Video summary
The core strategy for managing back pain, such as frequent "tweaks," revolves around using a subjective pain scale ranging from one to ten to guide training decisions. The goal is to maintain pain levels at three or below by identifying specific movement patterns and loads that the body can tolerate without aggravation. For instance, if a heavy deadlift triggers significant discomfort due to an issue like SI joint dysfunction, the immediate solution is not to stop lifting entirely but to find a modified version of the exercise that keeps symptoms manageable. This might involve drastically reducing the weight, perhaps by half, or adjusting the range of motion to avoid positions that cause shear forces on the spine.
To implement this approach, trainers often split exercises into different variations based on individual tolerance and pain triggers. In cases where full-range deadlifts are too painful, a practitioner might perform partial reps, such as lifting only from just below the knee, while using rack pulls on other days with light, controlled weights to maintain strength without causing injury. Other movements like Romanian Deadlifts may be excluded if they place excessive stress on specific joints, necessitating a focus on alternative exercises that do not aggravate the condition. The key principle is to select the specific lift and load combination that allows the athlete to train effectively while keeping pain within the safe threshold of three or less.
Once a tolerable movement pattern and weight are established, the recovery process involves a gradual progression in both load and range of motion over time. Instead of jumping back into full intensity immediately, the athlete slowly tests their limits by increasing the depth of the lift by an inch or two at a time, ensuring that pain levels remain stable before advancing further. This methodical approach can be applied to various lifts including squats and bench presses, allowing the body to adapt and strengthen the affected areas without triggering setbacks. By consistently staying within the pain-free zone and incrementally challenging the system, the frequency of back issues decreases significantly until they eventually cease entirely.
Read the full video transcript
The main thing that I use with back
tweaks and really any pain is the pain
scale and it's very subjective. I get
it. Everybody's different, right? But on
a scale of 1 to 10, one being no pain at
all, 10 is somebody doubts you with
gasoline and set you on fire. That's
real that hurts, right? I want to keep
your pain at a below a four, a three or
below, right? And so I want to find the
movement pattern that you can do and the
load that you can do that keeps your
pain at a three or below. So if let's
say because back tweaks are what we're
talk we're talking about a heavy
deadlift causes lots of back pain. I've
got a guy right now who has a SI joint
issue. It's been a pain in the butt.
We've worked around it. I'm going to
find the load that that person can do
and the range of motion that they can
do. So for the guy that I've I've been
working with, we reduced his load. For
him, I mean you might be able to reduce
your load 10% but some of you may have
to reduce your load 50%. You maybe
deadlifting 300 lb, you got to go to
150, 135, 175, somewhere in there. You
might not be able to do full range of
motion deadlifts. For him, one day a
week we do we do um
deadlift starts, basically just up to
just below the knee and then back down
nice and slow and then so we do the
bottom half of the deadlift. The other
day of the week we do rack pulls and we
keep those still pretty light. We don't
do anything really explosive or jerky,
right? Nice slow controlled movements.
For others, an RDL works well. For him,
the RDL because it wasn't really the
back, it was the SI
caused some additional SI kind of moment
force or shear and so we we couldn't do
the RDLs because that puts a long moment
arm on the back. What I'm going to do is
find the movement that you can do that
keeps your pain at a three or below and
the load that you can do that keeps your
pain at a three or below. And over time,
what I'm going to do is to slowly
increase the load on that movement
and I'm going to slowly increase the
range of motion on the movement, right?
So make the range of motion go from
smaller, this this area stays three or
below on the pain scale, to eventually
we're going to test the waters. We're
going to increase that range of motion
by an inch or two inches. It's a rack
pull, and that might even start above
the knee, then go to the knee, then
slightly below the knee, then down to
mid shin over time until we can do a
full range of motion deadlift again. And
that works for all of all of the lifts.
It could be done with the squat, the
bench press, the press, any of these
things could be done. So, that's what I
typically do. So,
um if you do that and do that well,
just like I said last week, you will
still get back tweaks, but you'll get
them fewer and far between than you used
to, and eventually they will stop, and
you won't get the back tweaks anymore.
You've got to find the spot that you can
do that won't aggravate that's aggravate
that spot.