It's Time To Part With Your Back Pain
Aug 21, 2018
“31 million Americans have back pain at any given time.” – American Chiropractic Association
“Back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide and is one of the most common reasons for missed work.” – American Chiropractic Association
“80% of people will experience back pain at some point in their life,” – The University of North Carolina
These are just some of the startling statistics that we uncover in this episode. Odds are, you can relate to one of these statistics, but you don’t have to be a number.
You can do something to decrease and even minimize your back pain today. Whether it’s by bringing awareness to your body, improving your daily habits or adding more movement into your life. You have the power to make this change.
SOMETIMES THE SMALLEST STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION ENDS UP BEING THE BIGGEST STEP OF YOUR LIFE.
In this episode, I let you in on how you can work to decrease your back pain through daily habits that you may not know you are doing. Spoiler Alert: surgery is NOT the answer. The information from this episode is valuable but if you are itching for more, I give you the tools in my Core Rehab Program where you will work to apply these principles to your daily life. Now let’s say it together, “BYE, BYE BACK PAIN.”
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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
WATCH THE EPISODE BELOW
Picking Up | 6:37
Head Positioning | 15:15
Chest Opening | 16:07
EXERCISES TO HELP WITH BACK PAIN
Untuck Your Butt
Lengthening Exercise
Hip Rolls
Three Exercises To Help You Say Bye, Bye To Back Pain!!
QUOTES + STATS
TRANSCRIPT
Erica: Back pain is something that is so common in our world today, but in all honesty, it doesn’t have to be. Even the littlest of back pain is a sign that your body is telling you that something is going on there. The sooner you start to address that pain, the better. For those on the opposite end of the spectrum where you might be considering surgery to get rid of the pain, I want you to pause for a second and listen to what I say. Surgery doesn’t typically fix back pain for most people. There is, however, a big possibility that something isn’t fascially connected properly within your body.
If you think of surgery like this, you are going to be making an incision in the body where you will be creating scar tissue. The body has a hard time healing from that as you will be immobilized for weeks. This is unnecessary surgery for your body as you are just using a Band-Aid solution to the problem. You are relying on the work of rods and screws to correct the problem rather than fascially trying to reverse and prevent your pain.
Start by looking at the alignment of your body. While you are sitting at your desk, standing in line or looking at your phone, pay attention to your body’s tendencies. Then, we can start to realign your body starting with your posture. This will help you get to a point where your body feels good, strong and pain-free.
One story I love to share comes from a client of mine who is in her mid-30s. She came to me with neck pain so severe that surgeons were telling her that she needed surgery. It was absolutely fascinating what we could do with her body after adjusting her body’s daily habits. And after two years of working with her, her body is a whole new body. Her neck pain went away, she grew taller and she became more aware of her body. Now, she is never going to ever consider having neck surgery because she doesn’t need it.
The fundamentals that I taught her is exactly what I teach in my Core Rehab Program; how to activate the deep core, lengthen the spine and lifting up out of the pelvis. If we are rounding forward, we are squishing our spine which causes people to think that we get shorter as we age. No, we are getting shorter because we are not connecting our fascia and lengthening tall!
If you haven’t watched or listened to my mid-back podcast, I highly recommend starting there as I talk you through how to use your mid-back in your daily movements. By strengthening your mid-back, you are creating better stabilization for your shoulder which holds your neck, which holds your head. After that episode got released, a woman reached out to me on Instagram a said that she had been implementing what I was teaching the past couple of days and her neck pain had already gotten better. I hear it time and time again from people in my Core Rehab Program. Many of them, within the first week, notice a significant decrease in their back pain just from learning more about how their body functions.
I notice with my clients and myself that our posture is the worst when we are using technology. Whether we are sitting at our desk and leaning forward to look at our computer or rounding our shoulders when we are on our phones these tendencies are tightening our chest. Try to put your arms behind you and lift your chest; if this is hard for you, it could be a sign that your back pain comes from your shoulders rounding forward which is making your chest tight.
Inflammation can also play a role in how you feel in your spine. It is not about having the perfect spine because no one’s spine is completely straight. What matters the most is how does your body feel and are we able to move in between each vertebra. Listen to your body and don’t force a movement. You don’t want to be doing things that your body isn’t ready for yet. That is why I encourage you to modify; modifying doesn’t mean it’s easier, it means that it is more effective for your body.
A 60-year-old male client of mine has had back pain for the majority of his life. He has had a couple of back surgeries and seen multiple osteopaths that have said, “your pelvis is always going to be tucked underneath, it’s stuck.” When I first started to work with him, you could tell it was stuck. After a couple months of training, his low back pain disappeared. Now, it shifted into the hips because when we start to rebalance the body, we start to wake up other areas of the body that haven’t been functioning properly. It is a slow and steady race regardless if you are working on prevention or reversing the fascia that has been stuck there for years. It is never too late to start working with your fascia as consistency is key. Keeping in mind that gentle movements are more effective than forcing a movement.
I want to encourage you that you can prevent + reverse aches and pains. It is not a quick fix and there is no pill in the world that will do it for you. Implementing these little changes throughout your day will make all the difference in how your body feels. Start where you are at today.
I want to leave you with thinking about your mindset. Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re right. There is such power in our mindset. I want you to believe that you have the power to overcome pain and imbalances in your body. Don’t think you have to do it alone whether that means you need to see a physical therapist or join my Core Rehab Program.
First is the realization that the pain is there. Then you must accept that the pain sucks. But then you move into knowing that there is something that you can do about it. Shifting your mindset to believing that there is something that you can do about it. If you let the negative sit with you too long, it will be that much harder to get those thoughts out of your mind.
Today is the day that you will start being more aware of what is going on with your body. Be grateful for the pain that you are feeling because, without it, you will not have learned so much about your body or know how good your body is designed to feel. You are going to be stronger, smarter and more aware to help prevent that pain in the future.
Our bodies are going to go through things. Those experiences are there to teach us something. It might be the universe putting you through this back pain to tell you to stop and slow down. Today is the day.
The material contained within is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. You should seek prompt medical care for any specific health issues and consult your physician before beginning a new regiment or purchasing any product(s).
