I can second that anecdote. I took up weightlifting (Strong Lifts 5x5) about two years ago. I used to have pretty regular back pain, but weightlifting 3x a week and it went away. I've also noticed that my standing posture improved on it's own as well.

As anyone whose done squats near their max can tell you, it's far from effortless, but over time a few co-workers have joined me and they've had similar benefits.

For anyone looking to get started, I'd actually recommend Starting Strength (by Mark RippleToe)over Strong Lifts, but really any of the common programs (Ice Cream Fitness, GreySkull, etc) are good.

For anyone looking to get started, I'd strongly recommend getting a trainer over a book. Chances are, especially if you've never done any sort of training, you have no idea how to properly do the basic movements like squats and presses and deadlifts. Especially deadlifts if you're doing this because you have back pain.

I would recommend a book (and YouTube) over picking a random trainer from the set of all possible trainers. I know some that are way better than a book, but I've also seen plenty that don't know how to squat or deadlift, much less teach someone else. If you're at a powerlifting or Olympic lifting gym specifically, absolutely use one of the trainers from there. Crossfit too. But if you're at a typical chain gym, I would not trust most trainers.

I'm a big fan of lifting heavy things. But I also have to admit that much of my lower back pain has been caused by injuries from lifting heavy things. All sports are going to eventually cause some form of injury, and lower back injuries are common among people who lift heavy things.

For the foreseeable future, I've decided to avoid low-bar squats because they use my lower back too much. I've switched to high-bar, which allows me to keep my hip and spine stacked in much the way talked about in the article. I've also made a point to lower the lifting intensity when I increase the intensity of my other activities (grappling). Pushing hard with heavy weights and then making hard demands in other activities can cause problems as well.

> I started lifting very heavy weights

I've been thinking about doing this and was wondering how people get started. Did you hire a trainer? I'm very worried about injury and, as I understand it, a big part of staying injury free comes down to good form. I think I would benefit a great deal from having a trainer to get started. Did you?

Well the first thing to note is that "very heavy" is a very relative term. What scared me at first is now way below what I would even warm up with after a few years. So make sure to start out very light and take your time working up to things.

I don't know what's "ideal" but I can tell you what I did. I joined a regular gym, and a crossfit gym near my office at the same time. Was feasible to do since both had great intro specials.

Crossfit gets a bad rep in some parts of the internet but the owner was an experienced olympic weightlifter and knew what he was doing. I went 3 days a week for the first three months religiously, and asked a lot of questions about how to lift with proper form and all that.

In retrospect I probably didn't actually need to do that, but it took away a lot of anxiety. As a guy in his 40's I knew I didn't know what I was doing, and of course all sorts of strange and unfamiliar aches and pains and soreness came along at first and having someone experienced helping me made me feel confident that those were normal.

After the three month trial was up I let the crossfit thing lapse and started Stronglifts 5x5. They have a great app and set of videos that just tell you exactly what to do, it's great for beginners. The linear progression they use should keep you busy for a year or so before you start to feel like you need something new.

After a year or two I got a personal trainer, but it was mostly just for efficiency because I got really busy. I get a lot more into a single hour than I used to. He helps get things set up and so on and pushes me. One thing that I did do was tell him I just wanted to lift weights so I wouldn't waste time on random exercises. You have to manage a personal trainer like anyone else, and if you don't like things they have you do then don't do them, manage your own program too.

Hope that helps.

Form is definitely important to preventing injury, but that doesn't mean you need to hire a trainer. Trainers can be quite expensive, especially when you are first starting out. Trainers in my experience are a better fit when you are already pretty serious and need direction to "get to the next level" or need assistance like rehabilitation therapy.

Most good gyms will have some people on staff that can help you with questions about good form. If you are unsure about good form, ask someone that works at the gym if they can come give you a look over and give some pointers.

Also, there is a reason there are mirrors all over in the gyms; it's so you can watch yourself to make sure you have good form.

One last pointer; start light. Lifting too heavy will lead to bad form and injuries. A classic example is curls; people lifting too heavy on curls will throw their back a bit on the lift and injure their back. So start light, watch your form, and slowly add those weights.

Mirrors are actually not that great at checking form - the act of looking in the mirror changes how you move. Now that just about all of us carry high quality digital HD cameras in our pockets, that's the best way to check form.

This is all great advice, thank you.

> Trainers can be quite expensive

I'm maybe a little embarrassed to admit this, but paying for a trainer will help me commit. If I'm paying for an hour of time on Thursday morning, I'm more likely to show up.

That's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's hard to commit until you're fit. Eventually you get to a point where you look forward to going to the gym if you stay with it long enough.

If you have a good trainer that can help with the commitment issue. If you have a bad trainer it can make it worse. I've had both. I had one trainer that wouldn't listen to me and just always pushed to hard; then during a session I puked from over exertion. I was so angry and embarrassed I didn't go back to the gym for over 3 months.

Anyway the point there is if you are going to get a trainer then vet them before you sign an agreement.

A couple of other options to help with commitment is to join a fitness group or a class like Farrell's (https://extremebodyshaping.com/).

Some of these have support/accountability groups so if you no show someone is going to call and ask where you were and in return you do the same thing

I never did any weight training till I was 31 years old. To start with, I looked up beginer's lifting schedule on Internet. I started with one day of lifting and one day of running.

As you go along, you will develop your own ideas and know what works for you, so you can modify the program to suit your own needs.

What you can do also depend on what equipment you have easy access to. Harder/longer it is to get to the place of workout, harder it is to get into habit of working out.

Good form is key. I never used a trainer, but there are a lot of videos on youtube that outline common pitfalls and there are places like reddit's formcheck where people can critique your lifts if you upload a video.

Starting with low weights and working on form for the first week or two while video'ing yourself and comparing yourself to instructional videos will allow for self critique.

I personally never had a trainer, but have had good success with self critiquing.

You're just articulating the problem for 90% of people comes down to muscles. Whether it's weakness in their entire hip flexor core or general tightness. A lot people over look how much that entire chain impacts the entire lower lumbar. Any good PT will explain this to their client.

It helped a lot when I did aerobics. It might not just be weightlifting, it could be that any heavy exercise will do.

Same. Solved chronic back pain by performing sun salutations 15 minutes every day.