Yoav is one of our brilliant trainers and also a former competitive powerlifter.
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Yoav started complaining of lower back pain after bumping back up his training. His symptoms were worse the morning after performing deadlifts and bench press.
After gaining a full history, the first part of our physical examination was assessing for provocative pain patterns. Yoav's pattern was one of extension (back bending) sensitivity, which we hypothesized was causing compression of the facet joints, as well as overactivity of his lumbar erector muscles.
Next was an assessment of his biomechanics, which revealed moderate stiffness through his upper back, tightness into extension and adduction of his right (symptomatic) side hip, as well as some pinching in the front of the right hip with hip flexion.
His initial program consisted of prophylactic exercises away from his painful direction, as well as mobility work for his hip and upper back.
Next, we discussed modifications to his lifting technique. Although many lifters experience flexion (forward bending) back sensitivity due to excessive rounding of the back in the deadlift, as Yoav's symptoms were worse with extension, we actually had him increase his degree of spinal flexion to decrease the amount of joint compression and offload his spinal erector muscles.
We also had him temporarily lighten his bench press loads, as he was going into a moderate degree of extension when pressing heavy. The plan here is to gradually increase bench press loads based on his symptoms, as his load tolerance to extension improves.
Following this plan, Yoav has reported feeling pain-free the morning after his heavy lifting days.
This case study demonstrates a comprehensive approach to treating lower back pain, tailoring the treatment interventions to the individual.
#lowerbackpain #physiotherapist #tokyo #physicaltherapist #powerlifting #personaltrainer #strengthtraining
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