Training After a Low Back Injury Part 1

A low back injury can disrupt not only your training, but your life. Injuries can stem from an accident, poor mechanics throughout your day or bad form in the gym. My first major back injury happened by falling down an icy set of stairs one cold Chicago morning. The recovery took months and affected me for years. I know all too well what it’s like to suffer and more importantly, I know how to come back from an injury.

Mitigating risk is a huge part of my training. I strive to be pain free as well as strong, conditioned, agile, limber and powerful. While every physical endeavor has inherent risks, some have more risk vs. reward than others. I tend to stick with more rewarding exercises that have less risks. These are some of my favorites for lower body training.

Goblet Squat- Holding the weight at your chest with a dumbbell or kettlebell takes a lot of stress off your back compared to a barbell squat. The double kettlebell front squat is a natural progression as you can hold twice the weight while still sparing the low back.

Romanian Deadlifts with dumbbells- The Romanian Deadlift, or RDL, is a deadlift that uses less knee bend than a conventional deadlift. Performed correctly, RDLs keep the tension in your hamstrings and you are less likely to round your low back at the bottom. When you hold the weight at your sides its also easier to keep integrity in your low back compared to a barbell. RDLs can also be performed with reduced range of motion, further reducing risk.

Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat- This form of squat requires more balance and coordination than a goblet squat. The benefits are that is stabilizes the knee, requires less weight, strengthens single leg balance, and is less taxing on the low back. The weight can be held in one hand at thigh height, both hands at thigh height, at the chest like a goblet squat, or overhead for extra core and balance work.

Stability ball back extensions- This is the quintessential lower back exercise. The standard ball back extension is best used for higher reps (30-100) and can be done daily. Get to 3 sets of 30 before adding weight or trying some of the variations of the movement, which I have on my YouTube page.

Reverse Hypers- If you have access to a reverse hyper, then this should be included in every training session. To build strength go heavy, for restoration go light and work higher rep ranges. Use it in your warmup prior to heavy squats or deadlifts, If you don’t have a reverse hyper (many don’t) then you can still benefit from the movement. A stability ball reverse hyper is a great place to start. After you can successfully perform 3 sets of 30 reverse hypers on a ball, progress to doing them on the edge of a flat bench.