Research from Keogh and Wynwood found that out of the most common weight training sports, bodybuilding actually has the lowest rate of injury, with the Highland Games, a Scottish lifting event including the Stone Put and Caber Toss, having the highest.

Powerlifting, how I injured my lower back, was in the middle, clocking in at 1-2 injuries per year per lifter.

So the average powerlifter will likely sustain some kind of injury once or twice a year.

However, a more recent study found that 70% of powerlifters reported being currently injured, implying that even if the injury rate is a bit lower compared to other sports, maybe those injuries tend to stick around longer.

The top three most common injury sites for bodybuilders and powerlifters are the shoulders, knees, and lower back.

In my case, it was the lower back.

Just about five years ago, after taking a silver medal at the Canadian Powerlifting Nationals, I sustained a pretty bad back injury.

My spinal erector muscles locked up and spasmed for several hours on and off.

I could barely move my upper body, so I had to be carried out of the gym on a stretcher.

Since powerlifting was my main passion at the time, this was actually a really tough time for me.

I was preparing for one of the biggest competitions in the world, the Arnold Classic, and ended up having to drop out from the competition.

Flash forward a few years, and my lifts are now finally at a point where I'm getting close to setting new PRs again, my back has never felt better, and I just absolutely love training again.

I want to share with you guys my top five tips for overcoming a similar situation based on my personal experience and what the scientific evidence has to say.

My first tip is to just not get injured in the first place.

This may be easier said than done, but I do think that prevention is the best medicine here.

How can we prevent injuries?

The first thing that comes to mind is doing a proper warm-up.

One review by Fradkin and colleagues identified simply raising core body temperature as the main factor when it comes to reducing injury risk.

This is why, in my videos on warming up, I really emphasize always doing 5-10 minutes of low-to-moderate intensity cardio before jumping into lifting.

From there, I recommend going through a series of dynamic stretches and a simple loading pyramid before working up to heavy working weight, and I'll link the video outlining all of that down below.

Next, we need to talk about proper technique.

I did a full video series on this just because I think it's so important.

I think you should pretty much always value technique over weight.

Interestingly, one 2015 study found that as weight increased from 70% to 100% of one rep max on the deadlift, the level of lower back rounding significantly increased.

This means the closer you get to your max, the more likely it is that your lifting technique is going to change.

I think this implies two things.

First, you shouldn't max out that frequently, just a handful of times per year.

And second, on submaximal lifts, you should always be fine-tuning and improving your technique by recording your sets and focusing on ways that you can improve.

I also think you need a mature lifting mentality to avoid getting hurt.

And before recording here, I spoke with head Canadian powerlifting coach Avi Silverberg about this.

So, I always try to operate with the mentality that it's better to live to fight another day.

When I'm designing powerlifting programming, I have very few opportunities for my athletes to max out in training.

I don't prescribe RPE 10 work, and I prescribe RPE 9 work very sparingly.

Sleep and stress also play a huge role in recovery.

So, on days that you failed an exam, got dumped, or you got fired, that's okay if you pull back on the numbers a little bit, and this is something Avi really emphasized in our call as well.

A piece of advice I have is that I've almost never regretted modifying a workout, whether that's not taking a top set, whether that's reducing the overall training load, whether that's even going to the gym, warming up, and then leaving.

I also think taking deload weeks where you reduce volume and or intensity by 25 to 50% once every few months is a good idea as well.

Okay, so my second tip is now that you've already injured yourself, depending on the period of time.

For me, when I got injured, I completely shifted my primary goal from building strength on just three lifts to building muscle using whatever lifts I could do without pain, which was actually almost all of them.

So rather than overload on the squat, which was aggravating my lower back, I combined the leg press and the hip thrust, which in my opinion is going to hit the quads and the glutes just as well, or nearly just as well as the squat will from a hypertrophy standpoint.

This actually ended up improving my physique, especially areas like my side delts and my lats, which might not have been getting enough stimulation from all that focus on the big three.

And I think being really stubborn with your initial goal can just end up hurting you more in the long run.

Dr. Quinn Henoch explained this in a video describing a rugby player who re-injured himself by jumping back into aggressive training too quickly.

So if again, we're making up narratives, what happened here?

Well, he probably stopped feeling pain.

So he thought he was good.

Maybe the coaches thought he was good.

Now he's missed a couple of weeks of training.

Well, you got to make that up somehow, right?

Get back out there, kid.

Let's get you all caught up and double your work from zero to a two AC ratio.

And then what happens?

We get hurt again, and we're back to doing nothing.

So rather than being stubborn and sticking to your original goal, just because I think you should instead shift your goal for a few weeks or a few months, and then come back to it once you're confident you've fully recovered.

Okay.

So my third tip is that you shouldn't get emotionally attached to your old PRs or the numbers that other people are lifting.

Now this can be really tough, but here's where you have to really check your ego.

When I posted my max attempts last week, I got hundreds of comments from people saying that it looked too easy and that I should have gone heavier.

And while that is kind of a compliment, I think it also shows that some of us have this where if we think that we could have lifted heavier, and that means that we should have lifted heavier.

And in my opinion, I think it's much better when recovering from an injury to practice patience, detach yourself from the numbers and allow yourself to make more gains in the future without having to take a step back due to re-injury.

All right.

My fourth tip is to be careful with recovery equipment.

This includes foam rollers, lacrosse balls, massage devices, cryotherapy, and so on.

Many people seem to be under the impression that they can just foam roll their way out of an injury, which unfortunately isn't the case.

That isn't to say you shouldn't foam roll.

I personally foam roll for three or four minutes before every workout.

It helps me feel less tight and more mobile for the workout, but I wouldn't be under the impression that these tools are going to fix your injury.

And rather than focusing a lot of time and energy into these techniques, I'd pay more attention to your training itself, such as by training lighter or using exercises that don't cause you any pain and then fine tuning your sleep and your nutrition.

And then, of course, if you are going to use these modalities, I'd use them in conjunction with a specific rehab plan from an actual qualified professional rather than just rolling out the injured site willy nilly.

Also, try not to become overly reliant on training gear.

For example, if the only way you can squat without pain is by using a belt and knee sleeves, that could be a sign that you haven't recovered enough yet and you're only using that training gear as a crutch.

I'd recommend doing most of your warmup sets with no lifting gear at all until you get to your working sets.

And then wearing a belt does add an element of safety and comfort with no real downside as long as you're lifting responsibly.

OK, tip number five is a big one.

You've gone through all the other steps.

Your injury has now healed and it's time to lift some weight again.

This can be a tough balancing act.

You don't want to be like that rugby player who jumped right back into things too quickly.

But you also don't want to squash your potential by delaying your comeback forever.

One review on the psychological factors of rehab emphasized that a successful return is underpinned by developing self-confidence, especially in the injured body part.

For me, I built my confidence back through gradual exposure to heavier and heavier weights.

First, I got confident that I could lift just one plate on the deadlift.

I did this for several weeks and then I'd add five or ten pounds, which over time, gradually built my confidence in progressively heavier and heavier weight.

And over the course of about a year, I just slowly worked my way up, adding weight when I felt ready, all the while really focusing on my technique over everything else.

Last week, I pulled 485 pounds and now I'm really confident that I can do that again without pain.

I think the key to building confidence is just having patience and building trust in yourself that you're not going to start lifting with your ego or doing anything based on emotional attachment to certain numbers.

And I really think that if you can do that, you're well on your way to rebuilding your strength and coming back better than you ever were before.

So guys, those are my top five tips for overcoming an injury.

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