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my least favourite exercises. It imposes an extreme load
on your spine, increasing the risk of damage to the spinal
discs.
If you have a history of back injury, or even if you have a
healthy, pain-free back and want it to stay that way, I’d
highly recommend that you steer clear of any exercise that
involves this type of movement.
That’s not to say there’s no need to train the muscles that
twist the torso. But there are far better ways to do it than
twisting from side to side while sat on a machine.
Rather than rotation, think resisted rotation. And by
resisted rotation, I’m talking about exercises that require
you to resist forces trying to pull your torso around to the
left or the right.
Let’s take the single arm dumbbell row as an example.
This is primarily an exercise to work the muscles in your
back. But, if you’re doing it right, the external obliques
(the muscles on the side of your waist) are also involved.
That’s because they’re actively preventing your torso from
twisting.
You’re still working the muscles involved in twisting, but
you’re doing so in a way that poses less risk to the spine.
Many people who lift weight experience soreness
persistently in one body part or another, particularly
in the joints. If the pain continues for a few weeks or
more, would you suggest they change their routine
to lift lighter weights, or have a break from lifting
entirely?
You can often relieve joint pain simply by avoiding the
exercises that cause it. But rest by itself is rarely enough.
Unless you fix the root cause, there’s a good chance the
pain will return when you go back to your old routine.
If your joints hurt, don’t ignore it. Training through pain
can lead to a serious injury that could take months to heal,
and may even need surgery.
Some minor twinges and niggles can often be worked
around, and tend to resolve themselves over time. But
if the pain persists, it’s worth getting it checked out by a
physical therapist rather than trying to sort it out yourself.
Self diagnosis isn’t always accurate, and can lead to
problems getting worse instead of better.
The standard approach to dealing with an injury is to rest
it. But with some injuries at least, it seems that you’re
better off keeping moving.
Specifically, a form of resistance exercise known as
eccentric training has been shown to work extremely
well for the treatment of tendon pain in both the elbow
and Achilles tendon. In some cases, it works better than
surgery.
More serious lifters will be seen at the gym using wrist
bands and belts. At what point should the intermediate
lifter start using equipment like this?
There is a time and a place for the use of belts. If you want
to lift a heavier weight, particularly in exercises such as the
squat, deadlift and overhead press, then a belt will help to
make your torso more rigid.
However, constant reliance on a tight belt for every set
of every exercise isn’t a good idea, and may weaken the
deeper abdominal muscles, which form part of your
“natural” weight belt. There’s no solid evidence to show
that belts protect against back pain, nor is there any
indication that occasional use is harmful.
If you’re an intermediate lifter, there’s nothing to stop you
using a belt right now.
If your wrists hurt during heavy lifting, and wrist supports
alleviate that pain, by all means go ahead and use them –
but only if strictly necessary.
Your program emphasises the importance of deloading.
Can you explain what this means and what its role in
injury prevention is?
Your body wasn’t designed to go “all out” week in and week
out for 52 weeks of the year without some kind of break.
Every workout that you do has a cumulative effect on your
body. Tissue damage can build up over time, eventually
manifesting itself as an injury. There’s not one single event
that’s caused the injury, it’s just the gradual build-up of
damage.
So it’s a good idea to incorporate some kind of deload – a
planned reduction in the amount of training you do – every
once in a while. This gives your body some much needed
downtime, and plays an important role in keeping overuse
injuries at bay.
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