Rip fixed my back.

[JohnOL]

Rip, I don't comment on things often. Certainly not a bottom 3%ter on YouTube .

I have a little over a month left in my 50s and have been lifting barbells since my teens. Life, college, marriage, children, work and a stint in the saddle as a road racing cyclist have all interrupted training throughout the years. Perhaps 25ish years ago a bad experience with a Hack Squat machine left me with pain in my ass and down into my left leg. I lived with it and didn't think it severe enough to see a doctor. It resolved itself over months but my squatting days were thought to be over. Every time I tried to squat I inevitably tweaked my back. Interestingly it was always on the way down. I literally got to the point where I was afraid to squat with 95 pounds. In my younger days I did work sets in the 300 Lb range at 170-175 Lbs body weight at 5' 9". Due to my back bothering me my leg workouts consisted of high rep body weight squats, walking lunges and leg extension & curl machines. All through this time I yearned to squat like I used to. Not doing the king of exercises really bothered me.

A couple years ago I ran across Starting Strength YouTube, Podcasts and website. I kept hearing how the best way to fix a bad back was Squats and Deadlifts. I never incorporated deadlifts in my past training. The reoccurring theme of squatting and deadlifts planted a bug in my brain. I decided there may be something to Rip's insistence. I decided to give it a go. At this point in time my lower back was mostly problem free if I was careful with what I did. However a sneeze, opening the sash on a double hung window, carrying something unwieldy or slipping on lose ground where your body tenses could all result in a back tweak. Sometimes laying in bed was problematic. I would have to find the position where it didn't aggravate my back.

What I started out doing was watching and re-watching multiple times every squat and deadlift instructional video I could find. When I was a kid squatting was just a movement we did. Heck I can remember being in my buddy's basement squatting and the thing we were most concerned about was finding a FM radio station that wasn't playing Peter Frampton's live album. It permeated the air waves and we were sick of it being everywhere. Wow! That was more than 40 years ago. High bar squats were all we knew. I don't think I concentrated on bracing my midsection or executing proper form we just did it.

Starting out trying to return to barbell squats and deadlifts had (and still has) a psychological component. Will this result in a back tweak or worse. I went back to what I knew the high bar squat and got a few tweaks here and there. I tried the low bar squat but wasn't comfortable with shoulder flexibility and the position on my back. I kept thinking the bar was just going to roll down my back. But I kept experimenting with low bar squatting. Then one day I had worked up to a weight I was comfortable with but afraid to go higher and then switched to low bar and was able to add weight. I never looked back at high bar squats since. I was instantly more comfortable squatting low bar. Somehow in my mind I thought the moment arm on my low back was shorter and safer than high bar. At this point in time I was concerned about using more than 95 lbs.

I continued to low bar squat and added deadlifts. With the deadlift I was also very careful starting out. With both lifts for the longest time I kept thinking I was tempting fate and that I needed to be very conservative with progressing into heavier weights. After many months of training I pulled 300 Lbs with no issues. Still reluctant to tack on more weight especially as the weight got heavier and it took longer to pull it. This past Friday I pulled 300 for 4 reps which pleased me since it was a max for 1 rep not too long ago. Additionally for the first time in decades I squatted 225 lbs for 5 reps as my top working set. Prior to Friday I never put more than 215 on the bar.

Best of all I can't remember the last time I've experience a back issue. My back feels great all the time. I've been out hiking with my dogs and slipped on lose gravel many times and nothing happens. First thing I think of is, wow my back didn't spasm from that. I can really tell that strengthening my back with squats and deadlifts has been very beneficial. I'm still leery about adding weight but I still want to progress. I've incorporated paused & box squats trying to amp up the volume with out endangering myself with too much weight. Recently I started experimenting with Sumo deadlifts.

I'm just trying to stay healthy, be able to do the things I want to do and I enjoy my time in the gym. I'm now only doing squats, deadlifts, bench press, standing overhead press and pull ups. Gone are all the myriad of assistance style exercises associated with bodybuilding.

One day I'd really like to get to one of your seminars.

Thanks Rip,
John

[Mark Rippetoe]

I'd like to see you there, so I can explain why sumo deadlifts are a distraction.