About 10 years ago, when I thought nothing of spending three hours at the gym a night (much to my trainers dismay) and ran kms and kms throughout the week (#issues), I would freak out at the suggestion of barbell squats. I was terrified of the bar, as I had developed recurring L4/L5 disc issues coupled with sciatica, due to various life style factors ie:
- – overtraining
- – lack of recovery
- – deskjob
- – long car commutes
- – weakness
- – imbalances.
Something as small as running down hill or wearing heels was likely to aggravate things to the point where walking or sitting would be painful.While I got some positive change by investing in a good pt, this went downhill when he moved on and no amount of physio or clinical Pilates seemed to completely solve the problem.
This went on for years, until I actually started loading up the bar. Gradually over time I grew stronger and stronger, built up a solid base and the occurrences became few and far between. Today I very rarely have any issues at all (unless I do something questionable #operatorerror )
What I have found in learning from some of the best in the industry and from personal experience, is that avoiding strength training was one of the biggest mistakes I could have made…. both in terms of body composition and in terms of injury risk/recovery. If you’re having trouble moving due to injury/pain, do yourself the biggest favour you can and invest in health professionals that can help you resolve the issues and get yourself strong. Otherwise you risk a future of recurring issues, eventual surgeries, limited mobility and dependence on others. And that doesn’t sound very appealing, right? Want to find out more and get yourself moving, reach out.
