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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023

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I have some personal experience here with respect to back pain and tendonopathy related to lifting.

I think a big mistake people make here is that they allow their pain to become part of their identity (e.g. "I have a bad back") and therefore justify avoiding certain movements indefinitely.

Avoiding a movement causes atrophy of tissue and a reduction in skill, which means that the problem gets progressively worse over time. Incompetent doctors contribute to the problem, saying that you should definitely avoid any exercise that causes you any pain whatsoever, and furthermore claiming that certain movements, such as lumbar flexion, are inherently dangerous.

Competent physical therapy recognizes that you need to train the movement that injured you. Start at a very easy difficulty, with light weight and low range of motion, so that you can do the movement with only minor discomfort. Slowly and conservatively increase weight and range of motion over time until you regain movement capacity, and eventually even exceed the level of fitness you had before the injury. No movement is inherently dangerous, what's dangerous is an inappropriate level of intensity for your body and skill level.

I have personally rehabbed severe knee and back pain by myself using basic exercise principles. Medical professionals who I've told about this are absolutely flabbergasted. Your average doctor knows extremely little about exercise science or physical therapy.