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Brian Carroll
Hi. Iv had back pain for over 1 year. Most of the time i had no clue what it was. Untill around 3 months ago i was crippled on the floor from picking a dumbell up from the floor. Turns out i have a l5s1 disk herniation with some nerve tingling. And flexion intolerant. Anyway im reading through gift of injury atm. My question is while you are in pain (my pain ranges from a 2 to a 6 depending on the time of the day/sensitivity of my back) do you guys still train in the gym doing accessory/isolation excercise? Or stick to the big 3 and walking untill there is no pain and have full range. I currently at times cannot do a hip hinge without pain in my lower back. Sorry for the long message guys thought it wohld be helpful adding relevant info. Thanks!
Hi there,
Sucks to hear about your back injury, but you can definitely recover and be able bodied again. Step 1 is let it desensitize. Now is not the time to be worrying about losing gains or anything else – if you’ve built it, your body won’t just lose everything. Walking and core work (with perfect form) are all you should be doing. Seeing a PT who can assist you would be huge – there are probably a lot of asymmetries and instabilities that you have that you won’t be aware of while trying to do the core work outlined in the book…. A perfect bird dog or side plank is much more challenging than you’d think.
Once your back is less sensitive you can start trouble shooting – this is where you’ll need some serious mental discipline to stay on the strengthening routine, and start being aware of what’s weak and where, and how to address them. This is when working with a PT will be really useful, and you need to give them as much feedback as possible so that they can help.
Don’t even worry about your regular gym routine of compound vs accessory work, the only gains you need now are core strength and proper movement during the day to get your back healthy. It may take a while, but if you treat it as seriously as any other gym routine, you’ll be back to health.