The Body Mechanic

Movement is medicine

“I fractured my 5th lumbar vertebrae in early 1973 while doing good mornings. I had just deadlifted 670lbs at 180lbs in February of 1973. I also had sciatic nerve damage in both legs that I could not straighten them out without severe pain. After being on crutches for most of ten months with no help from a variety of medical experts. I could no longer do any exercises.

One day I tried to do a back extension, but I would experience extreme pain in the lower back as soon as I applied force into the toe plate. It was very painful in the glutes and the back of my legs. I was desperate, I could not work, and certainly not powerlift. No one was helping. One day I thought, what if I did a back extension in reverse? I built a platform in my power rack so my torso is suspended and supported while my legs are hanging downward (face down). As I held onto the front of the rack I raised my legs upward with no pain. I was also able to lower my legs past 90% again with no pain.

For the first time in almost a year I felt blood flow or a pump in my lower back. At the same time, my sciatic pain was lessened. I could not believe it, was it just in my head? The next day I repeated the exercise with the same results. I continued the exercises several times a week and eventually the pain was gone. How? Much later I realized I was using decompression while strengthening all the muscles, ligaments and tendons of the lower back. As my abdomen was suppressed it increased the IAP which lessened the load on the intervertebral discs.

I was able to resume lifting and ranked 4th in 1978 and 5th in 1979 in the 198 weight class. In 1980 I made the 3rd largest total of all time at 220lbs.”

– Louie Simmons

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