I'd recommend trying to GRADUALLY load your lower back through different ranges of motion.
Things like flexion rows, side bends, cable axe chop
The idea is that by gradually and progressively exposing your body to these positions, your body will adapt by strengthening and protecting these areas.
It's the same process for dealing with arthritis in other joints, but people just shy away from using their spine in a range of motion too much. The key is just gradual progression, just any other lift.
I was diagnosed with hip osteoarthritis. I retired from 3 lift and went bench only. Mind you that wasn’t a hard decision because I was never very competitive in squat and deadlift.
I don’t know that there’s one variation that would work for everyone. You’re going to have to do some thinking on your own. But my suggestion would be start with something where the load has to come down because of the exercise - long tempo eccentric or pauses are going to require you to not load extremely heavy. I’d also get a good gauge on what is recoverable volume for you.
Play with variations that you can do without flairing and load from there. But you have to run it for some time to get a good gauge. You can’t volume fuck yourself and blame pause squats if that makes sense.
That makes sense. Right now I’m doing rack pulls and box squats. They feel good regardless of the amount of weight. I’ve seen that front squats and sumo deadlifts could also be good variations to try because of the upright posture required for them.
Loading bone tissue helps reduce osteopenia which may be what most people are referencing - not osteoarthritis. But also this is a powerlifting sub so yes msot are going to tell you to squat and deadlift
Physical therapist here — no one is arguing that lifting significantly prevents or reverses osteoarthritis; OA is a natural disease process that comes with aging, amongst a host of other lifestyle and physiological factors (some modifiable, some not).
The point of resistance training for OA is to improve functioning, stave off debility, and attenuate pain response (through some complex physiological and neuromodulatory effects) despite its inevitable architectural presentation on imaging.
Now, a healthy lifestyle including exercise can reduce systemic inflammation and thus maybe attenuate the long-term development and current irritability of OA, but the former would be rather difficult to study in any controlled sense.
I wanted to compete at some point, but that is obviously not an option. I’ve been doing rack pulls and box squats since the diagnosis. Even going heavy they don’t seem to aggravate my arthritis.
This is not a medical advice sub
I'd recommend trying to GRADUALLY load your lower back through different ranges of motion.
Things like flexion rows, side bends, cable axe chop
The idea is that by gradually and progressively exposing your body to these positions, your body will adapt by strengthening and protecting these areas.
It's the same process for dealing with arthritis in other joints, but people just shy away from using their spine in a range of motion too much. The key is just gradual progression, just any other lift.
Try unilateral stuff like bulgarian and split stance squats, b stance or single leg deadlifts etc. It lets you load legs while reducing load on spine.
Also keep in mind that there is very little relationship betweem severity of osteoarthritis on scans and level of pain and disability.
I was diagnosed with hip osteoarthritis. I retired from 3 lift and went bench only. Mind you that wasn’t a hard decision because I was never very competitive in squat and deadlift.
I don’t know that there’s one variation that would work for everyone. You’re going to have to do some thinking on your own. But my suggestion would be start with something where the load has to come down because of the exercise - long tempo eccentric or pauses are going to require you to not load extremely heavy. I’d also get a good gauge on what is recoverable volume for you.
Play with variations that you can do without flairing and load from there. But you have to run it for some time to get a good gauge. You can’t volume fuck yourself and blame pause squats if that makes sense.
That makes sense. Right now I’m doing rack pulls and box squats. They feel good regardless of the amount of weight. I’ve seen that front squats and sumo deadlifts could also be good variations to try because of the upright posture required for them.
I mean they could be but they could also end up aggravating you. What’s good for goose isn’t always good for the gander
But every 25 year old will tell you that you need to do squats and deadlifts to prevent this.
Loading bone tissue helps reduce osteopenia which may be what most people are referencing - not osteoarthritis. But also this is a powerlifting sub so yes msot are going to tell you to squat and deadlift
I was diagnosed with OA in my spine and shoulders at 26.... So
Physical therapist here — no one is arguing that lifting significantly prevents or reverses osteoarthritis; OA is a natural disease process that comes with aging, amongst a host of other lifestyle and physiological factors (some modifiable, some not).
The point of resistance training for OA is to improve functioning, stave off debility, and attenuate pain response (through some complex physiological and neuromodulatory effects) despite its inevitable architectural presentation on imaging.
Now, a healthy lifestyle including exercise can reduce systemic inflammation and thus maybe attenuate the long-term development and current irritability of OA, but the former would be rather difficult to study in any controlled sense.
If only they knew……
I have it in both hips.
Tough to manage. Day by day will feel different so it's hard to make a training plan unless it's super flexible.
I just decided to stop squatting and deadlifting heavy and just do overhead press and lots of core work.
Was never a competitive powerlifter anyway myself, so very annoying but hardly a tragedy.
Best of luck
I wanted to compete at some point, but that is obviously not an option. I’ve been doing rack pulls and box squats since the diagnosis. Even going heavy they don’t seem to aggravate my arthritis.