The certificate is everything

[SocalledStrength]

So.. I know this won´t help in any way but i need a little venting done to the people who understands.
My friend asked me if i thought strength training would make his back pain go away. He is 35 years old slightly obese and have struggled with low back pain for approx. 7 years.
First week of training he was complaining that it hurts doing the lifts but the pain was gone after the workout was over. Week 2 lifting didnt make him go ouch,ouch all the time and as before the pain was gone when workout was over. Next morning the pain was back. Week 3 lifting doesnt hurt at all and there was no pain after workouts. Week 4 he is still feeling pain but not during workout or after.
He decided he needed to go to a physical therapist. PT diagnosed a herniated disc and forbid him from doing squats and deadlifts. Instead the PT instructed him to lie flat on his belly and lift his butt to rehab the disc "injury" and go for a walk (which had caused him pain earlier everytime). Friend decided to take the PT´s advice since hes been doing work with shot putters etc.
I really dont know what to say? PT has all the fanciest titles and all that shit so he knows everything about strength training and rehab so thats the way hes gonna go. I guess i have to take this as a learning experience and confirmation that deadlifts and squats are the best way to strong back and that they work on injured people too. Altough i assume he was looking for a wonder pill and was not expecting hard work i still am a bit pissed off to this industry. How do you encourage clients/friends to go through the pain since making the pain go away did fuckall? Is there anything i could`ve done differently?

[Scaldrew]

How do you encourage clients/friends to go through the pain since making the pain go away did fuckall? Is there anything i could`ve done differently?

You lead by example and give them the best version of Coach You you can give once they ask for it. The vast minority of everyone you'll ever meet who could benefit most from lifting weights will not pick you up on your offer of showing them the ropes. There's nothing you could've done differently. But there is something you can do in the future: don't close yourself off to the posibility of helping anyone at any time. If your friend comes around in two months, two years, or 25 years, you can do worse than show him how to drahve his hips up out of the bottom. For now, take solace in the fact that it's not you, it's them, and the nature of the beast. Barbell training (for injuries, and everything else) is an impossible sale. People just have to be "dumb" enough to buy it.

[Tiburon]

The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living: Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman: 9780735211735: Amazon.com: Books

[Jstrause]

I went through a similar thing with my younger brother. He asked me if I would set up a gym program for him to get stronger/lose weight and I started him on the linear progression. He was doing excellent for about 6 weeks (increased all lifts and lost 15 pounds of bodyweight) and informed me that his doctor told him he should just be doing cardio now and strength train later.

I don't think that there was anything you could have done differently because I think in the end your friend and my brother were looking for a way out from the start. The SS linear progression works for everyone but it's not for everyone because it's hard. I am a physical therapist and there are very few that have any experience with training (as I'm sure you've read on this site). There are some out there and it may be worthwhile to seek them out so that you can refer to them in the event that this happens with another client/friend in the future.