Alright, it's been a few months I've been struggling to find a way I could do squats and deadlifts with GOOD form... But no matter what, I always have the feel that I do them bad (weird imbalanced feeling in the pelvic). Also, if I bent my knees 90°, my right knee will make an odd "crackling" noise... I saw a chiro a year ago and he took pictures of my vertebral column. He told me I had mild lumbar scoliosis and 34 vertebraes instead of 33... Should I just forget about squats/deadlifts even thought I know it's such a sin to not do them...? Is there a way I could possibly to them? Notice I seem to have various muscular imbalance (left lat stronger than right, right pec stronger than left, left tricep stronger than right, right shoulder stronger than left, weak abs, etc.) and I really don't know how I could fix them (or if it's even possible to fix it?)........ All that stuff is really demotivating and when I think about it I usually get pretty anxious and depressed and I try to just forget about this and tell myself it's impossible to have perfect biomechanics..... I also have other weird musculoskeletals problems.

So to summarize:

- Mild lumbar scoliosis
- 34 vertebraes
- Various muscular imbalances/weaknesses
- Very poor neural drive/mind-muscle connection for exercises like deadlifts, squats, barbell bent rows
- Weird feeling in my right leg (ankle instability, general leg instability, awkward feeling when I run... I had plantar orthoses when I was pretty young but I don't have anymore and can't even remember actually wearing them)
- Pelvic instability/misaligned feeling (probably as a result of scoliosis)
- Shoulder girdle misalignement/problem, probably internally rotated humerus... and left shoudler has a tendency to drop down...

All of this = not being able to do correct squats and deadlifts which pisses me off since I know how important exercises they are. Add to this a chronic generalized awkward discomfort feeling of imbalance that leads to self-consciousness which leads to anxiety.

Most of this is probably the result of my first year of training with very poor form and no stretching and years of chronic bad computer posture plus general very bad posture for my entire childhood.

I've read Corrective Methods For Common Postural Deviations I & II : The Shoulder/The Anterior Pelvic Tilt here and applied most of those exercises/stretches since I do have severe internally rotated humerus (1-5 feet away zone - I'm in a damn mess...) and modest anterior pelvic tilt... Althought there are a few things I can't do such as Horizontal Pull Up, with feet on Swiss Ball (there is no such bar without a bench in my gym) and Incline Dumbbell Pronated Flye (I don't have that kind of bench... I'm way too tall to perform this on a normal bench). I also don't know how to do an Incline Unilateral Row - Pronated Grip.

Anyway, I'm a bit desperate here and need help lol. I'm about to just stop training altogether...... I can't even do good cardio becausse I have trouble running!! I've already stopped training for months in the past for the very same reasons... I probably have some other things I could add but can't think of at the moment. So, to conclude, what should I do exactly?..... In an ideal world, I would set appointments with my chiro, a physiotherapist, and an orthopedist, and would start yoga classes...... But that would take a hell lot of time and money, which I have in very limited resource... Feel free to ask various questions

I'm sorry to hear of all of the troubles that you are having. I would start getting back into it slowly and add more as you feel comfortable. Do stretching that you can handle right now and if you must go to the gym, for god's sake warm up, stretch and go light for now. Be careful and good luck

Okay. Step one would be to go talk with a different chriropractor or better yet, an osteopathic orthopod...get all the stuff confirmed, especially the extra vertabrae...something seems odd about the DX you got before.

Next step would be to practice the deadlift and the squat with very low weight, perhaps even just a bar with a couple of 5kg bumper plates. Really concentrate on getting the form down.



Do your horizontal pull ups in a squat rack and your gym has no incline benches?



I would, at the least, get a confirmation of the scoliosis and extra vertebrae from another doctor.

I never stopped working out actually... I'm scared of stopping... If I do stop and break my routine, I'll have a real hard time getting started again... Also weight lifting is the only thing that seems to give me a tiny amount of self-esteem, so I just can't stop. I do warm up and stretch at every workout (I have fairly tights hip flexors, my right quad is very tight, and both hamstrings are tight). But, something weird is, when i stretch my hamstrings, I mostly feel the stretch behind my knee?!


Keep in mind I live a small city with a population of around 20 000... I doubt there is an ostheopathic orthopod here, but I'll check out anyway.

Should I stop all pectoral, shoulder and lat work? My current workout consists of:

Day1 - Pecs, Shoulders (but my shoulders are very weak, especially the right, I can't even do cable lateral pulls with 5lbs...), Triceps
Day2 - Abs (my abs are very weak, I only started recently to give them their own day)
Day3 - Legs, Back, Biceps (Legs consist of deadlifts, leg extensions, and calve exercises... I try to do the deadlift the best I can, but it seems like when I start going down my pelvic is not correctly aligned, it's hard to explain, and my right knee cracks everytime...)
Day4 - Abs

Should I change anything to my workout?