Low Back Pain CoachBack extension session planner: your first session and tomorrow's rule
Enter your usual pain, today's pain and whether you have a 45-degree bench. The planner gives your first session under the Progressive Back-Extension Protocol and shows how tomorrow's pain number changes the next one.
The protocol is written for adults with low back pain that has lasted months or years and who are cleared to exercise. Back pain of recent onset needs a clinician before you start.
It runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved. General education, not medical advice.
The planner needs JavaScript. The rules below are the same ones it uses, so you can work the session out by hand.
How the planner decides
The first session is the protocol's entry dose. With a bench it is Stage 1: three still holds at the top of the bench, 10 seconds each, or 15 seconds if you are already active, with 60 seconds of rest. Without a bench it is Floor Foundations: three rounds of a 10-second prone hold, 6 bird-dogs and 8 glute bridges, with 60 seconds of rest.
The next day, the number you log sets the next session. It counts when you log it on the next calendar day, at least 8 hours and at most 48 hours after the session, and before the next one.
| Tomorrow's number | Next session |
|---|---|
| Above your usual | Ease off: every hold drops to about 70% (15 s becomes 11 s, 10 s becomes 7 s, never below 5 s). |
| At your usual | Repeat. The dose steps up after a later training day whose next-day number is no higher than the reading logged before that session and is either below your usual, or at your usual with the training day before it also qualifying. This day qualifies only if its number is no higher than the one you logged before the session. |
| Below your usual, and no higher than before the session | Step up: 5 seconds more on one hold (10, 10, 10 becomes 15, 10, 10; 15, 15, 15 becomes 20, 15, 15). |
| Below your usual, but higher than before the session | Repeat. That check-in does not count toward a step up. |
| Logged under 8 or over 48 hours after the session, the same day, or after the next session | It is not a check-in, so it cannot step the dose up. A number above your usual still eases the next session. |
| In your legs, or spreading that way | Pain in your legs, or spreading that way, stops extension work and adds no load. Check the warning signs below first. If one applies, do not train until a clinician has checked it. If none apply, the protocol advises turning on flare-up mode. The leg stop and flare-up mode are separate: the leg stop lifts when a later reading is back in your low back, and any leg reading in the last 7 days still blocks a step up; flare-up mode, once on, keeps bench work paused until two days in a row after the day it started, ending today or yesterday, each have a reading, and every reading from the first of those days up to now is at or below your usual with none in the legs, or until you end it. |
Tomorrow's number above your usual eases the next session off. The dose steps up only when that number meets the narrow next-day rule in the table, one small change at a time. A lower number does not mean the exercise is safe. The full rules, including stage targets, breaks and flare-ups, are in the protocol.
Go to emergency care now if
- You have new numbness, tingling or a change in feeling around the groin, inner thighs, genitals or anus (the saddle area), or when you wipe.
- You have new trouble getting or keeping an erection, cannot orgasm, or feel a change during sex.
- You have new bladder or bowel changes: trouble starting or stopping pee, a weak stream, not feeling when you need to go, or leaking pee or poo.
- You have new pain, tingling, numbness or weakness in both legs.
- A leg or foot is getting weaker: you trip, or the foot slaps down.
- The back pain started after a recent serious accident, like a car crash or a bad fall.
Stop and see a clinician today if:
- You have other new weakness or numbness in one leg or foot.
- You have fever or chills along with the back pain.
- The pain is new after a recent smaller fall or knock.
- You have lost weight without trying, or you have a history of cancer.
- The pain is getting worse fast.
- The pain is constant at rest, worse at night, and does not change when you move.
Use urgent care if you cannot get an appointment today.
Pain in your legs during or after the exercise means stop the extension work and do not add load. If you had surgery or an injury in the past few months, do not start until a clinician has checked it and you have finished the recovery plan they set. More on each of these.
Further situations: ask a clinician before starting
These are not on the app's warning-sign checklist. Each one needs a clinician's advice before you use this planner or the protocol.
- Sudden severe tearing pain in the back, chest or abdomen, or back pain with collapse, sweating or feeling faint: go to emergency care now.
- Back pain while you feel very unwell, if you inject drugs, if your immune system is weakened (long-term steroids, chemotherapy, HIV, or a transplant), or after a recent spinal injection, spinal surgery or serious infection.
- Sudden back pain after a cough, a lift or a minor bump when you have osteoporosis or take steroids regularly.
- Morning stiffness lasting more than about 30 minutes that eases when you move, especially with alternating buttock pain, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, uveitis, or a parent, brother or sister with these.
- Surgery or an injury in the past few months: do not start until a clinician has checked it and you have finished the recovery plan they set.
After week one
The planner covers the first session and the rule for the day after. The protocol keeps going for months: holds lengthen, then partial reps, full reps and weighted reps, each stage opened by targets on three separate training days. Low Back Pain Coach runs the whole protocol for you. It reads your pain log, writes each session, and a voice counts the holds, reps and rest. The first guided session and the pain log are free. The full program is $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year (US prices) on iOS and Android, each with a 7-day free trial for eligible new subscribers. A notebook can run the same rules if you would rather keep them on paper.
