Barbell Medicine is a group of doctors and lifters who write and podcast about strength training, exercise, and health.
HN commenters recommend it as an evidence-based alternative to Starting Strength, noting it cuts through lifting myths and covers pain and supplements.
While this article has the right message, there are some things that stand out as odd
> If you’re over 30 (or even in your 20s and able to afford it), hire a personal trainer to start. They can check your form and avoid any kind of injuries. With weights, it is really easy to get a bad form, no matter how many youtube videos you watch. I went to see a Physiotherapist 4 years after I started squats, and this is the best thing I’ve ever done. She retaught me everything I think I knew about squatting.
This seems to suggest that "bad form" (which has no clear definition) would be a reliable source of injury, which it isn't. People like to harp on this because they've had a bad experience, but it's not a scientific fact that you have to move in some particular way to avoid injury. Don't let the absence of a personal trainer stop you from investing in your health.
> But excessive cardio is counterproductive, leading to loss of muscle mass and potential joint issues.
Such an incredible claim would need substantial evidence. As long as we are not talking about extreme exercise volumes, I call bullshit on this one.
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I see a lot of in humble opinion uninformed comments in this thread. I believe the hackers here might be interested in barbell medicine [1], they have a podcast [2] that has way more info than one might ever want on health and training-related topics. I also feel it's a great innoculator against bullshit, which feels to be the majority of content about fitness…
As someone who has Spondylolisthesis [1], what has worked best is weight lifting. In particular, full body movements using the barbell: deadlifts (also SLDL), squats, and overhead presses (just be extra careful here).
My pain has varied. The worst being when I needed steroid injections in the nerves that run from my spine down my legs. Now, I consider my pain negligible.
I'm no longer a fan of static stretching. I have found it to mostly be a waste of time and to exacerbate any problems. In the context of lifting, I stretch by warming up with the barbell and incrementally add weight until I reach my working weight. In the context of BJJ, I warmup with movements like shrimping, gator crawls, rolling over my shoulders, etc.
Additionally, getting over the mindset that if you have pain that you shouldn't move. The opposite is true. How you feel when you wake up does not dictate how you will feel the rest of the day. Doing some RDLs with no weight, engaging and warming up your muscles is the best cure to my back pain.
I recommend checking out doctors, Austin Baraki and Jordan Feigenbaum, at Barbell Medicine [2]. They are big proponents of the concept of lifting for recovery and not letting fear keep you from recovering.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spondylolisthesis
[2]: https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/pain-in-training-what-do/
In the (power)lifting scene, I have really enjoyed the articles by Austin Baraki et al. from Barbell Medicine on pains and aches in the context of physical activities. See for example https://startingstrength.com/article/aches-and-pains or https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/the-barbell-medicine-guide-to-tendinopathy/
In a nutshell, the idea that there's a straightforward causal link between something being physically broken in your body and you feeling pain is simply wrong. Sometimes people feel pain in various body parts without any detectable physical changes and sometimes classical training injuries, like herniated spinal disks, can be found by medical imaging without the person feeling any pain at all. Also the common advice to rest until the pain subsides is often - but no always - wrong; there are plenty of anecdotes of people with completely fucked up knees or ankles or back starting heavy powerlifting program and suddenly healing from their injuries or at least learning to use their body in such a way that the injuries don't bother them anymore.
A gentle beginning is a great thing to shoot for. I would second the recommendation of a Starting Strength program, or something similar, where you can work a clear, well-established path with coaches who are familiar with the principles of the training methods, can guide your form, etc.
I started off in a 2x/week one-on-one coaching relationship, and after a few weeks (basically once I had some basic understanding of the main powerlifting exercises) I started attending small group classes 3x/week.
Take your time, focus on form, and work with a knowledgeable coach. You might look for gyms that feature classes in powerlifting or olympic weightlifting.
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/ might be a good resource to check out if you don't have coaches in your immediate area, and you want to have expert guidance.
In response to some of the endorsements of Starting Strength/Stronglifts on this post, I'd like to advocate for an alternative source of strength training information, Barbell Medicine, https://www.barbellmedicine.com/. SSLP/SL are both solid options for a complete beginner, but Mark Rippetoe's overall approach is somewhat outdated and less evidence based than BBM. They're quite similar (they were actually formerly associated, but have since split), but I find BBM's approach somewhat more sensible and nuanced; Rippetoe tends towards dogmatism in some of his beliefs about biomechanics.
No association other than being a happy customer (of all three mentioned actually, you can't really go wrong, I just think BBM is the best of the three).
The age old advice that bad form will wreck your body is false. Now, yes, extremely bad form when lifting heavy weights may cause injury. But when starting out and learning the movements, the weight should be light. Usually it's not the technique that causes injury but other things like increasing volume too quickly from what you're used to, life stressors, lack of sleep etc.
It's very rare to start doing a set of squats for example and all of a sudden have a catastrophic back tweak because of your bad form. Lifting is safer than most sports!
Check out this article on barbell medicine about pain and their other stuff too:
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/pain-in-training-what-do/