deadlifting your old training max once you get back to that point again, thus reducing the risk of re-injuring yourself once you get there.”
by the previous quote do you mean basically to reach my previous training max for the program, or past it?
[/quote]
I was a little wordy there. Basically what I meant was, let’s say you start back using a training max of 365 (low), or something that feels low to you, the idea is then that you progress as you would in 5/3/1 (I actually used 5# a month on lower body).
So as you progress you are then building strength via the main and accessory exercises to the point that when you get to the TM that you left off at 405 I believe you’ve built a stronger base and could do more reps at 405 than you would had you started closer to that point. The other thing is I always leave reps in the tank on the DL, that doesn’t mean the top sets aren’t difficult, but I’m always damn sure I could pull one more.
In regards to assistance work, I did a lot of single leg crap as has been said and felt like that allowed my strength to progress.
THanks for clarifying midgray. Heres where I get confused though. My training max for 5/3/1 was 385 when I left off (405 was true 1RM). So if I do the method you advised I would drop it down to about 345, then it would take me 4 months just to get back to where I was. I would also have about a 2-3period before where I worked up to the weights I would use just to start in that cycle. Or I could work my way up through 3 sets of 5 until I platue, then calculate a training max off of that which would probably take about a month or two. I’m not saying you’re wrong I just want to bring up the opposing side. This could be completely flawed logic, which is why its great to get input from others to keep my thoughts in check haha.
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
THanks for clarifying midgray. Heres where I get confused though. My training max for 5/3/1 was 385 when I left off (405 was true 1RM). So if I do the method you advised I would drop it down to about 345, then it would take me 4 months just to get back to where I was. I would also have about a 2-3period before where I worked up to the weights I would use just to start in that cycle. Or I could work my way up through 3 sets of 5 until I platue, then calculate a training max off of that which would probably take about a month or two. I’m not saying you’re wrong I just want to bring up the opposing side. This could be completely flawed logic, which is why its great to get input from others to keep my thoughts in check haha. [/quote]
My personal choice would be the first option, which is slower but probably more conducive to long term success.
A concern I would have about working up to a 5rm is that you are coming back from a back injury and immediately subjecting it to a max, even if it is a 5rm it’s not easy. If you went down that road, which I would be against, I would take 80 or 85% instead of 90%.
Also you may want to check out Wendlers posts on elitefts about his own progress back from injury, granted it’s a shoulder not back, but the slow and steady theory seems to be the one he applies as well.
Thanks for the reply. I finished pt today and deadlifted as well. I got up to 115x5 (elevated to normal height on blocks) then stopped. Felt a little stuff but good, no pain. I have a few progression schemes I’ve thrown together for bringing up my Deadlift back to normal , ill post later and you guys tell me what you think. Also I haven’t been able to squat for the past 6 months due to surgery and I can do that now too. Should I do that once a week, or twice a week to take advantage of beginner gains. I’m just hesitant about twice a week cause idk if it will hurt my back …
Well, the entire point of 5/3/1 is to have slow, but almost infinite, progress. The fact that it would take you four month to reach your previous max is rather irrelevant, so long as you break your max and continue making gains for a couple of years into the future. Besides, chances are two-three weeks after you start lifting again and you’ll be at or beyond your max in terms of pulling.
But it’s a lot better to not injure yourself again, isn’t it? Or would you rather get your max once and then injure yourself by stressing muscles that haven’t been used to that capacity in months and do nothing for another couple of months?
You will have lost strength but it’ll come back very quickly, so long as it hasn’t been years since you last lifted. Personally I had to spend three months off any lifting due to a thumb tendon problem, then I just did a bunch of very light (no more than 200lb) dead-lifts for a week or two. Then I got curious what my current max was and arbitarily pulled 315 (my previous max was 335). The 315 wasn’t easy, but I did manage to get it up and lock it for a second. If anything, the loss of my calluses affected the lift more than any loss of strength.
You’ll probably get back to your max within a month. Just don’t injure yourself again.