Fix Your Aching Back, Shoulder, or Knee

FEEL BETTER AND GET STRONGER

If you're a beat-up lifter, or just a beat-up human being, then this is for you. An elite strength coach and doctor of physical therapy will show you how to optimize your lifting form, make effective exercise substitutions, and construct workouts that'll leave you feeling amazing.

Back-and-Knee-Friendly Lower-Body Workout

Warm-up

UNS Foam Roll Thigh

1 set, 45 sec (per leg)

UNS Foam Roll Adductor

1 set, 45 sec (per leg)

UNS Foam Roll Upper Back

1 set, 30 sec

UNS Half-Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch

1 set, 10 reps (pulsing per leg, plus 10-sec. hold)

UNS Rocking Adductor Stretch

1 set, 10 reps (pulsing per side, plus 10 sec. per leg)

UNS Quadruped thoracic rotation

1 set, 30 sec (per side)

Muscle Activation Superset

UNS Bird Dog

3 sets, 5-10 reps (per side)

UNS Banded Glute Bridge

2 sets, 10 reps

Movement Patterning Superset

Use the same light weight for both of these movements, holding the dumbbell on its side. This is just a warm-up to groove the movement patterns.

UNS Dumbbell Goblet Squat

3 sets, 5 reps

UNS Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

3 sets, 5 reps

Nervous System-Priming Superset

UNS Jumping Jack

3 sets, 5 reps

UNS Low Depth Jump

3 sets, 1-2 reps

Power Primer Movement

UNS Cable Pull-Through

3 sets, 15-20 reps (rest 45-60 sec.)

Primary Strength Movement

UNS Dumbbell Goblet Squat

7 sets, 5 reps (art with a low weight, like 10 pounds, and add weight in 10-20-pound increments until you reach the maximum weight you can handle for 5 reps.)

Goblet Squat Test

UNS Dumbbell Goblet Squat

1 set, 25 reps (Use a dumbbell that weighs approximately half of your body weight.)

Single-Leg Hypertrophy Movement

UNS Forward-To-Reverse Lunge

4 sets, 8 reps (Perform first set with body weight, and add weight slowly to every set, if possible. Don't make jumps any heavier than 5-10 pounds per hand. A little loading goes a long way with this movement.)

Bilateral Hypertrophy Movement

UNS Banded Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

3 sets, 10 reps (Use a looped band around the handles of the dumbbells, and under the feet, to add resistance to the top of the movement. Use 2 warm-up sets to build up to your 3 working sets.)

Metabolic Stress Finisher

UNS Standing Calf Raise

1 set, 100 reps (Load the movement with weights attached to a dip belt, a Smith machine, or just with body weight. This is a "death set." Perform as many reps as possible with good form, then rest for 10-15 seconds, and repeat until you hit 100 total reps.)