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Thread: A familiar story (back pain)

  1. #1
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    Default A familiar story (back pain)

    • starting strength seminar october 2024
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    Rip:

    Haven't posted in a fair bit but still monitor things.

    Woke up yesterday with inexplicable back pain that got worse as the day went on. Bad enough to interrupt my sleep throughout the night last night.

    Sacked up and went out to the garage early this morning for my scheduled work, including squats. Not without trepidation.

    Grinded (ground?) through it and, now, about 4 hours later, I'm without discomfort.

    I'm just one guy, but I've dealt with back pain for 30 years. Until I started squatting about 6 years ago, I was in nearly constant misery.

    I yell from the rooftops at folks with back pain to just squat and deadlift. Why won't they listen?

    Best,

    T

  2. #2
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    They do listen. Just not to us.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thomas Jones View Post
    Grinded (ground?) through it
    Was thinking about this as well near the end of my workout. Missed a set of five only getting 3 at a PR weight and afterwards I thought "maybe I should've grinded through it. Hang on, I stopped because my form would've broken down had I proceeded. Wait, is it grinded or ground?" Context, of course, is everything and, in light of a blogpost by the famous linguist David Crystal, I have to conclude that "grinded" would be the preferred simple past and past participle form of "to grind".

    In this article, Crystal dealt with the issue of the plural form of a [computer] mouse. He mentioned both forms (mice and mouses) occurred naturally in the context of computers and IT in everyday, normal conversations, but put forward the argument that "mouses" would be preferable seeing as "mice" already refers to the animal. It's an easy way to avoid confusion; the only problem being that it may seem jarring to people not in IT or even those who haven't read Crystal's blog, obviously. Crystal, of course, knows better than to tell people what to say or how to say it, so the blogpst is more of a case for a different plural form in its own context and a recommendation more so than a bill to be ratified in the "lawbook of grammar".

    Additionally, when we look at how new lexical items (i.e. "words") are inflected to denote the plural form, the genitive case, or a verb in agreement with a noun in a clause, we see that the most simple approach is always taken. Computer becomes computers, personal trainer becomes personal trainers, and so on. Since "to grind" in the context of lifting weights and with the meaning of "holding/lifting on despite a severe increase in work required" conveyed is very much a new term, I don't see any reason to cling to the old plural forms of "to grind" (except for the reasons stated in the paragraph above about confusing the layman). Instead, it makes much more sense to simply inflect the verb with the -ed ending and, in a sense, "regularising" an otherwise irregular verb.

    Moreover, it isn't all that uncommon to find two sets of verbs that are otherwise identical with one being an irregular verb and the other being a regular verb. The verb "to hang", for instance, can be inflected as both "hanged" and "hung" depending on the distribution of the verb in the clause. In a clause where a person is said to have died from having a noose wrapped around the neck and having the ground removed from under them, the verb "to hang" would be inflected as "hanged". But in a clause where a person is said to have put up a picture on a nail in the wall, the verb "to hang" would be inflected as "hung".

    In short, if you agree that the inflection "grinded" is superior to "ground" in the context of lifting weights and your conversation partner raises an eyebrow and smirks at you, tell them to go hang themselves. Notsrs pls don't sue

  4. #4
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    sad to say but I've had lower back pain since I was a teenager (27 now) due to shitty posture, until I started reading ss and doing the program. Funny how the pain goes away when you deadlift, intuition would predict the opposite. If weren't for ss, id have a shitty life plagued with back pain.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by heavyiron8 View Post
    sad to say but I've had lower back pain since I was a teenager (27 now) due to shitty posture, until I started reading ss and doing the program. Funny how the pain goes away when you deadlift, intuition would predict the opposite. If weren't for ss, id have a shitty life plagued with back pain.
    Glad you found it at 27. Took me until my 40s.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thomas Jones View Post
    Glad you found it at 27. Took me until my 40s.
    I'm actually luckier. I found it at age 18, and been a typical dumb teenager, I didn't really do the program as it's suppose to done. I only started to do the program seriously about a year ago. I'm now stronger than I've ever thought possible, and only still an early intermediate lifter.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thomas Jones View Post
    Woke up yesterday with inexplicable back pain that got worse as the day went on. Bad enough to interrupt my sleep throughout the night last night.

    Sacked up and went out to the garage early this morning for my scheduled work, including squats. Not without trepidation.

    Grinded (ground?) through it and, now, about 4 hours later, I'm without discomfort.
    Thanks for posting this. I tweaked my back yesterday after hunching in front of the computer too long and was considering putting off my workout for a day. I saw this and decided to make it happen. I managed to squat my bodyweight (for the first time!) and did my Power Cleans and my back is no longer bothering me...

    Cheers-

    -jcy-p

  8. #8
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    starting strength coach development program
    Might as well add on to this. Retired after 1 semester of D1 tennis at 18 years old after being unable to manage worsening back pain over the course of almost 2 years. I lived in NY at the time and saw some of the "top" chiropractors, PT's, ortho's, back specialists, massage therapists, etc. Some minor relief here and there, but not 1 of these 10 or so professionals ever suggested to get my back stronger.

    Fast forward a few years and stumbling upon SS via dumb luck in '08, and I forgot that I ever struggled with back pain once my deadlift reached about 250x5. Thank you, Coach Rip, for the work you have done.

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