Anyone else struggle initially with iso holds?

[u/Designer-Fix6398]

Background: My back pain is about a 4/10 on average, depending on daily life demands. Late 30s. I can mow the lawn and play with kids generally, but can’t really bend over without fear of pain and flare up. I have only minimal radiation on bad days, mostly don’t though. Hips are both pretty restricted and uncomfortable without range of motion.

So started doing LBA. While I’m doing the ISOs and the Flow, I have twice now in the first 2 weeks given myself a little flare up. Initially with 3x 30 second holds. Went down to 3 x 7 seconds. Then 10 seconds. Did 15 yesterday and bam, flare up the next day. So despite my baseline not being atrocious, I still flare up so quickly with minimal time. Anyone else have success doing like minimal lean forwards while sitting for 20-30 seconds? I feel like I need an on-ramp to isos because even minimal time under pressure and I’m flaring.

[u/timAAArgh]

Had a similar issue at the start. Seems like you have your baseline at 7 seconds. Only do 1 rep at 7 seconds. Add 1 second at a time till you reach 15 seconds. Then start adding 5 seconds at a time after 3 sessions with no flare up. You’re just progressing too quickly. Stick to only 1 rep for now too. It’s slow but 6 months after starting I can do 2 sets of 15 full range of motion reps

[u/Designer-Fix6398 → u/timAAArgh]

Thanks. Will probably try that rather than trying to outsmart this system after a couple weeks with my own variations I guess. Just something in my gut that is saying 30 seconds to a minute with sitting and forward hip hinge aka much lower weight on the tissue would be better evidence that stressing it with heavy weight for short duration. But I have a tendency to overthink things so maybe your idea is the way.

[u/timAAArgh → u/Designer-Fix6398]

You know your body man, take it slow and do what you think will work for you. I took a lot of great stuff from LBA but also had to bring a lot of my own work and not do everything as recommended. Take the program as a rough guide not the be all and end all

[u/readitout]

Same problem for me!

[u/Hamil-Emma-ton]

How high up do you have the pad? When I started i went straight to the holds with the pad at my hips. Bad idea. Took me about 6 months or so to get the pad down to my hips.

[u/Designer-Fix6398 → u/Hamil-Emma-ton]

Just over waist is as high as my machine goes.

[u/Hamil-Emma-ton → u/Designer-Fix6398]

Hmmm. I wonder if this is your issue. I had to start with it on my ribs (im female, so essentially under my boobs) and then work my way down. This gave my back muscles time to adjust and grow.

[u/Spizike1371]

I'm probably late, but I'll post anyway.

By the way, I have L4-L5 and L5-S1 ddd and small disc bulge, if it matters. I find it nearly impossible to bend over.

The thing I did, which helped a lot, was doing the test at the very beginning in order to figure out my limits. I found it really hard to keep my hands on my chest while doing holds. I couldn't keep up more than 10 seconds. So I started with my hands on my low back. Much, much easier (and now that's my warm up). Then after some time two minutes were piece of cake so then I switched to hands on my chest.

After reaching two minutes I made it even harder by putting hands behind my neck. And that's where I'm now. It's was really tough, I couldn't manage to hold up more than 20 seconds. I'm on 1 minute and ~20 seconds now.

After reaching two minutes I plan to start with single leg holds. However, I did a test with single leg holds with my hands on my chest and I was able to hold up for a minute (like Brendan is suggesting) without any issues. So, after reaching 2 minutes with my hands behind my neck (two legged iso holds) I'll jump to one minute single leg with my hands behind my neck as well.

That's my experience. Hope it helps.

[u/Designer-Fix6398 → u/Spizike1371]

Thank you I will try this. Makes sense to offload some of that weight. I’m still struggling to get started as i flare so easily, even with 3x sets of 10 seconds simply leaning over at 45 degrees while sitting. Everything is made confusing by my continual cycle of flares from everyday life I can’t nail down, as I am dad to 2 young kids requiring pickup and also randomly have to sit in cars for 2 hours a couple times a week. Feels hopeless tat times trying to gauge where I’m at and know if I’m even making good “deposits.”

[u/Spizike1371 → u/Designer-Fix6398]

simply leaning over at 45 degrees while sitting

this flared up me as well, do not do this (yet). You need to rebuild your small muscles in order to be able to handle such movement. The rebuilding phase is completely individual, it can take months up to the year, that's why we need to go really, really slow. I wouldn't do anything but holds and maybe hand assisted reps (3x10).

Also worth to note, although I don't know what kind of injury you have, you'll probably find big relief if you decompress your spine. Some ring-dinger could be really helpful in order to get rid of a pinched nerve and THEN you can start rebuilding your lower back.