Training After a Low Back Injury Part 2

This is a follow up to my previous article, “Training After a Low Back Injury Part 1.” Part 1 gives some great options for training the lower body after a back injury. This article breaks down some great options for training the upper body.

After my first major back injury and long recovery I returned to the gym. I knew heavy barbell squats would be out of the question for a while but I thought barbell benching would be fine. It wasn’t (yet). The tight arch required for a proper bench press was too much for my recovering low back to take. I spent another month working my way back to being pain free. While upper body training is not as taxing on your lumbar as lower body training, there are still some substitutions worth making to mitigate risk. I love barbell training, but it isn’t always the best tool for the job, especially coming off an injury. Switching to single limb exercises is another great option when re-injury is a possibility. Here are 3 of my favorite upper body exercises after a low back injury.

Kettlebell Single Arm Floor Press- The correct postural position for a flat bench press involved a tight arch in your low back. You should be able to slide your forearm under your lumbar. When that isn’t possible, I prefer the floor press, which takes the low back arch out of the equation. The single arm version of the floor press reduces the overall weight, reducing risk, and the kettlebell version adds a bit of forearm training to stabilize.

Standing Single Arm Shoulder Press- A barbell military press AKA standing shoulder press is the quintessential shoulder exercise. It also puts quite a bit of pressure on your low back and that can sometimes be too much too soon right after an injury. The dumbell or kettlebell shoulder press takes quite a bit of stress off the low back and working the single arm version reduces that stress by half.

Standing Single Arm Cable Row- This is another great example of exercise substitution from a barbell lift to something less risky. Instead of working the bent over barbell row, switch to a standing single arm cable row. There is zero postural risk compared to the bent over version.