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Thread: Strength training with body mechanics issues - should I still do progressive training

  1. #1
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    Default Strength training with body mechanics issues - should I still do progressive training

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    Hi Rip,

    I have been doing SS since last May and got up to 210/110/300 two weeks ago. I'm a 44 year old female. I am a superfan of yours and thank you SO much for writing a book that got me into lifting. The program has made me so much more confident as a person in all areas. However, I need your advice. Two weeks ago, I substantially "tweaked" my back under a warm up set of 165 for the squat and stopped training immediately. I did listen to your podcast about working through back tweaks after no more than a couple days off, but I was scared and went to the chiro.

    Went to chiro, chiro says I have extremely shortened hip flexors, a pelvic tilt to the right, L5 degeneration to 40%, SI and piriformis issues due to hip flexors and pelvic tilt. In addition to her adjustments 3x a week, we are working on getting me to lengthen my hip flexors and incorporate those exercises prior to squatting. She indicated that she didn't think my particular body issues mesh well with my lifting goals. She said that if I continue to focus on lengthening my hip flexors so that they don't put me in a potential spinal compression under a load, I should be somewhat ok. However, she said she wasn't thrilled with me wanting to continue to do deadlifts because of the potential compression. Same thing with the press (I'm/was up to 85 lbs)....she told me to use my legs and I told her "Rip says that's ghey" HA! She actually doesn't seem thrilled with me continuing to progressively strength train.

    In your experience, what course of action should I take? Do I continue to progressively strength train in tandem with my hip flexor stretching? Do I reduce weight on the squat and DL? Do I even deadlift? I signed up for a raw powerlifting meet in May and was so excited...I am totally bummed thinking that I might have to stop.

    Well, thank you so much in advance for any advice you can give me. Even if you don't answer, thanks again for showing me a really kool way of life.

  2. #2
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    So, chiropractors are now Physical Therapists who adjust your back. There are too many things wrong here to address. I suggest you spend some time looking these issues up on the boards here, or perhaps some of our regulars here with more time can address them.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by WellHelloKitty View Post
    I have been doing SS since last May and got up to 210/110/300 two weeks ago.
    Well done, keep going.

    Two weeks ago, I substantially "tweaked" my back under a warm up set of 165 for the squat and stopped training immediately. I did listen to your podcast about working through back tweaks after no more than a couple days off, but I was scared and went to the chiro.
    Now you've had time to get over the shock of the pain, listen to the podcast again.

    The point of physical training is to impose a stress on the system, so that the system adapts in such a way that it's not a stress anymore. Your body doesn't want to be stronger, fitter or more flexible, it just doesn't want to be stressed. Squatting 135 was a stress, so your body developed the ability to squat 140, so that 135 wouldn't be a stress anymore.

    Your muscles, bones and so on all adapt to physical training. It's supposed to be a stress. If it's not a stress your body has no reason to adapt.

    Now obviously it's a problem if it's too much stress. It can be too much stress because you progress too quickly, or because you lift with poor technique. If you have poor technique, then the load goes through one small part of the body instead of the whole body. Your whole body can handle squatting 210lbs, but (for example) your right knee by itself can't handle it, so if during your squat you shift all your weight onto one knee, then you may hurt yourself.

    This is why the book and every coach spends all that time discussing the right technique, and why we start easy and build up slowly.

    But not every rep will be perfect, sometimes one will be slightly off, you'll hurt something a bit. A good part of the time this can be ignored entirely, a lot of the time you just back off and build back up again, it's pretty rare that you have to stop lifting entirely. Usually if it's severe enough that you have to stop lifting you really know about it - you can't walk out of the gym.

    Your chiropractor evidently does not understand these basic facts. The comments about worrying about a compressive load through the spine shows that they don't understand that the body adapts.

    See a Starting Strength Coach to ensure your technique is good, or post a video here on the boards. People with far more serious joint issues than "tight hip flexors" have trained themselves up to lifter greater weights than yours. You'll be fine.

    The next time you see a medical professional, ask them, "Bro, do you even lift?" Otherwise you're taking sex ed from a virgin.

  4. #4
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    Nov 2014
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    Australia
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    At 3 visits a week you are a goldmine for her. Im curious to know how she determined 40% degeneration of L5 and I am also curious to know what "body issues don't mesh well with lifting goals" means. Last time a chiro spoke to me about squatting I asked her to show me how she squats. That was the last time she mentioned it.

  5. #5
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    Sheesh, Well hello kitty, we could be twinsies. I am also a 44 year old woman, lifting slightly longer than you, with similar numbers. Stop seeing that chiropractor immediately, listen to Rip's back injury podcast, and go read my log from last December onwards. I dealt with a back tweak too. http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=52822

    I did what Rip says to do, in my own impatient fashion, which is to continue to lift at light weights until the pain goes away. It worked really well. I have had no pain for two months.

    I'm sure I also have shortened hip flexors (I sit all day) and some asymmetries. If you look for problems, you'll always find a reason to NOT lift. The question is, do you want to lift?

  6. #6
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    I get really tired of this "shortened hip flexors" silly bullshit. Postulate a specific mechanism by which the muscle belly decreases in length.

  7. #7
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    If anyone lengthens one of your muscles, go immediately to the hospital, you have suffered a traumatic injury.

    …If you fail to die of traumatic injury, the doctors will inform you that your muscle length can not be changed by anything less than a catastrophic event. With any luck, they will also explain to you that degenerated discs can not be diagnosed without medical imaging. This information should well position you to better choose who you will allow near The Only Spine You Will Ever Have.

  8. #8
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    Ha, I am not getting sucked into an argument about hip flexors. What I would have said if I weren't trying to be brief because of typing on the phone is, I am sure that a chiropractor would find that I have shortened hip flexors and asymmetries and other back issues. I do get achy hips occasionally, as do others, I am sure. I don't care what causes it, it goes away when I move more. Motion is lotion, that's all I need to know.

  9. #9
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    So when a guy charges you $65 to tell you that your hip flexors are "shortened" by sitting in a chair, you just pay him as long as he's a good adjuster? Just to clarify. I might do the same, but I'd make sure he knew that I thought he was full of shit.

  10. #10
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    starting strength coach development program
    I don't visit chiropractors, so I don't expect to hear about my shortened hip flexors from anyone. In my original response, I was just trying to say that if I visited a chiropractor, they might also find any number of things "wrong" with me. But I keep on lifting happily in ignorance of these trendy, non-existant issues. I did not mean to imply that I believe in these diagnoses, although rereading my post, I can see why you might think so.

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