Hi guys, I hope your training is going well? Since the turn of the year I’m lucky enough to have two new training partners and they’re both completely different. One’s an excellent runner and the other is an excellent weight trainer. I’m looking at it from both angles and we’re motivating each other to get in the gym.

A few years ago I suffered a back injury that kept me out of the gym for several months. I had no real home gym back then, it was just a garage full of crap. Training in such a small space meant that my technique was suffering and on the night of the injury I could hardly move. It was a combination of too much weight, training in a small space and time that contributed to my injury. I let my technique suffer because of my surroundings and the silly decision to lift heavier than I could manage.

For those of you that have suffered a bad back, I’m sure you’ll agree there’s nothing worse. Actually paper cuts are pretty bad, haha. You rely on your back for so much and when you’re forced to sit or walk in a certain way, it can be difficult to adjust. As a parent, having two young kids climbing all over you doesn’t help either!

Back pain can be immensely painful, affecting how you live your day-to-day lives. If you are suffering from back problems and are searching for a clinic that provides chiropractic, osteopath or IDD Therapy then I recommend you checkout the Coventry Back Pain Clinic. I found them online and even their website holds loads of great information.

I also wrote this article back in 2013 with my top ten back care tips. I wrote this around the time of my accident as I wanted to share my findings and make sure you guy were training smart.

After the garage/gym makeover, I have no excuses. I completed 12 weeks injury-free of Freeleticslast year and so far in 2016, I’ve been training four times a week religiously. That includes one run and three weights sessions a week. I love my training right now, it definitely helps having a training partner or partners.

One thing’s for sure, I’m never going back to training in a small space again and I’ll never go back to sacrificing my technique over weight or time. Train smart and train safe.