Learn how to get your back back after a chronic injury. It takes patience, focus on recovery, and a focus on what is truly important.

How to Get Your Back Back: What Is Your Goal?

You have to remember what your goal is. What matters most to you?

Niki had an emotional attachment, built over years with baked-in assumptions she had to reevaluate, about the need for the weight on the bar to go up on a few lifts in a limited rep range.

She had to ditch this as the metric that mattered.

What she REALLY wanted was to build muscle mass, enjoy the gym, and limit or eliminate pain. Dreading the gym and waking up in pain every morning was not working.

Do you HAVE to deadlift to build muscle mass? No you do not. We love the deadlift, but if the deadlift is causing you to hate your workouts and be in pain all the time, then it is not moving you closer to your goals and you should ditch the deadlift.

Niki also decided to stop BJJ. While she enjoyed it, she was underrecovered and it was not bringing her closer to her most important goals.

How to Get Your Back Back: Patience

Instead of lifting heavy, Niki had to reduce stress and prioritize recovery. This first looked like lighter bodyweight and light implement movements. Then it moved onto machines. For Niki, the jump to machines was huge, because she was able to train hard without making her back worse.

Ironically, the crooked path toward her goal has brought her closer to PRs than the path of beating her head (or maybe her back) against the wall of pain, frustration, and trying to do the program.

She had to train curious and see if the exercise hurt, be ready to modify the weight or range of motion. She had to emotionally detach from weight on the bar. She had to rather focus on other things - did she wake up in pain. Did her back hurt during the workout?

Waking up without pain was a win aligned with her goals that was worth celebrating.

Learn how to get your back back.

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