Barbell training as spinal rehabilitation
14 years ago at the age of 28 I elected to have spinal surgery to bone graft the pars defects on my symptomatic L5/S1 spondylolysis. Having nearly died from a post operative infection I was left, 6 months later, with a virtually non existent paralumbar musculature with spinous processes protruding from the scar tissue in a ridge. After a further 6 months of extremely uncomfortable daily soft tissue mobilsation I started to return to some activity; i.e walking on a daily basis. Eventually, after a decent amount of effort, I got back into some low level recreation (surfing, skiing). A spell using a concept 2 improved things (quite a bit) further but I was still rather weak although conditioned.
I started ‘playing’ with weights in a slightly clueless manner in 2009 but fortunately discovered SS in early 2010. As everyone here knows the level of detail describing the basic exercises just does not exist elsewhere. It was immediately clear to me that as long as I trained with excellent form I would not injure myself further and, indeed, might actually improve. Obviously, the rate limiting step was my paralumbar musculature meaning that my novice progression was not particularly lengthy.
Over the past 4 years I have had many layoffs; some for travel but others simply because it felt like I would snap if I put another 2.5 kg on the bar. I filmed or asked my wife to observe all my early workouts until I was confident of maintaining a natural lumbar lordosis at all times. Although it is unlkely that I’ll ever reach a level considered strong by strength athletes taking my deadlift from 50Kg x 5 to 150Kg X 6 (done in good form with a controlled eccentric phase) has made a massive difference to my life. I no longer feel like a spinal cripple with chronic pain.
Thanks Rip