Apologies in advance if this is the wrong subforum for this. I’m not sure if any of you follow Blaine on IG or are aware of his situation, but is it remotely possible that his back is still this injured from what I believe he said is a herniated disc? Based on his posts, he’s been more or less avoiding loading his back in any way - even to the extent of doing exercises like rows and whatnot lying completely or nearly supine/prone - for about a year now. I have a hard time believing that someone would still be that messed up a whole year later unless it was an injury caused by some sort of horrific trauma. At the same time, I’ve never had 500+ kg on my back so I don’t know how traumatic that could be on your body in itself (although I would think that he’d be fairly adapted to crazy heavy loads at this point). Is he just getting noceboed like crazy by Stu McGill or could there be something else going on? Just sucks to see such an impressive and elite lifter in the state he’s in.
It’s difficult for us to weigh-in here without consulting directly with Blaine. Pain experiences are complex and individual so it’d be unfair to speak on his case without more details.