Understanding Back Pain & Rebuilding Confidence In Movement

If you've got back pain and it's bugging you,

This video is for you.

I will explain what is going on and more importantly,

What can you do about it.

I'm a personal trainer by trade and honestly,

I've done more than 10,

000 hours on one-on-one sessions.

Over the past few years,

I've been focusing a lot on back pain and I've dealt with a lot of people with back pain.

It's actually quite common.

Look,

I'm not,

I'm not lying this number,

But 85% of people that came to me complaining about back pain,

It's because they've got imbalances happening at the hips.

80% of people got bulging disc.

But only 20-30% of them actually feel something.

So even if it's something physical,

Often enough it doesn't really cause pain.

But now,

Muscular imbalances,

Yes they do.

Because you're making muscles that shouldn't be working in the first place,

Do over time.

Let me explain.

Your hips is the structure right below your lower back.

If your hips are not functioning as they should,

As you get through your day,

Working,

Sitting all day,

Going for a walk,

Doing the things that you normally do,

Compensations start to happen,

Right?

What is the structure right above your hips?

Your lower back.

And often enough,

Lower back pain is due to imbalances.

Another example,

Bulging disc.

Think about a chain.

If I pull this chain apart,

It's going to snap right in the middle.

Why?

Because I've got two forces here and it's going to snap on the weakest link.

Bulging disc,

It's very similar.

You've got a lot of pressure above and below because these muscles are not really working.

A bulging disc is just too much pressure that your back or the disc couldn't really hold and then it bulges.

Make sense?

So addressing these imbalances is the best way to move forward.

Now,

You might be wondering,

But I've got pain,

I can't really move.

When I try to move,

It kind of shocks me.

For you,

What I have to say is.

.

.

Your brain,

Right now,

Is the culprit.

Think about it.

If you break your femur,

Yeah,

Like one of the largest bones in our bodies,

It will heal in about 16 weeks,

12 to 16 weeks,

Depending on the person.

This is something physical,

Structural.

Now you're telling me that you have had bulging disc or back pain for the last six months and it's still there?

It's not physical,

It's your brain.

Your brain don't think it's physical.

Safe because these muscles above and below,

Your core and your hip,

They don't have enough strength.

To support it.

So every time you try to do a certain movement,

Your brain thinks,

Don't do it.

You're going to get injured.

And then it shocks you.

That's your back pain.

So what can you do about it?

Exercise.

Movement.

Movement is the best medicine.

You have to let your brain know that it's safe to move.

How do you do that?

By moving,

By being curious about your back pain,

Not avoiding movement altogether.

This is the worst thing you can do.

So instead of doing very fast movements,

I want you to move really slow.

Like,

For example,

If I wanna twist to my right,

Yeah,

Instead of doing this.

What I'm gonna do is this,

And then I'm gonna ask myself.

How's my paint?

Can I feel anything?

If the answer is no,

What do you do?

You keep a movie.

I'm going to twist a little bit more.

Stop,

Ask yourself,

Do I have any pain here?

No.

Keep on moving,

A little bit further,

And a little bit further,

But always,

Every single time you move a little bit further,

Stop and ask yourself,

Is this causing me pain?

Once the pain gets to like a 3 or 4 out of 10,

You stop.

That's your threshold that's your limit yeah and now understand what is your three out of ten you're going to come back to zero and you're going to move again to three and back.

And back.

This is you letting your brain know that it's safe to move within that range.

Once you get stronger,

A 3 is not here anymore.

Your new 3 will be here a little bit further.

Make sense?

This concept you can apply to every single movement in your day to day life.

So don't let back pain hold you back.

Be curious.

Understand your pain threshold,

Work towards it and stop.

If it shocks you in any kind of movement,

You stop.

Let it go okay let the pain go away now you know that's your limit you went too far I know it's scary but you are the only person that can get out of this situation nobody else can do that for you and if you don't address that now it will get worse I've dealt with people yeah just an example that had chronic lower back pain.

The reason?

The toe.

Their toes were too stiff.

Let me show you.

We are meant to walk like this,

Heel,

Toes,

And we need a degree of flexibility,

Right?

Okay.

So we walk forward.

Toes.

Heels,

Midfoot,

Toes.

That's how we walk.

This person had the toe too stiff.

So what is the compensation?

Instead of walking forward like this.

.

.

And applying that degree of flexibility to the toe to walk.

What is the compensation that happens if.

.

.

There's no flexibility in the toe and you can't bend,

Your whole leg will twist out to the side.

Have you seen people walking around like this?

So as soon as you twist.

Your leg like this.

You've got a compensation happening at the hip.

Makes sense?

And now over time,

Over years,

That compensation becomes back pay.

So.

.

.

Address what you're going through,

Don't be scared of it,

Be curious about it.

And I hope you enjoyed this.

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll see you in the next video.