Fantastic article Alex. Thank you for sharing. I am certain many will be inspired.
Fantastic article Alex. Thank you for sharing. I am certain many will be inspired.
Great article! Tremendous respect for Alex’s effort, persistence and his service. I wish more physios were influenced by the likes of John Petrizzo.
One question for Alex, could you add a little on how this progress has improved your quality of life e.g. are you in less pain, are you more capable everyday (even ‘simple’ things like carrying a bag or going up and down stairs if they were ever an issue for your hips/shoulders), has the progress improved your outlook for the future. The quantitative side is excellent, but an ex service friend that Im trying to convince is stuck on more weight = more stress = making injuries worse.
Thank you Alex and John.
Thanks so much for the article John. I've found myself in a similar situation as Alex in that I have been in chronic daily pain for years due to several musculoskeletal issues. I've been training the lifts for almost all of my 30s, I turn 40 this month, and my weights are essentially the same as when I started due to my low back being just completely FUBAR. I simply cannot bend over with any weight over a certain amount on my back or in my hands. Actually I cannot even bend over to tie my shoes or dress myself most mornings without having debilitating spasms in the QL area. I've worked with two SSCs and while they helped me refine my technique, I wasn't able to get my chronic pain to a point where I could perform the DL and SQ.
That being said I stumbled into doing high bar and sumo DL on my own since the more vertical back angle seems to prevent in training back spasms. I haven't made that much progress, as I'm just not a very strong or explosive person, but some is better than none I suppose.
Is this sort of the approach you take with your "horrendous back" cases when the DL and the Squat just don't seem to agree with a person's injury situation? My plan was to run the high bar and sumo out as long as I can. And then maybe add block pulls in at a later time, as those tend to be ok up to a point.
Many thanks in advance