That's the spirit. Trust the checklist, keep the dials small, and go enjoy your first stage. You've done the hard part already.

That's exactly right and a sign of a good coach. The carb-up is read off your body daily, never forced to a fixed number. Everyone fills out differently.

Good coach. The dramatic protocols are a holdover and they make people look flat and ill, not shredded.

This is a sane checklist and the nothing dramatic line is the most important part. The people who blow up their condition are always the ones doing a 48-hour water cut and zero-sodium panic. Steady dials win.

Awesome. Wrist extension stretches against the floor before you lift can clear the rest.

To summarise for you: pump that fades and doesn't hurt is normal, sort your hydration and pre-salt, film your form to rule out hip shoot and bar drift, and brace properly every rep. Do all that and a back pump is just a sign you trained hard.

Then you're almost certainly fine. That's just your spinal erectors working hard, which is exactly what they should do under a heavy bar.

Erector pump is normal, especially on higher-rep or touch-and-go pulls. It's a muscle like any other and it pumps. A pump is very different from pain. What you don't want is sharp, localised or one-sided pain, or anything that lingers the next day.

Yeah lat tightness is sneaky. Limits overhead range without you realizing it.

Looking forward to it. Welcome to the forum, you'll fit right in.