how good looking men can train around a low back injury

 Hey omorfe,

(reminder, that's Greek for good-looking man)

Let's start by tackling the most burning question you might have:

"Is this article only for good-looking men, Fotis??? What if I consider so-so in terms of looks?"

Look, me calling everyone who reads me a good-looking man is part of my brand. It's clear men worldwide don't get the love, respect and recognition they deserve. When I call you a good-looking dude, I do it because I try to put a smile on your face and make your day. If you think "boohoo I'm not good-looking enough" you're missing the point.

Anyway, let's move on to less interesting stuff:

Every once in a while I get people asking me how to train around a low back injury.

Here are a few of my suggestions:

* tweak exercises that hurt

If Romanian Deadlifts (RDL) hurt, tweak your technique a bit.

For example, I've minimized and even eliminated RDL-specific pain by asking people to change their foot position.

Tiny technique tweaks can and will minimize pain

* substitute exercises that hurt

Let's say that you tried changing your foot position when doing barbell squats but still feel pain.

If so, substitute them with goblet squats.

Or landmine squats.

Or even with leg presses.

(Note: I don't train people who compete in sports like crossfit, powerlifting or olympic lifting. So, we don't care about substituting an exercise. But, if you're competing, you need to work around the injury and a coach specializing in these sports is who you should be talking to, not your obnoxious Greek host)

* change the rep scheme

Perhaps low reps worsen the pain.

In this case, you can experiment by lowering the weight and doing more reps.

In other cases, high reps hurt people but when they switch to lower reps, they feel great. Experimentation is useful. Hiring a coach to help you is even more useful

* engage the right muscles

Especially in heavy lifts like squats and deadlifts, people forget to engage their body.

And I'm not talking about just your core.

For example:

If you look at a chart of the muscular system, you'll see that your latissimum dorsi (the big muscle of your back) connects with your low back (the joint) But few engage their lats. As a result, the low back takes most of the load. And, when your low back takes most of the load, it's logical to feel pain.

***

Sure, there are other things to keep in mind such as training (like force vectors)...body posture...nutrition and supplementation...and more

Amoral of the story?

Low back pain is a complex subject.

It's not as simple as "do more crunches and planks," which in some cases can be cat-astrophic.

I've been helping guys train around low back injuries for over a decade now and even though a few principles are universal, there are cases where you have to create new protocols on the fly, just to help the charming guy in pain.

If you'd like more tips and strategies like this one, start by grabbing my one sentence muscle building plan at:

http://grecianman.com/

Your Greek buddy,

Fotis Chatzinicolaou

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