Episode #29: Inspiration Interview | Barbell Training With Scoliosis, Osteoarthritis & Osteopenia
People often wonder if it’s safe to barbell training or powerlift if you have scoliosis or osteoarthritis in your joints. When done correctly, barbell resistance training is one of the best ways to reduce joint pain, improve posture, and slow the progression of your curvature and bone loss due to osteopenia and osteoporosis.
Our goal with bringing on some of our clients is to share their unique stories, experiences with barbell training, and how their training has impacted their lives positively despite the negative medical narratives and belief systems surrounding barbell strength training in hopes that it inspires even just one person out there.
In this series of interviews each episode consists of a PRS client sharing their journey of overcoming injuries and illnesses, recovering from surgeries, and navigating changes in their lives and the role that barbell training has played throughout this process for each of them. These are just a handful of our clients that are truly inspiring and motivating and we hope that sharing their stories will inspire you, your patients or clients, or your family to incorporate barbell training into your life or continue barbell training during challenging times.
In this interview, we’ll sit down and speak with PRS client Jennie, a 58 year old librarian, living with arthritis in both knees and her right hip, osteopenia, and scoliosis. Before embarking on her barbell training journey, Jennie was dealing with pain and weakness and was working with a physical therapist who had her doing resistance band exercises at the same loads and rep ranges for nearly two years. Luckily, Jennie’s son introduced her to barbell training and guided her along as a novice lifter. However, she struggled with technique and started to notice that she didn’t look even when she was lifting. Because of her scoliosis and arthritic pain Jennie was not confident to continue barbell training independently. She was fearful of her hip shift, worsening her knees and hip, and how barbell training would affect her spine.
Nearly 3 years after regularly engaging in barbell training and progressive overload, Jennie can confidently say she is no longer fearful of imperfection under the barbell or worsening her scoliosis. We hope that by sharing Jennie’s story, we can positively influence someone who has been told that squatting is bad for their knees or loading their spine will worsen their scoliosis, to get under the barbell and reap the positive benefits it will have on their life.
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Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:01:00] Welcome back to the Progressive Rehab & Strength Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Alyssa Haveson, clinical coach here at Progressive Rehab & Strength, and I'm here with my co-host, Dr. Rori Alter, head clinical coach at Progressive Rehab & Strength. And we're back with another episode in our series of inspirational client interviews. Our goal with bringing on some of our clients is to share their unique stories, experiences with barbell training, and how their training has impacted their lives positively, despite the negative medical narratives and belief systems surrounding barbell training, in hopes that it inspires even just one person out there. In this series of interviews, each episode consists of a PRS client sharing their journey of overcoming injuries and illnesses, recovering from surgeries, and navigating changes in their lives. The role that barbell training has played throughout this process for each of them. These are just a handful of our truly inspiring and motivating clients. We hope that sharing their stories will inspire you, your patients, clients, or your family to incorporate barbell training into your life or continue it during challenging times. In this interview, we'll sit down and speak with PRS' client, Jennie, a 58-year-old librarian with arthritis in both knees and her right hip osteopenia and scoliosis.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:02:18] Before embarking on her barbell training journey, Jennie dealt with pain and weakness. She worked with a physical therapist who had her doing resistance band exercises at the same loads and rep ranges for nearly two years. Luckily, Jennie's son introduced her to barbell training and guided her. As a novice lifter, however, she struggled with technique and started to notice that she didn't look even when she was lifting because of her scoliosis and arthritic pain. As a result, Jennie was not confident to continue barbell training independently. She was fearful of her hip shift, worsening her knees and hips, and how barbell training would affect her spine. Nearly three years after regularly engaging in barbell training and progressive overload, Jennie can confidently say that she no longer fears imperfection under the barbell or the worsening of her scoliosis. We hope that by sharing Jennie's story, we can positively influence someone who has been told that squatting is bad for their knees or loading their spine will worsen their scoliosis to get under the barbell and reap its positive benefits on their life.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:03:29] Jennie, thank you so much for joining us for this Client Interview series. We wanted to speak with you because you are a unique individual, but ultimately, your concerns when you reached out to PRS were not unique. And I think that part of the intention behind this series is to inspire people who are hesitant about barbell training or hesitant regarding resistance training with barbells to inspire that, despite these things and despite things that they've heard from their doctors or their friends and family, that they can do this. And it's not like an end all, be all when you are diagnosed with scoliosis or osteoarthritis or, you know, joint pain, hip pain, or you have a shift or whatever going on in your lifts. It's not a reason not to lift. So why don't you tell us a little about your specific situation when you reached out to us and why you reached out?
Jennie, PRS Client: [00:04:34] Well, thank you for having me on. Let's see, I started wanting to exercise in 2017 when I got the osteoarthritis diagnosis, and my doctor sent me to a physical therapist. She gave me these elastic bands and gave me a little routine, which I did the same routine for like two years until my son, who was in sports physiology, noticed. And he was like, "that's ineffective training. We need to get you under a barbell." And I was like, What? Under a barbell? And I was kind of scared of it, and it was sort of boring. But he got me going, and things were going along okay, except that I was having pain from arthritis, and he didn't have the physical therapy background or the expertise to help me with that. And then he noticed that I had a hip shift, and I was like, Oh yeah, I have scoliosis. I had forgotten about that diagnosis when I was a teenager. So I didn't. We didn't know what to do about it. So I Googled barbell training and scoliosis, and I found an article from PRS, and I was like, Oh, okay, that looks like it's okay. And then, yeah, So I reached out to you guys basically because I needed help to know about the hip shift and help with the pain management.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:06:11] And Alyssa shared that you also have osteopenia.
Jennie, PRS Client: [00:06:16] Yeah, I do.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:06:18] So, did you have scans before? So you started working with Alyssa in 2020. So you've been barbell resistance training with progressive overload for.
Jennie, PRS Client: [00:06:35] The summer 2019.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:06:38] Yeah. So coming on, three years you've been barbell training. Have you had scans in terms of looking at your bone density?
Jennie, PRS Client: [00:06:49] Yes, I have. I had the one scan when I got it diagnosed and then I had a scan before I started with Alyssa. But after I had been barbell training for over a year, I had no further loss of bone density. So that was, like, really good. Yeah. And I was like, Yeah, it was great.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:07:15] So the biggest concerns that you had when you were barbell training with barbell training or the hesitations that were kind of saying like, do I keep progressing or do I do something else? Like how can I keep progressing safely? Was that you have osteoarthritis, and where does that specifically affect you?
Jennie, PRS Client: [00:07:37] Well, I have it in both knees, and I have it in my hips, but mostly it's in my right hip. And because of my scoliosis, I have more arthritis than one hip.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:07:49] Gotcha. And you have scoliosis, which wasn't a concern until your son noticed that you have a shift when you squat or probably when you deadlift. And then also the osteopenia. So to reduce, halt, or slow the progression of osteopenia. Right. So in terms of how barbell training has influenced your experience with these things, how has it done that?
Jennie, PRS Client: [00:08:25] Well, I can tell you I'm a librarian. That's my profession. And sometimes, I need to squat down or bend down and get books from the lower shelves. And before I started barbell training, I was having difficulty, you know, going down and coming back up again. And now I have no problems at all with doing my job. And it's made a really big difference. And the pain is a lot less, and I'm just functioning better and feeling better, and my postures improved a lot too. So that's also a bonus.