Q: I’m a guy in his mid-thirties who loves to train heavy. Problem is I did some major damage to my lower back as a result of a skiing accident last Fall. How can I modify my mass building workouts to put less stress on this weak link? A: There are four areas that you need to give attention to in order to prevent your already fragile back situation from worsening. Let’s take them one at a time: (1) Choose exercises that reduce the risk of lower back injury. That means taking out heavy squats and replacing them with heavy leg presses, swapping bent-over and t-bar rows for seated machine rows (use the machines that have a chest pad), and cutting out heavy shrugs and dead-lifts. Do as many of your exercises as you can seated to improve back stability. Ideally, you ...

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