Andrew, the Triathlete With Lower Back Pain | Hygieia Strength & Conditioning

Andrew, the Triathlete With Lower Back Pain

by Shaun Pang, SSC | Aug 6, 2020

Do you have lower back pain that’s getting in the way of you enjoying your time in the saddle?

If you’re an avid cyclist, this might sound familiar to you. You planned your day so that you’ll have a couple of hours in the evening to get on your bicycle and go for a ride. After a busy day at work, you turn off your laptop – it’s time to unwind and go for your ride.

You’re enjoying the ride, feeling the wind in your face and clocking in the miles. About 30 minutes in, you start to feel a little dull ache in your lower back. As you keep going, that little ache gradually gets more pronounced.

You mentally prepare yourself for the inevitable lower back pain that’s to come. For the love of cycling, you bear with it and carry on.

2 hours later, you arrive back home and your lower back is killing you. You try stretching your back, icing it but it doesn’t provide much relief. Eventually, you popped a couple of painkillers or anti-inflammatories.

Andrew has been doing triathlons for years. For him, hours in the saddles means having to dealing with lower back aches during and after a training session.

After Andrew got his back stronger from barbell strength training, he can now spend time on his bicycle without his back killing him.

If you’re frustrated by constantly getting lower back ache when you get on your bicycle for a ride, having a stronger back can save you from unnecessary pain. The improved performance is a bonus side effect.

Watch the video and hear Andrew talk about his back before and after strength training.

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Bio

My interest in fitness started when I was around 19 years old. Being overweight for most of my growing up years, I decided to do something about it. After months of not being able to achieve the desired results, I began poring through books and articles about training and nutrition. The more I read, the more interested I became in this field, and got better results when the the newly discovered knowledge was applied. After 1 year of persistence and hard work, I lost 24kg and felt fantastic. The sense of achievement motivated me to pursue a career in working with people to help them achieve their own fitness goals.

After achieving my weight loss goal, I tried a variety of training programs for a few years, looking for a new goal to train towards. After aimlessly moving around from program to program, I chanced upon a book called Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, written by renowned strength and conditioning expert, Mark Rippetoe. Little did I know that this book was about to change my life and coaching career.

At that point, I had experience training with barbells and was relatively familiar with it but never have I come across any material that gave such explicitly detailed explanations of how to perform the barbell lifts. I devoured the book and modified my lifting technique and program. In just a few months, I was pleasantly surprised by how much stronger he had become. I now had a new goal to work towards – getting strong.

With full confidence in the efficacy of the Starting Strength methodology, I began coaching my clients using this program and got them stronger than they ever thought was possible. The consistent success my clients achieved through the program cemented my confidence in Mark Rippetoe’s teachings. I then decided to pursue the credential of being a Starting Strength Coach and I’m currently the first and only certified coach in Singapore and South-East Asia

In my 9 years of experience, I have given talks and ran programs at numerous companies and worked with a diverse group clientele of all ages with a variety of goals. Today, I specialise in coaching people in their 40s, 50s and beyond because it brings me a great sense of satisfaction to be part of the process of improving this demographics’ health and quality of life by getting them stronger.