15 June 2014
How to Perform Exercises with a Lower Back Injury
By Jan Ashby
As with other types of sports injuries, there are two main back pain causes; acute (instantaneous) and chronic (overuse). The severity of a back injury may be classified from mild to moderate, and severe. Ligament injuries (sprains) and tendon injuries (strains) have a different classification system – from first degree (least severe) to second and third degree (most severe).
A back injury can be one of the most painful, and all around life changing injuries that you can suffer. You know full well that you have to start being careful, and in doing so you may have to miss out on certain things. However, there are many people out there that simply believe they have to sit, and not do anything ever again. This is the wrong course of thinking, when you are working on this kind of issue.
You Have a Back Injury – What Now?
Lower Back Pain: If you haven’t already had it, you can pretty much rest assured that at some point you will have to deal with it. Some people may get lucky and only have minor injuries that go away with very little work, others (like myself) will have to deal with, and work around back pain, for a very long time to come.
However, just because you have back pain (or an injury) doesn’t mean you cannot train; it just means you have to modify your training. If anything the “change of training” may benefit you in terms of motivation, exercise selection, and the challenge of doing something different in the gym.
Warning: FYI
Before I jump into the exercises and training information, I want you to keep in mind I am not a doctor, and with any injury you should always consult your doctor.
One of the biggest problems with back injuries is actually knowing what your injury is! Recently, I was doing some research on back pain, and saw a crazy statistic that about 60% of lower back pain injuries are undetermined.
Basically someone has pain, and the doctor (or chiropractor ) can’t actually find anything mechanically wrong. Sometimes back pain can be more than just something wrong with your back! Thus, try to find out what is causing the issue.
It could be simple, it could be complex. Find a good Doctor, Chiropractor, Physiotherapist and learn from them.
First thing I want you to do is take a pen and paper — and write down ALL the lower body exercises that cause you pain. The list can be small, or long, but I want you to WRITE IT DOWN. Here is my list quickly:
Bar Back Squats – Bar Deadlifts – Heavy normal stance, “stiff leg” deadlifts.
Heavy rotational core work. Heavy squats of any kind. That is my list briefly. These are exercises, that when I do them, I know I am going to pay for them.
Suggestion: The Prudent Advice
Now do the following. Take your list, read it top to bottom, and then STOP DOING THESE EXERCISES! When you get a lot of pain from an exercise, it is your body telling you to stop doing what you are doing, because something is wrong.
It is like driving a car, when a red light comes on your dash saying “Check Engine”, that does not mean drive the RPM’s up and drive as hard as you can. It means stop, evaluate, try to fix the problem!
** CONTINUE WITH PART 2 of How to Exercise with Lower Back Injury