Continuing to Get Strong

Bigger Stronger Leaner Injuries and Rehab
1

Hey guys, new to posting here on T Nation, I’ve been checking it out for a while and browsing the forums a bit and finally decided to join.

few basic stats about me:
19 years old
164 pounds

PRs:
Bench: 250
Squat: 365
Deadlift: 325 (never got to truly max out on this before back injury but i would rep 325 for sets of 3)
Standing shoulder press: 155 (was always a weak point since it was never trained in highschool weightlifting, havent been able to improve since back pain either)

I boxed from 15-18 before my spinal injury

My actual injury is a slight curvature of the spine, it gives me an acute sharp pain in my lower back and if i over use my back i get a band of pain across my lower back right above the hips. I dont know the exact cause for the injury but im assuming my spine was already a little off and then lack of good form/ overtraining when i first got into lifting could have caused it to get worse

I love lifting, and I want to continue to keep getting stronger despite limitations while letting my back recover, I really just want as much advice and tips on lifting safely and safe fitness activities for someone with a back injury. Being active is just a huge part of my life and I want to continue doing things even while trying to let my back recover.

i have xrays of my spine if anyone else with back injuries wants to see and compare haha, i find them kind of cool.

2

Alright, first of all… you’re fine.

Nothing is wrong with you, you have no injury, so you need to stop thinking like that right away, that’s the first thing you have to do.

Now, all that’s wrong wit you is tight tight hips. start doing this warm up today, do it twice a day.

Your biggest problem right now is a lack of flute strength. The glutes are like a tuning fork for the entire body, when the glutes are loose we start to bend forward at the waist, and our shoulders begin to round forward, and it’s like our body is slowly ciurling into the fetal telling us to die. Our hips and hamstrings and low backs get tight and strained from overcompensating for the largest muscle in our body: glutes.

Along with the dynamic warm up you really need to do a few stretches.

back foot elevated hip stretch - as it sounds 1 minute
straight leg hip stretch - get a bench and lay your leg flat along the length of it, and lean into the stretch - 1 min
elevated hamstring stretch - throw your leg up on a box and lean into it while keeping good upper body posture.
band hamstring stretch -ANDY ORWIG - Band Assisted Hamstring Stretch - YouTube

Also do this for your upper body:

K, now you need to focus on growing your butt.

watch this:

Do 4 sets of 25 hip thrust 3x a week.

Squat twice a week, dead lift once a week light-ish for now, like 2 plates. Do the hip thrusts first thing after as they’re top priority. Then do one of these three: split squats, step ups, lunge. Do one for each day. Then do some lat pull downs for 5 sets of 10, focus on squeezing your shoulders together and pulling with elbows and not with your arms use a different grip each workout. You can do these before you squat as a warm up to get under the bar easier and reduce shoulder pain.

Take tues-thurs and train upper body, for every kind of press, you need to do 2 back movements and try hard at them.

another problem you’re likely having is that you’re probably internally rotated and have rounded forward shoulders. All the back work is going to fix that, and all the pressing is going to make it worse. Don’t worry, it will just be like this for a couple months, and a big strong back speaks for itself. This level of volume is too high, but it’s got a purpose.

That’s about it man, train biceps, do abs, have fun man.

3

Went through the lower body warm-up from that video about an hour ago, I’ve gotta say it is a lot better than the routine I would do given to me by my physical therapist.

I’m going to try hip thrusts starting with just the bar this coming week and see how it goes, I’m really not feeling like squats or deadlifts are good ideas.

I do single leg leg presses with no pain
and i do single leg straight leg deadlifts with dumbbells with a little tightness but usually no pain

what are some other suggestions for glute exercises?

4

Any other advice from anyone?

The advice given so far has been great, I just want more peoples opinions