The Dangers of Olympic Weightlifting!!

At the end of July last year I hurt my back Olympic weight lifting, yep you didn’t misread that – I was OLYMPIC WEIGHT LIFTING! Well that statement isn’t entirely true as at the time I wasn’t doing one of the official Olympic lifts; I had moved on to the dreaded deadlift. For anyone who knows me the idea of me partaking in this discipline probably brings some funny imagines to mind, as one thing I am not built for is weight lifting. I am an ectomorph and find it pretty dam hard to build muscle. Weightlifting and circuit training was one of the many things I have tried to build strength, and for a while it really did work. I was climbing the best I ever had!

I never actually felt my back ‘go’ whilst doing this lift nor was it one of those horror stories you hear where people have to live lying down on their floorboards for the next 2 months. I basically thought I had done something to a muscle because I was really, really stiff. I had in fact slightly squished a disc out of place; luckily it wasn’t enough for it to hit any nerves, as that is when the real problems occur.

It has almost been a year now and until recently I had been a bit of walking wreck, there was worries of a compression facture “a common injury in Olympic weight lifters” (this statement made me laugh!) but luckily an X-ray proved this incorrect.

The worst thing I could have done to slow the healing process was sit at a desk and unfortunately this was exactly what I had to do for my job. It was sore or uncomfortable pretty much all the time.

I didn’t seek any help until October as I kept thinking it would get better but my climbing was seriously suffering. Eventually I went to see Matt Pigden for chiropractic treatment, which massively helped but I was still in quite a bit of pain. I was stupid and stubborn and still tried to train hard for a trip to Oliana in February but when I got there I realised that it had all been pointless. I wasn’t allowed to do core or strength training and was basically a shambles. The lower back and core is a huge part of your body not to be working properly and I didn’t feel like anything was connected. My fingers were strong but that was the only thing keeping me on; I basically felt like I was hanging on bones, joints and a few tendons! Instead of my arms pumping out first it would be my back that would get to tired to hold me in on the long, steep routes.

It looks like Rob captured the moment I realised I was never going to do my project in Oliana! haha

I returned from Oliana and decided to give myself a break. I couldn’t go bouldering because my back hurt to fall off and I couldn’t go route climbing as I had tweaked my ankles falling off so much in Oliana! Easy trad climbing was my only friend.

Mina and I climbing an easy classic in Chamonix

The trunk area is such a huge part of your body to injure and is what connects everything together. With other injuries I have always been able to train other areas, like pull ups and fingerboarding if I hurt an ankle, or running and core with an elbow injury but this totally nailed me. I have been climbing far from my best, unable to train or go for a run for the last 9 months.

Finally the actual injury is better and I am starting down the long slow road of building back my core and back strength with the help of Tim Cunnington. I need to work on posture and flexibility to begin with to ensure my base is correct, as there is no point building on a broken foundation, before I can begin to add strength work into the mix.

This is what my last few months of training has looked like. Massage balls!

I have a winter full of really exciting trips to South Africa, America and India. I know I will not be in the best physical shape but I am really looking forward to my body working properly, enjoying climbing and exploring new cultures and countries I have never experienced before.