Barry's Back!

That title is a linguistic joke. Get it?

Yeah all that aside this is a post about my back injury and my prehab/rehab routine  that I’m currently doing. I don’t have any video or photos right now but I’ll try to get some tonight and add the content later. The reason I’m not waiting until I have that content is because I’m pretty hopeless at remembering to bring the camera or to upload the media when I do have it.

So firstly, my problems are manifold, but the solution is simple. Balance. I can’t actually trace the beginnings of my back pain to any one definable incident, it’s actually something that has developed over time into an imbalance that has caused several injuries, but there are definitely a few contributing factors. A few weeks ago I was having my hip mobilised and stretched and discovered some scar tissue, lots of scar tissue on my psoas (left side). This is most likely from a muscle tear about 10 years ago which I didn’t rehab properly, which in turn is the most likely cause of the problems in my SI joint. The SI joint probably caused that side to take most of the strain in my day to day training, which in turn probably caused my contracostal seperation a few years back, which I didn’t rehab properly. This is almost definitley the source of my current back pain. See the pattern there? No rehab. Nice job Barry.

So that’s me, but what about you? Yes I’m talking to you. I can see that you also don’t look after your back. Yes I mean you don’t look sheepish. Now I know this because I’ve noticed that I’m smarter than most people I meet. That means by my own reckoning, I’m most likely smarter than you. And if I’m not smart enough to look after my back properly, then it follows that you’re not smart enough to do that either. Do you follow? Oh, yes of course, you can’t, you’re too stupid, but try to keep up anyway. If you’re a fighter or combat athlete, your neck and back take a hell of a lot of punishment. Whether you’re a boxer whose head gets snapped back when he takes a shot, a thai boxer who has to take the weight of another man on his neck, or a grappler who has to bridge and twist or get stacked, you need a healthy spine. I know this because I don’t have one.

I’ll keep this post short and just go through a quick pre-training warm up for the neck and back. This one is quite easy to do and takes about 5 minutes out of your time.

• 15 neck raises in each direction
• 10 vertical band pull-aparts
• 10 horizontal band pull aparts
• 10 dislocates
• 10 cat/camels

Repeat that 3 times as a circuit as part of your regular warm up. In another post I’ll get Will to talk you through the back circuit prior to strength/conditioning training.