Is your lower back killing you?

 

I used to get serious lower back pain every few months because of the fusion of my lower spine. I continued with my training, being careful, but still the pain set my life back for at least 3 days after training. It was so bad that I could barely walk properly and people asked me “what is wrong?” Embarrassed I had to answer “I’ve got back pain, again! For the 2^nd time this year...”

 

It got to a point where I actually wasted my time doing the training because I was afraid of hurting my back and being out of action!

 

 

Sound familiar? Yours may feel different, worse, not so bad, etc. Most of the time back pain is related to muscle spasms. In my case the spasms was made worse because of the fusion of my L5/S1 vertebra. It wasn’t an “injury” as such – nothing was torn, nothing shifted – it was just a spasm.

 

I see patients daily that have lifted boxes, slept on a bad mattress, played sports or sat too long without a break, even doing things they love! Their biggest problem? The pain they experience from back spasms. No injuries, no tears of the ligaments or shifts – back spasms.

 

And being there myself, trust me, a spasm is serious enough!

 

I was fortunate enough to discover the keys to fix lower back pain in 2006 and how to prevent that pain from coming back, or even worse, if it comes back, reducing its severity.

 

Now that we know the key to fix lower back pain, athletes that compete in “heavy athletics” such as discus, shot put, Olympic weightlifting and power lifting can rest assured. We can now reduce the severity of your back pain! Everyone else who trains hard – don’t fear! I’ve rarely seen it come back!

 

Did you know that 80% of the population has severe back pain AT LEAST once in their lives?

Sometimes it is a sharp, stabbing pain;

Sometimes it feels like you have been batted with a cricket bat;

Other times you might feel your legs or feet tingling or numb;

Or have you felt unable to sit property, you can’t touch your toes or lean backwards without EXCRUCIATING pain?

 

The reasons for back pain are as many as there are stars. Most of them however, are linked to our lifestyles and our bad habits. Statistics show that lower back pain is one of the leading causes of people being unable to work! When you have back pain, you know how debilitating it can be! Sometimes it even affects your thoughts and mental abilities.

There is good news however! 90% overall, and almost 100% of clients that come to my practice get rid of their back pain, do so quickly and almost always permanently!

 

So what causes back pain?

• Incorrect lifting of heavy objects – at home, at the office or at the gym

• Sitting too long, sitting uncomfortably

• Ignoring your body when your lower back builds up tiredness

• Overtraining your lower back

• Poor posture – both in standing and walking

Other, less common causes of lower back pain:

• Activities such as running or cycling

• Incorrect lifting of weights such as your children!

• Being overweight (especially if you have a large tummy!)

When you look at your lower back anatomy you will see little vertebra and joints. These give you the ability to turn, bend and twist. Correct movement happens in the hips with the spine being a “stiff rod” through which one transfers force.

The spine is supported directly through ligaments, muscles, bones and discs and these structures are very sensitive to overuse and possible injury.

 

Good News Again! I found that within 2 weeks, you can start to feel a huge relieve in your lower back pain with correct intervention and some effort. And I see you are thinking “2 weeks are very short...” You are absolutely right!

 

I’m not going to bore you with the technical jargon.

 

Our brains are reminded of the muscles that are involved in supporting the spine through the specific routines we use, leaving you with far better nervous system functioning. The motor patterns is then further developed and enhanced as you work on your “lower back stiffness”.

 

Prevention Prevention Prevention

• Take care of your back and look after it as much as you can;

• Concentrate on training the muscles that support the spine, by doing various strengthening exercises. You can do bracing movements such as planks, exercises such as modified crunches and many controlled back extension movements. I personally recommend the Romanian dead lifts for its transfer to daily life and what we require from our backs every day.

• I also recommend stretching where needed, and please note – where needed. Stretching might not be the best thing for lower back pain, but I will write an article on that later!

• Look at your posture. How do you sit, stand and how do you lift objects?

• When you play sport, how good is your movement ability?

 

The number one key is to find the underlying CAUSE of your back pain and to fix that. Stop wasting time continuing with something that doesn’t work.

 

So what is my approach?

I base my approach on the work of Dr Stuart McGill, a professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He pioneered his research into the lower back, specifically the spine, through an innovative engineering model.

 

He was able to precisely determine the forces on the spine whilst doing various activities. Another important aspect that was discovered was that all the muscles (not just the transverse abdominals & multifidus) in the torso area was responsible for creating the support or stiffness necessary to prevent injuries from occurring in the first place or getting rid of those injuries.

 

This was the stepping stone for more efficient methods to increase spine stability and better ways to use our lower back. We now had the knowledge of how to improve our current methods to increase spinal stability and more specifically he showed us how we should train our lower back, abdominals, obliques and other “core stability muscles” so that we could have greater spine health and better performance in our life.

 

The anatomy of the spine and the way it works as Dr McGill refers to as super stiffness is a well used term. The movement and flexibility of the spine is very important to our bodies. It enables the spine to accomplish various daily tasks but on the same hand it has to be able to resist compressive forces. The muscles can only fulfil its purpose if the spine supports it consistently.

 

You would be able to increase the strength and fitness of your spine and simultaneously reduce you lower back pain.

 

This is believed to be the best method of resolving lower back pain as opposed to surgical and other evasive methods. Since 2003 the success rate is more than 90% with clients that had lower back pain. Even clients who only needed more stability in their lower backs benefit by using these methods.

 

Clients were recommended to try other kinds of methods to reduce the lower back pain. We found that there were alternative methods that assisted to a certain degree but they all lack of these 3 important points:

 

• consistent, reliable and reproducible results proven with large groups of people suffering from lower back pain.

• An easier way for clients to fix their own lower back pain without an expert’s consistent input

• near permanent relief from lower back pain.

The truth is this method was not able to help all the clients that suffer from lower back pain, and therefore is not the ultimate or is proven to be the final solution to lower back pain.

 

Is this a full-proof solution to lower back pain rehabilitation? No, but we believe it is the most consistent, reliable and the easiest way to lower back pain relief which can, in some cases, brings relief of a permanent nature. Everyone is differently in nature and we therefore also reacts differently to lower back training exercises.