So, I have back pain.
How much? It hurts to move.
How often? So far, most of 2017. I remember having pain in February and it hurts pretty bad right now.
What works? I've stretched, massaged, hot creams covering my back via selfie stick, and anti-inflammatories. I still have back pain.
Face it, we will all have back pain at some point (or often non-stop) through our lifting careers. It hasn't really mattered for most of this year because I've just been cruising and haven't been forced to push anything in training. Nothing REALLY to train for. But right now I'm several weeks out from WSM-Masters and it freaking matters. It is keeping me from being able to train like I need to and I can't let that happen.
Now, everyone knows that I train hard because you see it in my videos but what you don't see is all of the stuff that I do that keeps me on the field. While you are sitting in a chair watching TV, I spend 3 sessions per day doing this at a minimum!
Did I invent this genius? No! I picked it up from a Donnie Thompson video years ago and I'm sure he picked it up from someone else. The point of his video was that everyone will show up on a Training Day to train REALLY FREAKING HARD but why doesn't anyone show up THE DAY AFTER to get in the gym and Therapeutacize (Trademark - Me). What you do the day after is more important than what you do the day of! I will tell you this, if I were not doing this multiple times daily I would not be able to train AT ALL right now. This is one of the many things that I'm doing outside of my standard training times that keeps me going. It is one of the reasons why I'm still training and you are planning your retirement due to injury.
What has this exercise taught me? It has taught me that my lower back WILL FIRE, my lower abs are weak, and when I put pressure on my psoas muscle through my abs that my right quad will quiver till it cramps like crazy. THAT, my friends, is the key to therapy. Figure out what is causing what and start attacking it.
If you, at however young/old that you are, will give 1/2 of the effort to therapy that I do on a daily basis you will go far!
And your wife will love you for it.
