Rebuilding Weak lInks

Hey All,

So a quick bit of History, I started lifting about 6 years ago; mostly compound barbell movements. I got decently strong but after about 12ish months my lower back started to hurt a little after sessions. It was Initially only for 30-60 mins after but this soon extended to 1-2 days of pretty severe discomfort. I gave up lifting for 1 year and focused on calisthenics, my back greatly improved from this. After the year of calisthenics (with basically no mobility work) I tried to barbell squat 50kg and this put me out of the game for 3 days with pain/discomfort similar to what I had felt the previous year. After a few unsuccessful physio and chiropractor visits I lost all hope and figured I was doomed to lower volume, low intensity work to spare my lower back. 

fast forward about 3 years and I came across GB and jumped straight in, my back was coping and in many ways improving, I could do things that I never thought I'd be able to do again. However, slight pain persisted and was kind of on and off. My pain was really badly exacerbated by a birthday visit to a trampoline park about 4 months ago and I was left feeling 90 years old that whole evening because of my back pain.

With all the hard work I was putting in with GB and the vision of the body I wanted to live this life In, I committed to find out what was wrong with me and cure my problem. I wanted to be able to attend a trampoline birthday party and not be left feeling 90. After a great deal of research, I came across an osteopath who I visited, this mans knowledge and attention to detail was unlike anything I had seen. 

He explained that because of my incomplete and over zealous approach to lifting 6 years ago I have in a sense "switched off" or at least impaired certain muscles ability to fire and function properly. (The muscles are listed in the below paragraph)

to cut to the point, he used a few manipulation, trigger point and acupuncture techniques to repair and bring back to full function my Illiocostalis, my longissimus in my lower back (erector spinae) and my gluteus medius in my bum. Since my first session with him (I have two more). My persistent lower back pain has completely alleviated and I feel like a new man. He has told me that these muscles will be very weak from not firing properly these last 6 years. He has told me to slowly build them up over the next 6-12 months. My question is within GB unlimited what should I minimise and what should I focus on to bring up these newly discovered weak areas; without causing anymore issues?

Thanks All!!

 

Edit: I'm on foundation 1 PE1 or PE2 for all exercises (Except SLS, I'm on PE4). PE1 for H2 and PE3 for H1. I'm on the equivalent of PE1 for all the Movement exercises and I'm performing the stretch series' once per week each.

Hi Christopher, your injury has a very long story. and no matter how much time you stayed away from a problem ..it steps back immediately. I can say to you something...when the problem is a muscle, it tends to overwork and it can cause a problem in the following days...but the problems occur after many many hard workouts. then if you rest, the pain is gone. this means that the muscle had the time to recover and return to the normal situation. but remember that the overload of a muscle requires time without proper recovery. what sounds strange is that after a long rest you need only one workout to get back to the lower back problem. one workout is not enough to cause a muscle overload especially if the workout was not sooooo hard with a +100% of the intensity plus power work....

from my pov...the problem is still here....i highly recommend you to take an MRI of your lower back.

Thanks for the quick reply! An MRI sounds like a good Idea to be on the safe side of things!

I forgot to mention that both the chiropractor and Osteopath I went to both told me I have slight scoliosis. Not sure if that changes this...

Christopher,

I concur with Alessandro. If you’re in Europe, then an osteopath there (I believe) is equivalent to a hybrid of holistic healing and chiropractic. (In the states, osteopaths are medical doctors which don’t typically do spinal adjusting anymore, although they use to).

I can relate to some of your issues, but without seeing you physically and since I’m not a doctor (I do have an MS in Sport Science), I’d recommend seeing an orthopedic medical professional or appropriate spinal specialist to assess issues unseen.

Some people are born with shortened psoas muscles and can incur chronic lower back issues. Over time, they will develop lordosis (extreme curvature in the lower back) that is visibly obvious. This is a condition that cannot be fixed typically, and has to be managed. I don’t know you so I’m not sure if this is the case.

Another possibility is that your mechanics in last training have been faulty, and/or the weight load did not match either conditioning or ability. I am struggling now with reentering weightlifting after a 3 year hiatus when I transitioned to JUST GymnasticBodies. I actually have loarnos little upper body strength (<15%) but significant lower body strength in squat and deadlift (~40% for both). 

I would have your issue looked at and also consider how important weighted movement is to you. This program in its entirety (strength, stretching, movement, etc) is fully capable of making you much stronger overall than weights. Just my thoughts. 

Regards,

Sonny

 

HI sonny! 

Thanks for your input!

I developed pretty extreme lordosis when I started lifting 6 years ago! 

It still persists but my quad/hip flexor/hip stretches are improving my lordosis. 

I don't have much care for heavy weightlifting anymore. I'm Happy to focus on gst as my main resistance training. 

I'd also like to point out that even during my calisthenics year my lower back still hurt just not a much.

Does anyone living in the UK/Scotland know how it go about getting and mri scan?

I may have some underlying genetic components but I really was an idiot 6 years ago and really hurt myself.