to take this higher - PT workouts injured me.

[MXVIT]

Hi all

I currently have a PT who i go to three times a week. To be brief there is some kind of weakness in my lower back due to an old injury, my PT is obsessed with a certain piece of equipment that if done wrong can put strain on the back.

I have fed this back to my PT that I'm not comfortable using this piece of equipment as I can feel a strain on my lwoer back and my old injury will come back - to which I am frequently told "just see how you go - thats the workout"

Added to this, this piece of equipment is brought out even when my sessions run on consecutive days (due to availability i cant always space them out) - again I raised concerns on this and said I'd be more comfortable if there was a workaround - again i was told "thats the workout - we cant change it - see how you go"

Unsurprisingly, i was using the kit and yesterday my back twinged out, today i can't really move that well and have been popping painkillers like sweets - even when it happened i was told "just carry on with it see how you go"

AIBU to raise this with his superiors? These sessions are not cheap and the business prides themselves on having the best PTs, surely my concrns should have been enough for this guy to look at my workout and formulate workarounds after my concrns rather than just forcing me into a one size fits all workout

I'm very angry that I'm now injured and debating raising this with his superiors as I judge this to be his fault.

AIBU?

Doesn’t sound like they were listening to you or wanted to listen to you. Also doesn’t sound enjoyable. I would complain, you stated you weren’t comfortable but pt did not listen or seem to care. Result is you injured yourself - I wouldn’t have used the equipment myself but I think you felt pressured etc

I would find another pt, ask around, get lots of reviews, meet them before committing to anything else, explain why you’re looking for someone new. You want to work hard, br pushed but also enjoys your sessions without feeling like you’re doing something which might put you out of action - I’m a nurse and I can’t afford to injure myself as my job is very active so I want to be fit and healthy not crippled by doing exercise!! Anyway hope you’re feeling better soon sounds painful!!!

What sort of PT refuses to adapt work out sessions to a client's needs?!?! Sounds like a really awful PT to me!

I would absolutely raise this and insist on a refund of any remaining sessions. You made it very clear that you did not want to use this equipment and the PT refused to amend the session and insist you did use it.

(Personally I would have just cancelled the sessions and insisted on a full refund for providing unsuitable sessions)

Yeah, your PT is shit. I have two dodgy joints and an occasional back spasm. Mine will tailor my workout on the fly if something is causing me pain.

You pay them to help you become stronger and fitter, not to injure you further. I'd complain, loudly.

If the trainer is unwilling to listen to you and adapt the training session, then they are not a particularly good personal trainer. I'm surprised you haven't raised this issue with their superiors sooner, nor asked for a different trainer - one who is willing to listen to you and train you according to your needs.

Interesting, just noticed it's a hex bar. Personally, I prefer deadlifting with these to deadlifting with an Olympic bar. But, either way, your trainer should be able to modify this/offer you an alternative exercise.

Is it just the bar you struggle with or dead lifts as a whole?

Also, I know this is a silly question, but are you definitely lifting from your glutes rather than your back? I know when my form is off on deadlifts, I absolutely feel it in my lower back.

Absolutely raise it as a concern with his superiors. Good PTs will always have an alternative exercise that you can do and will never ignore a client voicing any concerns. It’s just not acceptable.

This is my issue.

Yes raise the issue.
You do need to learn to advocate for yourself though. I personally would have just said,
"I'm not using that, choose something else for me"
PT says "just see how you go"
I reply "Again,I'm not using that, choose something else for me"

Oh come on people, stop having a go at the OP. It’s hard to stand up to someone who has knowledge or power or experience over you. That’s how people get injured, harassed, in to situations they’re not comfortable with, piled on with work they can’t do, assaulted etc etc. It’s all part of a spectrum. A personal trainer should make a personal plan for their client, it’s not the client’s fault for not being confident in standing up to them (and OP was clear that she did in fact try to stand up to him).

Yes, OP, you should absolutely complain. You told him of your injury, you asked not to use the equipment, he refused to tailor the workout and put you in a position where you felt forced in to an exercise you didn’t want to do, and you were injured as a result.

Op if you don't have one already I recommend getting a heat pad for when your back flares up. When I'm in pain and struggling to move much, I'll lie on the bed with it under my back and do various stretches. A good one for sciatica is lying with both knees bent, bring one leg up and cross the ankle over the knee of the opposite leg. Then gently push the inside of the crossed leg at the knee down til you feel the stretch in your thigh and up to your glutes. It probably has a name I don't know but my physio taught it to me years ago and it always helps that whole area. It's nice and gentle when you're in pain and feeling fragile but need to stretch that area out.

I'd complain straight away to this guy's superior, write an email while you're feeling like this and it's all fresh in your mind. It's totally unprofessional and he'll likely cause more injuries to others. I'd have completely lost trust now and not be able to go back to him again. Sorry you've had such a rubbish experience and really hope your pain starts to ease asap, it's the worst

Er just say no! You are paying for a service - a PT should do a workout to suit you, not 'one size fits all'! I saw a PT for ages and he would do whatever was necessary on the day - IE if my shoulder hurt we would do a bit of gentle rehab on it and harder work on other parts. Your PT sounds useless.

For so, so long any exercise I understood ended up with back pain. I had all the tests going so knew that it was purely postural.

Finally (sic) found a PT with an interest in posture and good (perfect) alignment. It still took a few months of exercising with an eye on using the right muscles and posture to make my core muscles able to support me.

In your shoes, I'd find a different PT. So many just have always had great core strength so really don't understand the issue. Find someone with an interest in this area.

Transformational.

It's about finding someone who knows what they are doing, so you build up trust between you. Ten years after my first session, I know that even if my mind thinks a suggested exercise will hurt, it won't really. Even to the extend of changing an exercise, getting me to focus on say my hands or my breath so that I'm not tensing up the area that will be loaded.

Human bodies are very complicated mechanisms. For example, pain is often felt at the 'other end' of a muscle than the site of potential damage, called referred pain. It takes a lot to know how to successfully adapt exercises, working around the physical and the mental limitations. If your mind thinks something is going to hurt, it will hurt.

A great therapist will be able to put together programmes which really get the best out of your whole body.

I hope you find a good 'un.

I see a physio for back problems occasionally. She has a real bee in her bonnet about the lack of proper accreditation for PTs, and told me that she sees a lot of people with injuries caused by incompetent PTs.

She's firmly of the opinion that some of them are downright dangerous.

My PT keeps asking if I can feel anything in my back after every exercise & then corrects my firm if I do.

He's a bad PT, and dangerous.

A decent one would not having you working the same body parts two days in a row, you work different muscle groups so the previous ones can recover.

You work niugini a clients physiology and capabilities ALWAYS, including allowing for injuries/strains/disability etc.

"That's the workout" is bollocks. I trained as a sports therapist before becoming disabled, and with that attitude I'd have been kicked out of both my degree and professional body.

Certainly don't go back, and he needs reporting to prevent injury to other clients.

It sounds very possible your sacroiliac (SI) joint is in prison.

Ice for 20 minutes, not more frequently than 2 hourly, works wonders. Far better than the pain meds.

*spasm, not prison!

A virtual PT helped with this? Sorry to digress, love to hear more.

OP I hope you recover fast. Tbh I think that's very poor service from them.

I go to Crossfit with a woman who was a competitive horse rider in her youth, she's broken practically everything and has bits of metal stringing things together through various joints. There are virtually no exercises she can do straight , everything has to be adapted/swapped/ modified in some way for her.

We have various different instructors and all of them manage to find suitable alternatives to everything.

The idea that a PT, with only one person to train, is incapable of changing one single exercise at the clients request is just ridiculous! I'd go somewhere else, because the PT isn't capable, but whoever is in charge there should have assessed them and their capabilities, and are as much deficient.

Yep. She is excellent. Shall I DM you?

Oh sorryI thought you meant an AI thing, not a real person! Ignore me.

I go to a group CrossFit class and have developed a tennis elbow. Even those workouts are adapted for me even though it's a group class. So I don't think your PT knows what he is doing and I think you need to discuss this with him and then take it up with the manager

Very true. My PT once took me out for lunch instead of training me as he saw immediately that I was in a really bad place and having a terrible time.

The OP's PT sounds like an inexperienced gym instructor who is following a programme that someone else has written for him. But the OP also should have put her foot down and said no.

Yup this. Over the years I've had four different PTs and every single one of them was like @thecatsthecats . You have to be able to trust that they know what they are doing. I can go to my PT session and say actually X is playing up today and he'll rearrange what I'm doing immediately to accommodate that. If something doesn't seem right when I try it he'll suggest something else instead. If I look cold/bored/upset/tired he'll change plans. Which is why I a) come out of every session feeling tired but happy b) can see I'm getting results and c) if he suggests something new I'm happy to try it because I know he knows his stuff.