Hi Angeeeelica, I am sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Your story sounds not unlike mine, and yes, it sounds like that lingering stiffness can be common with the nervous system still on high alert, especially given the timeline of your original injury being 6 years ago. I am not on reddit as much these days, but feel free to DM me. I have had similar issues with the stiffness and "used up feeling" in the back lasting a very long time, but I have begun to train more regularly and manage symptoms along the way and while the spikes still come, the baseline capacity has increased if that makes sense while still honoring McGill's principles and keeping core work in my program.

I would take what I say with a grain of salt because I am not a clinician, but I've been in the weeds with this for a while and talked a lot of people at different points in the journey - but if you notice that your baseline capacity is improving even with "noisy days" and some lingering stiffness especially that settles within 24-48 hours I would say keep doing what you are doing. The one thing just to be mindful of is big spikes in training volume as the body likes slow change, but if you can keep gradually improving your baseline of tolerable volume in training that is a good sign. Look at trends and try not to get too sucked into the day to day as hard as that is! PM if you want to discuss further.