Picture this: you walk into the gym with intentions of lifting some weights. Maybe you’re thinking of doing some deadlifting today. You do throw some plates on the bar up to a reasonable percentage of the weight you can normally lift and grab the bar l, set your form, and start to pull and *OUCH* you feel a pain in your back. What do you do?
You have a couple of options.
#1 you can stop lifting all together and just wait and hope that the pain goes away without taking any further action. unfortunately often times this is what your general family doctor would recommend, is that you wait for the pain to go away and then try again in a few weeks if you want to see if it’s actually gone. Per Mini this is the easiest option because it doesn’t cost anything and doesn’t require any effort on their part, in fact it’s a good excuse to not actually go to the gym anymore. Or at least for a few weeks. Which turns into a few months.
Which sometimes leads to an overall decrease in activity for the rest of the individuals life. But for many of us that’s a not an option.
#2 option is the one that says “no pain no gain” and pushes through the pain, not modifying or changing the weight, or taking time to stretch or rest. For obvious reasons, these people place themselves at much higher risk for injury, because after all, pain is a warning sign from the body, telling you that it is trying to accommodate to stress that it is not capable of handling.
#3 the last option is the one I want to highlight the most today, and that is the option of listening to your body and finding a way to adapt or modify the exercise. There is no shame in taking time to lighten the weights, or finding a way to target the same muscle groups or perform the same functional movement. You can do this in a modified manner to allow for pain to subside, while still educating the musculoskeletal system on how it can adapt and tolerate that stress being placed on it during that movement.
Watch the video below to see specifically how we at OFF THE BLOCK PT would recommend that you consider modifying your deadlift when you have back pain!
If you’re interested in having a doctor of physical therapy evaluate your strength and mobility deficits and make recommendations for safer training and better form, or if you’re dealing with pain and are interested in a full specific diagnostic evaluation to begin to address your pain from the root cause of the problem today or if you have questions, please DM or Contact us!
📧 offtheblockpt@Gmail.com
☎️ 864-561-5493
💪🏼Our three step process to your recovery💪🏼
We use a personalized 1:1 approach to:
Relieve your pain
Identity and address the underlying root causes
Give you tools to stay pain free long term
✨ We also offer virtual consults/ treatments and injury prevention programming ✨
📲 DM for more info