Sounds a lot like my log

I do GSLP and I like it. I'll let people who know what they're talking about comment on form/lower back problem. Sharp lower back pain is something you need to be wary of though and my guess is just switching to a program with 2x squats a week probably won't help much.

It might be an injury for which you need an extended rest, or it may just be your body noping on you for which you also need a rest.

so my advice would be take a few days off. also maybe a squat reset may help

I said I thought you were over-arching your lower back in response to an earlier video of yours. I think it looks that way in your first set here too, but I'm beginning to think that might just be because of the weird light in that set.

Is it present in the 2nd set? Think I did everything the same in those.

Also, deadlifts don't seem to make the pain any worse. Does that make it less likely it's an injury and more likely it's just bad form in squatting?

No, I think the 2nd set looks fine.

Part of the reason I suspected over-arching was a problem of yours goes back to the first videos you posted where you were over-arching in your DB press. If I understand what I've read about core strength properly, the problem can be poor anterior core stability/strength (leading to over-arching or instability). DL requires posterior core strength (to avoid back rounding) so it wouldn't affect your DL.

I've been having some problems with over-arching my back in my OHP and I've also had some problems with my lower back when I squat (no sharp pain, it has just felt a bit irritated at times). I think the problem for me might be a weak anterior core (or just an inability to engage the anterior core properly). It's possible you're having the same problem.

I'm just throwing it out there as an uneducated guess.

So, is it only during the actual squats that there is pain or is the pain there all the time but it gets worse when you squat?

Either way, sounds like it might be a good time to skip the squats for a while and see if the back gets better by merely avoiding them.

Both rounding and over-arching your lowback while there is a load on your spine is bad and everyone doing that should feel bad, but you don't really seem to be doing either one as far as I can tell.

Maybe start doing some core exercises in the meantime while keeping squatting on hold.
Curl-ups, birddogs, planks, sideplanks, ab-wheelers, etc.
Learning to embrace your core properly and making it as strong as possible is the best injury prevention there is.

Starts during the worksets, fades after ~15 minutes, comes back that night when I lay down.

lol me, been trying to figure out what exactly the anterior core is since last night and I just realized it's simply the front core...

That's what I was thinking from Nick's posts.
Can I still squat light during this time since I've been able to do those pain free? I'm guessing because my core is strong enough for lighter weights.

And can I do ab workouts daily? Maybe a dumb question but I've read conflicting opinions on it. I would guess that while they're unweighted I can do them more often.

To keep up the "Whine-Log" tone I got my 3rd post workout fever early this morning. Will be nice when I stop getting these.

So warmups still feel ok. That's good.
In that case I'd drop down in weight some and start progressing again.
While not necessarily adding weight every time.

Taking it a bit easier for a while coupled with working in some core stuff and letting the pain to be the guide wrt what to do with adding weight could be good.

A daily regimen a'la Sensei should be good.
Alternatively, making core work a part of your gym workouts should also work fine.
Planks can actually work as a decent warmup for DL's or squats, as well - get your core firing before the real test.
You don't want to do too much pre-squatting/DL'ing, though, so you don't fatigue your core.

When I was rehabbing my lowback it took months of daily work to get rid of my symptoms/nerve pain but your situation doesn't sound that bad.

Sensei made some great posts in my log worth reading. I've been starting to do some core work and I really like it. It might be that you've got the strength, you just don't know how to engage the muscles you need. Or you might not have the strength, either way doing core work is good.

4/10/friday
2x4 chinups
2x20 pushups

4/11/saturday
5x4 chinups
5x20 pushups

4/12/sunday
6x4 chinups
5x15 pushups (20 may be too much for frequency)
3x RKC plank 30s hold, 1m rest

4/13/Monday
Weight 67kg/147lb
3x RKC plank 25s/15s/24s 1m rest between
--realized i was doing the RKC's wrong
3 minutes of RKC planks 10s on 10-15s rests, wiped me out. Following this set up RKC Tutorial

Pretty happy with maintaining that weight since I didn't eat much before Sunday. Could of went to the gym on Saturday but I made some excuses since I wasn't feeling great and just did the frequency stuff.
Going with this program tomorrow-

Throughout day: Frequency Method Push-ups and Chins
Bench press 2 x 5, 1 x 5+
EZ curl bar curl 2 x 10-15
Deadlift 5+

Press
2x5 10 kgs
1x5 15kgs
1x3 21 kgs
1x2 26 kgs
2x5 32 kgs
1x6 32 kgs

Chin-up
1x4 +5kg wide grip
1x5 bw wide grip
Wide grip chinups are a lot more difficult than the close grip I've been doing at home. Was aiming for 6-8 reps..

Squat
2x5 20 kgs
1x5 31 kgs
1x3 46 kgs
1x2 61 kgs
1x5 77 kgs (back twinge/pain)
1x3 76kgs lost tightness before I got to depth
1x3 61kgs back still not feeling good


Disappointing workout, although at the end I found out the gym has two 1.1kg plates!!!
Going to do ab work daily and read more of sensei's log. I thought he made a good post in Nick's log about not ever lifting more than your core can handle.

Do you get the twinge as you reverse direction in the hole?

It does look like you're keeping your back quite nicely in the recent vids, but there's still a lot of force on the reversal that your body is not used to. Your muscles get "reciprocal innervation" upon direction reversal, resulting in the most force at this point. You're also storing some energy in your fascia at that point (which may be what hurts?).

The best and worst part of SS are the frequent PRs right out of the gate. For instance, the olympic training manual for volleyball calls for a program very similar to SS, but it starts with 6 weeks of lifting very light - to give the connective tissues a chance to adjust, as well as to get your CNS used to the movements. So, it works great for such an audience, but could not survive the free market of DIY fitness, where early results are paramount.

You mentioned that your pain was similar to the overuse pain you get from sitting too long. I'd say this is likely to be a very good sign that you're just extending a relatively mild overuse injury. You're probably leaning on some connective tissue for many hours each weak, then trying to store elastic energy in those same tissues when you 'bounce' out of the hole.

Anyhow, I would make a big reset on squats and progress slowly. Make sure you are always squeezing the hell out of your whole abdominal wall on all reps. It's a common mistake to brace just enough to avoid back bending, but you should get a lot of core training benefit out of light reps if you're squeezing like crazy. I like the cue "take a deep breath into your lumbar" to make sure you're engaging all the way around. Obviously the air is in your lungs, but it can help remind you to engage all the muscles all the way around.

I think light reps help strength for a lot longer than most people think. Mel Siff says in Supertraining that pure newbs get a growth stimulus from 40% of 1RM reps.

I actually like your tempo, but I think it would put less pressure on your connective tissue if you slowed down or switched to box squats.

TLDR: imo, squat light for a while to give your connective tissue a chance to catch up.

Thanks for the detailed analysis!
The pain doesn't hit until I'm reversing direction. Your post makes a lot of sense to me. It's reassuring since I was worried the light reps I'll be doing for the next few weeks would be useless for developing leg strength. Going to focus on slowing down when i squat on Saturday.

Is 60kg far enough down to reset to for worksets?


Also thanks to AB for the thread title, it's made me laugh several times

4/14
6x4 chinups
5x15 pushups
8x 5-10second RKC max effort ~15 second rests between

4/15
6x4 chinups
5x15 pushups
3 minutes of ~10 second RKC planks ~15 seconds rest between.
3x20s side plank holds

Side planks felt comparatively easy to the RKC's, not sure if I'm doing them wrong or if RKC's are just hell.

RKC's are hell.

4/16
Bench
2x5 20 kgs
1x5 27.5 kgs
1x3 40 kgs
1x2 50 kgs
2x5, 1x11 57.26 kgs (60kg here we come!)


seated EZ-bar curl (bar is maybe 10kg?)
Bar+15kg x 8
Bar+10kg x 9

DL
2x5 40 kgs
1x3 60 kgs
1x2 80 kgs
1x4 95 kgs
Form slipped when I was bringing the bar past my thighs, not sure what was wrong. Got the ugly lockout and stopped there. Repeating weight next week.

-random
achieved minigoal of scratching my shins in deadlifts
got stopped by a guy during 40kg DL WU and told i need to use mixed grip
got stopped by same guy again who told me i need to put collars on the other way or I won't be able to take them off (lol?)

4/17
6x4 chinups
5x15 pushups

4/18

Press
2x5 10 kgs
1x5 15kgs
1x3 21 kgs
1x2 26 kgs
2x5, 1x8 33 kgs


Chins
1x6 +2.5kg (tried so hard to get my chin over on 7th)
1x7 BW



Squat
2x5 20 kgs
1x5 30 kgs
1x5 50 kgs
5/4/6 60 kgs
(miscounted 2nd set, 2+2 doesn't =5?)

Taking a few days off the frequency pushups/chinups. Something in my elbows didn't like the seated curl station from Thursday, probably slightly hyperextended. Will do them standing from now on.

Squats felt really good, stopped at 6 reps on the last set since my core didnt feel perfectly solid on that one.

sensei is doing it right.

You're not necessarily doing them wrong, just not optimally. Squeeze harder on the side planks - as hard as you possibly can for 5 - 10 seconds, just like with the RKCs. When you get it right, they'll be as hard as the RKCs.

4/19 (online pokering day)
15-20 air squats/1 RKC plank every hour

4/20
7x4 chin-ups
6x15 push-ups


4/21

Bench
2x5 20 kgs
1x5 30 kgs
1x3 40 kgs
1x2 52.5 kgs
2x5, 1x10 60 kgs

EZ-bar standing curl (had to lol since I was doing synchronized curls in front of the same mirror with only other two guys in the gym)
18kg x 18/15


Squat
2x5 20 kgs
1x5 30 kgs
1x3 50 kgs
3x5 62.5 kgs


Press bar is only 13kg (not 15), so all my presses are 2kg less than I wrote
(EZ bar is 7kg)

Thanks, I'll start doing that. Sounds a lot harder than just holding the position.

fixed my post

4/23
travel/no sleep

4/24
7x4 chinups
6x15 pushups

4/25 hotel gym

DB press
1x3 32kg (too heavy)
5/6 28kg

chinups
1x6 +3kg
1x6 bw

lunges w/DB's
3x5 40kg

4/26
5x4 chinups
4x15 pushups


Feels like i'll probably lose weight this week with walking all day apartment hunting. Weighed in at 67kg last monday. Hope to move in tomorrow and get back to a normal gym

GL beast