Dan’s Note: John came to see me in October and it was clear he had been having pretty significant back pain. Laying down onto a bench was a challenge, and movement in general was very cautious. People are often told about their limitations after an injury(and what to avoid); our process flips the mindset. Instead of focusing on what a person can’t do, we figure out what they can do, and go from there!
John locks out a deadlift in his home gym
“At 63 years old I have used free weights 2-3 times per week for almost 15 years. I had limited success in getting stronger and larger until I came across Starting Strength around January of 2016. All during my lifting efforts I had varying degrees of shoulder pain and both medial and lateral epicondylitis. In August of ’16 (never having had a coach) during a 300# deadlift I heard and felt a sound in my back and I fell to the floor with an acute rupture of my disc at L3-L4. Two months of difficult recovery followed. Leading up to the back injury I tried to improve technique watching videos (some videos had incorrect instruction) and reading. I knew my form was not good and finally realized I had to find a starting strength coach if I was ever to be able to lift again.
I was very fortunate to find Dan Raimondi in October of ’16. Dan took my history of not only the recent disc herniation but chronic elbow and shoulder pain and we began the program. He started me out with the proper selection of weight and gave all the needed input as to changes needed in my form. He shared references on all the lifts including excellent ones geared to the changes I needed to make. In addition, we covered nutrition and programming. Much of the follow through with Dan’s coaching includes me sending videos of my lifts and describing any setbacks and successes I experience. Dan gives me enough detailed feedback so that I can make the required adjustments. Dan continues to show the same interest in coaching me that he did in the beginning. Today I go through all the lifts without any elbow or shoulder pain. My back continues to improve and I am getting stronger.”
