Mark I read your recent article: Back Pain and Back Strength and had to drop you a note. I am a success story, one example of proof of what you say in that article.
I am 68 years old. Most of my life I’ve endured serious back pain, had my first spinal fusion surgery at age 16 (1965 for Spondylolisthesis) and my second in 2003 at age 55.
Over the years I tried everything to conquer this pain: Acupuncture, Chiropractic manipulations, Epidural Steroid Injections, Trigger Point Steroid Injections, SI Injections, S-1 Nerve Root Steroid Injections, Physical Therapy, Swimming, T’ai Chi, Qigong, Kung Fu, Svaroopa Yoga, meditation, and various forms of narcotic pain meditation such as Darvocet, Percocet, Fentanyl, Oxycontin . . . but nothing worked. I could barely walk up stairs. It was actually painful standing at the photocopy machine!
When I turned 65 and retired, I decided enough was enough, went cold turkey off the narcotic pain meds I’d been on for 15 years and began lifting weights. Very slowly at first, dumbbell exercises for 6 months, then bought a barbell, cleared out half my garage for a gym instead: Olympic set, bench, power rack, pulldown machine. Focused primarily on the big compound exercises: Squat, DL, BP sticking with low reps and sets because recovery at my age is a problem.
Since the adoption of weightlifting and my emancipation from doctors and narcotic pain pills and all the rest of the nonsense, I have been pain free. I don’t mean a diminishment of pain, I mean pain free, period. Just 2 weeks ago I did a 330 lb. squat and a 380 lb. deadlift at a bodyweight of 190. It is no exaggeration to say that weightlifting has saved my life.
Thanks Mark for all you do to keep us informed, educated and excited about strength through weightlifting.
sincerely
Mike Estabrook