As I posted back in February, I’ve been following some Active Life programs since December to rehab my back. I finally finished up the programs on Sunday after dragging them out over the last 2 months. During these 6+ months I went through 40 Single Leg Bias, 40 Hips, and 80 Back Max workouts, usually with a Bax Max workout plus one of the others on the same day since each takes about 10-20 minutes.

The programming had a good mix of movements and rotated through them with clear progressions for reps and loading. This really kept it fresh and pushed me compared to other programs that have you doing the same thing every week. I’m really happy with the results. My last bad back tweak was in August and I had a minor tweak in January.

Another reason I know the programs worked is because of changes on the golf course that are a bit hard to explain. Over the last couple of years I’d feel things in my back while out golfing. Almost like minor tweaks from the twisting and bending over. These never affected my swing or caused any issues after the rounds, but I’d feel them here and there. I’ve had none of that this year.

I’ve learned to listen to my body much better and not to push my back on consecutive days. These workouts proved to me that most CrossFit programming doesn’t focus enough on single sided work, which ends up causing imbalances in our bodies. Then we try to compensate, making things worse.

Going forward I plan to substitute some of the movements into my regular workouts so my body doesn’t fall back into the condition I was in. I’d been doing most of the rehab work at home in my garage and only going to the gym twice a week, so I’m looking forward to getting back to the gym 4-5 days a week.

Since my membership to Active Life runs through November I’ll try out some of the shoulder programs to see if I can’t get rid of this impingement that’s been bothering me since the Open. I highly recommend checking out Active Life if you have anything you’d like to rehab on your own.