When it comes to back pain, it’s understandable for individuals who spend hours each week dedicated to building muscle, like bodybuilders, to feel frustrated. After all, they invest significant time, money, and effort in sculpting their bodies, aiming to look and feel great. To ensure that they not only appear impressive but also maintain their well-being, it’s crucial to address what we call “Bodybuilding Sins” that contribute to back pain, sciatic pain, and injuries.
This series of five articles delves into different aspects of how back pain affects bodybuilders. Here’s an overview of the upcoming articles:
- Choosing The WRONG Exercises (this article)
- Training Variations for Pain Relief and Maximum Results
- Targeted Stretching
- Targeted Exercises
- Rest, Recovery, and Injury Prevention
**Article #1 – Choosing the WRONG Exercises
Let’s dive into this topic, and please brace yourself; this might be an eye-opener. Surprisingly, the exercises that bodybuilders often prioritize are the ones that can cause the most problems. It’s essential to understand the purpose of bodybuilding: it’s not solely about getting as big as possible. Ideally, it should focus on building a well-balanced body that excels in strength and flexibility.
Consider this: being excessively big might grab attention, but it serves no practical purpose. On the other hand, being both muscular and strong, along with agility, flexibility, and speed, provides a more versatile and functional body. It’s not uncommon to encounter bodybuilders who possess massive muscles yet lack strength, flexibility, and functional fitness. For instance, they may excel in bench pressing heavy weights but struggle with basic bodyweight exercises like push-ups.
The exercises you choose and how you perform them affect not only your size and strength but also your body’s functionality and susceptibility to aches, pains, and injuries, including back pain and sciatic pain. Here are two exercises notorious for causing problems:
- Bench Press: Overemphasizing the bench press, while neglecting exercises targeting the upper back, can create muscle imbalances. This leads to a forward-slouched posture known as “Turtle Back,” which can result in neck, upper back, and shoulder pain.
- Leg Extension: Leg extensions place excessive strain on the knee joint and tend to overdevelop the quadriceps, leading to an imbalance with the hamstrings. This muscle imbalance contributes to back pain and can create the “Bubble Butt” appearance.
Choosing exercises wisely is crucial. It’s advisable to eliminate or reduce the use of these exercises and incorporate targeted exercises for opposing muscle groups along with stretches for tight, overdeveloped muscles. Achieving balance in your body is key to overcoming back pain and injuries.
Muscle is only beneficial when you can utilize it. Don’t let back, neck, or shoulder pain hinder your workouts or limit your future. Aging with unresolved training-related issues can lead to long-term consequences. Make changes to your training regimen now to ensure a healthier, pain-free future. In the next article, we will explore “Training Variations for Pain Relief and Maximum Results.”
