Barbell PTTP and soreness

[Chrisdavisjr]

I've been following the Power To The People! program for a few weeks and I'm coming to the end of my first cycle. I'm making progress but the workouts are starting to leave me fairly sore (deadlifts and my lower back, in particular - presses are hard work but aren't beating me up at all).

I've been fairly strict in following the program as written and I'm wondering if a certain degree of soreness is inevitable once the weights start to get heavy of if that's a sign that I'm doing something wrong.

 

[ShawnM]

With the increased weights you are increasing intensity so I can see if you are up around your 5 rep max that you can be getting sore from that, especially if you are pulling up around your five rep max 5 or so days a week.
It's also possible that as your weights have climbed that your form may have loosened a bit and is placing more stress in your lower back area.
This has happened to me recently when I ran Vodka And Pickles late last year. A de-load might be the fix if you are near the end of your cycle.

 

[LukeV]

I went from mainly two day per week programs (eg Easy Strength) to the five days of PTTP and, yes, ended up quite sore for the first few weeks but then it settled down. Likewise when I started Justa's Singles over seven days

 

[Philippe Geoffrion]

It's hard to say. Soreness is usually more prevalent in the earlier parts of a program and seeing as it's been a couple weeks, my guess is that you may be grinding a bit. I think the greatest benefit of PTTP I gained, was starting light and practicing perfect technique i.e. max tension, as if each lift was far heavier than it was, so when I actually got the heavier weights, my body was used to the tension and the heavier weights almost felt like I'd been lifting them for weeks. I'd say check your technique and ensure that your starting with an accurate starting weight. Practice the light weights like they are max attempts, slow and tight as heck! Make that weight feel heavy, even when it's not and don't ever lose form to get an extra rep, or else! If you started at a percentage of a 5RM that was an absolute grind as opposed to a perfect form 5RM, it may be too heavy. I don't recall ever being sore or burnt out on PTTP but that's me.

 

[Pavel Macek]

I've been following the Power To The People! program for a few weeks and I'm coming to the end of my first cycle. I'm making progress but the workouts are starting to leave me fairly sore (deadlifts and my lower back, in particular - presses are hard work but aren't beating me up at all).

I've been fairly strict in following the program as written and I'm wondering if a certain degree of soreness is inevitable once the weights start to get heavy of if that's a sign that I'm doing something wrong.

Few ideas that may help:

- double check your technique
- have bigger weight jumps (so you don't train too heavy too long in the end of the cycle) - a cycle should not take "few weeks"
- have longer rest in between sets (3-5 mins)
- practice 2 days on, 1 day off
- switch from 2x5 to 5, 3, 2 (using the same weight)

 

[Antti]

Make sure you stretch, foam roll, etc your glutes and hamstrings. It may not be your lower back per se that's causing you troubles, it may originate below it. Maybe do some very light stiff leg deadlifts or good mornings, with long reps and emphasizing the stretch.

But yes, in the end, some kind of soreness is inevitable.

 

[Chrisdavisjr]

Great suggestions, all! I'm definitely going to be following the 5-3-2 rep pattern for my next cycle. I think taking 5kg jumps in my deadlift would make more sense than the 2.5kg steps I'm currently taking, although these work fine for presses.

@Philippe Geoffrion I'm definitely going to work more on making the easier lifts feel hard so the hard lifts feel easier. I don't think I was 'taking my lighter lifts seriously' and, by the time I got to the heavier lifts, I felt like my 'groove' had changed somewhat.

I'll wrap up my current cycle for now and start a new one next Monday.

 

[Kozushi]

I've gotten sore with deadlifts when I forget to look at the ceiling while doing them.

I've been getting a lot out of PTTP for a long time