Injury is bound to happen as an athlete, but it doesn’t have to stop you from progressing. Avid  strength athlete Bryan Dermody shares 5 ways to continue to thrive in your training.

I am approaching my 60^th competition in strength sports (strongman and powerlifting). With that many competitions and the training that comes with those competitions, I’ve encountered several injuries throughout the years.

Injuries are not all that uncommon for the strength athlete. Pushing the physical limits of the human body is bound to result in an injury sooner or later, even if only a minor one. Sadly, many strength athletes are told that the best options are surgery, stopping training, or both. These are most often NOT the best options.

Recently, I’ve been plagued with a bulging disc at T12-L1, resulting in tremendous pain in the nerves associated with this disc. This pain drastically inhibited my squat and deadlift training… for a time. After re-evaluating my training and making some key changes I have been able to train pain-free, set several training personal records, and am on track to perform well in my upcoming powerlifting competition on February 10, 2024.

Below are five considerations I’ve used to effectively thrive in my powerlifting training amidst a fairly significant injury. For each consideration, I will offer a brief description, key questions to ask, and examples of how I applied the consideration to my current injury.

#1: Training Volume

• Description: Training volume is the amount of total work completed in each training session, week, or cycle. This is most often quantified as: training load x total repetitions performed.
• Key Questions:
  • Does my volume on a particular movement need to decrease?
  • Does my volume at a particular intensity need to decrease?
  • Does my volume in a particular time frame need to decrease?
• Examples:
  • I learned that I needed to decrease my squat volume in a single training session. If I did a lot of squat volume in a single session, my bulging disc bothered me, but if I spread the same amount of volume over multiple training sessions, the disc did not bother me.
  • I learned that I needed to decrease the volume of any deadlift or deadlift variation that started from a dead stop. However, I could handle a lot of volume with no problem if the movement started with an eccentric phase (such as good morning or Romanian deadlift).

#2 Training Intensity

• Description: Training intensity is the percentage of one-repetition maximum used during a given lift. It can also be quantified as a rate of perceived exertion or RPE.
• Key Questions:
  • Does my Intensity on a particular movement need to decrease?
  • Does my volume at a particular intensity need to decrease?
  • Does my intensity in a particular time frame need to decrease?

• Example:
  • I learned that my bulging disc could not handle the combination of moderate to high volume and moderate to high intensities on competition squat or competition deadlift. I opted to perform one top set per session on squat or deadlift, followed by drop sets on alternative movements. To keep the absolute intensity low but the relative intensity high I used tempo squats, pause squats, and pause-on-the-half-way-up-squats for my drop sets on competition squat days

#3: Competition Lift Alterations

• Description: The competitions lifts in powerlifting are the squat, bench press, and deadlift.
• Key Questions:
  • Does all or a part of one of my competition lifts need to be “rebuilt” from a technique standpoint?
  • Are there variations of the competitions lifts that allow me to train without pain (or with less pain)?
  • Do any of the competition lifts or variations of them need to be replaced with vastly different accessory movements?
• Examples:
  • I learned that I could only handle doing deadlift or a deadlift variation one time per week. The other times these movements were scheduled had to be replaced with a different movement. For example, I replaced 1” deficit deadlift with reverse hyperextensions, 45-degree back extension , and Pendlay rows .
  • The worse the pain associated with my bulging disc got, the more “butt wink” increased in my competition squat. I had to rebuild my squat pattern. I incorporated squat with a band around the ankles, tempo squats, and pause squats (at various depths), along with extra hip mobility drills (addressed below).

#4: Mobility Considerations

• Description: Mobility is the range of motion about a given joint. In general, the following joints primarily need mobility: ankle, hip, thoracic spine, shoulder, wrist, upper cervical spine.
• Key Questions/Considerations:
  • What joints need increased mobility?
  • What mobility drills will give me the increased mobility I desire?
  • Often the joint above or below the injury needs mobility or stability. For example, if the injury is at the knee, the ankle (below) and/or the hip (above) probably need increased mobility.
• Example:
  • I learned that I needed increased hip mobility (the joint below my lumbar spine). The following movements have been my top choices:
    • Hip airplane
    • Shin box reach and row
    • Squatting t-spine reach
    • Heel clicks
    • Adductor bench squat

#5: Stability Considerations

• Description: Stability is the ability to prevent unwanted movement about a given joint.  In general, the following joints primarily need stability: knee, lumbar spine, scapulae, lower cervical spine, elbow.
• Key Questions/Considerations:
  • What joints need increased stability?
  • What stability drills will give me the increased stability I desire?
  • Often the joint above or below the injury needs mobility or stability as well as the actual joint that is injured.
• Example:
  • I learned that I needed increased lumbar stability. The following movements have been my top choices:
    • The McGill Big 3
    • Off-Set walking
    • Pallof press (and variations)
    • Birddog row
    • Front squat hold

Give these considerations a try and remember, you will have to experiment (often a lot) to find out what works best when working around an injury. Best of luck in your training!

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