As much as I do not endorse training with pain of any kind, I do realize that training with pain, for most, is almost inevitable. Whether you are a weekend warrior, or a highly skilled and trained athlete, pain has likely crept into your routine at one point or another. 

And if you have not experienced this yet, you deserve to drop a dumbbell on your toe the next time you’re in the gym! (kidding)

The latest research suggests that pain is eventually a guarantee!

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine looked at 98 test subjects.  What they found is that 52% had at least one disc buldge, 27% had a disc protrusion, and 38% had more than one level of disc issues. If you do the math, and relate this to the general population, you cansee that 80 PERCENT OF THE POPULATION HAS A SERIOUS SPINAL CONDITION.

What is even more shocking is that these test subjects had no symptoms of pain!  So just because you may not have pain, does not mean your spine is fine!

So here is a list of 3 things that you can do for yourself to train around pain:

1.)    Strengthen the core! This does not meanjust do a bunch of ab crunches.  The corealso consists of the muscles in your back as well.  To increase the stability of your core try doseveral set and holds of planks, side planks, and supermans.

2.)    Work the posterior chain!  Whats the posterior chain?  The posterior chain consists of thehamstrings, glutes, low back and upper back spinal musculature.  To train this, try incorporating leg curls,Glute-Ham-Raises(my personal favorite), or 45 degree back extensions.

3.)    Walk with ankle weights!  As unusual as this may sound, walking isactually good for the spine.  By addingankle weights to your walk not only are you adding additional resistance to addin some increased difficulty, burning extra calories, but the added weight alsoprovides a slight amount of traction to every step, which reduces pressure onthe discs.

Of course, you could always seek the help of your local chiropractor to help get yourself out of pain, but if you like training with pain, be my guest - but, please, use good judgement!

(C'mon... Did you really think I was going to talk about pain and not plug chiropractic?)