How I fixed my back pain and added 30kg to my squat

I hurt my back warming up for squats!

I was lifting 70kg and at the end of the set I knew something was wrong.

I couldn't bend down and I had to stop squatting.

I had to get Kat (my wife) to give me the weights for the rest of my session because I couldn't bend down or pick anything up.

Getting out of my chair, out of bed and anything that meant I had to brace was a nightmare. Sneezes were literally the worst.

I knew that I hadn't done anything serious.

But it was really frustrating having to take the weight off the bar and knowing that I was going to have to step back my training.

When I looked back at my past week I knew what I'd done wrong.

Was it my form, because I didn't warm up properly or because I don't stretch enough?

Absolutely not...

Here's what is was:

1. I came back from holiday and the change in time zones meant that I was sleeping badly. I had bad sleep for 5 nights in a row and I kept training as hard as usual.

2. I couldn't get onto the bike at the gym to do my usual cardio session so I got on the rower.

I got 1 minute into my three minute interval and had a pounding headache and thought I was going to throw up!

I totally overdid it and got back on the bike for the rest of the session going at a snails pace.

But the damage was done, I had a pounding headache for the rest of the cardio session and knew I'd overdone it.

So when it came round to Monday and I'd had poor sleep for 5 days and I was under recovered.

And from the rowing I had basically overtrained because I wasn't used to it and I'd gone a very high intensity (compared to what I was used to doing).

And then on Monday my back gave out on the squats...

The squats weren't the problem. That's just where my body decided to let me know I'd overdone it.

So what did I do?

Did I take 2 weeks off training, stop deadlifting, squatting and wait for it to heal?

Absolutely not!

I carried on training...

I didn't miss a single session, I adjusted the weights to what I could handle each day and did all the same exercises I would have done.

1 Week after the injury I was squatting 80kg for sets of 5 and it was a little sore but manageable.

That same week I did deadlifts at 90kg and benched 90kg.

By week 2 I was squatting 90kg for sets of 5 and deadlifting 100kg.

By week 3 I squatted 100kg for 5 and deadlifted 115kg for 5 pain free.

And by this point the day today pain had completely gone.

Literally the only thing I changed in the programme was the weights I was lifting each session.

So If you want to reduce your pain by lifting weights so you can get stronger than you've ever been in the next 90 days schedule a call with me using the calendar below.