Back pain injuries are very common these days and statistics show that 85% of people will experience severe back pain in their life and any will have repeated episodes. This can be due in part to people not getting treatment from a qualified physician early enough along and self diagnosing their problem with Dr Google. This is one of the worst things you can ever do for you may apply a corrective strategy that was not right for your body. Before you attempt to restore an injury it is wise to get a thorough examination and diagnosis from a well respected health practitioner. Once you have that diagnosis it is easier to determine what course of action to take and whether you are a high risk injury or low risk. This is very important to know for it can help to select the right exercises for your body at that point in time.

You Must Determine If You Are A High Risk Injury or Low Risk Injury

Many people suffering from chronic pain are looking for a remedy or a solution to remove the pain and suffering. But the big problem with this is, that removing the pain is rarely addressing the real problem, WHY the pain was there in the first place. We have been taught to see pain as a real inconvenience and that there must be some kind of pill, tablet or medical intervention to make it go away. Sometimes we need to use anti inflammatory medication, cortisone injections and various other remedies used in the initial stage of injury for there is too much inflammation present. Rest is very important in this stage and exercise can be very risky.

However, for the person who does not have too much inflammation exercises is essential. Relying on pain medication and rest will not solve the problem in the long term, if anything it will make matters much worse. This is the equivalent to removing the batteries from your fire alarm when it starts beeping loudly, instead of finding where the fire is and putting it out!

Sometimes we have the right strategy with exercise and rehabilitation but the dosage is wrong. For example if saw a person with knee pain and in our assessment we identified several key muscles requiring stretching and foam roller work in combination with some strength exercises would greatly restore balance to the knee joint and reduce your knee pain how much dosage would be enough?

If you only did this once a week it would not be enough dosage to change anything, and your pain would gradually increase. However if you did this workout twice a day for an hour each time it would be too much and would also create more pain. In this case it is not the exercises or method that is wrong, but the dosage of how often and at what intensity it is implemented that matters.

How do you know whether your injury is High Risk or Low Risk? The medical diagnosis may not be able to tell you this either so I like to use several advanced tests and assessments to help us identify areas of concern. But before I do any physical testing I start with these 4 simple questions.

4 Injury Assessment Questions 

1. Do you have any pins and needles in the limbs or around the pelvis?
2. Do you have you had any headaches or strong pain in the spine in the last few weeks?
3. Do you have pain with coughing or breathing deeply?
4. Have you had severe pain in your spine for more than 6 months?

If you get 2 or more positives from these four questions then you are identified as a high risk injury and must be referred out to a Health Professional such as a Doctor, Osteopath, Physiotherapist before implementing an exercise program. You don’t want to be mucking around with the injury if you are high risk. If you do not have 2 or more positive answers then you are a low risk case and exercise intervention is much safer.

Even myself having had experience as a Personal Trainer & CHEK Practitioner for over 16 years specializing in rehabilitation and core strength training I still have to say to clients, " I don't know what is going on here, you need to go and see your Physio". The best injury experts all have multiple references and people to draw from with things they don't know. You still can do exercises and stretches, in fact it is essential you do perform exercises and stretches, but you best find out exactly what your condition is before going any further to make sure they are not going to cause any further harm.

As with any injury it never hurts to get a diagnosis first and then make a decision having all the facts in front of you. Without their expert diagnosis we would be taking a guess. And the biggest point with our training methods and programs is based around tests.

I love this quote that sums it up by Paul Chek - "if you are not assessing, you are guessing".

Find Your Pain Trigger

Regardless of whether you are a in the high risk or low risk category you MUST identify and change the pain trigger. 

In 99% of back pain cases the trigger that is causing the person their pain is a DAILY ACTIVITY they think nothing of. Any rest, medication, physical therapy, or corrective in the gym is instantly wiped out when the person continues to move with poor postures, motions and methods they had before.

The most obvious thing to look for here is how long you sit, and what your posture looks like when you sit down. Poor posture when sitting, standing and working stresses your spine. Sitting is by far the most significant factor and with so many of us these days in sedentary type jobs it is the most common cause. Sustaining a slouching or forward bending of your spine leads to overstretching and weakness of the posterior fibrocartilage (or annulus) of the spinal discs. Over time, this leads to poor disc integrity and displacement of the disc nucleus fluid posteriorly. This places your spinal joints and nerves under pain-causing pressure.

But it is not only sitting that can be a problem you will need to look deeper. Watch the video below for more ideas on this.

I also suggest to read this article - 5 daily habits that could be ruining your spinal health

Summary

The message to get out of today is make sure you get your back injury or problem looked at by a qualified Health Practitioner to know exactly what you are dealing with. Never self diagnose and try to find your pain trigger as fast as you can and change it. It will take some time and can be hard to find at first, but if you persist the effort will be well worth it and it will save you a lot of suffering and money later on.

Do You Need More Help?

If you have seen a health professional and are now looking at implementing a series of exercises and stretches this article will provide you with many great ideas on how to do this. As many people struggle to implement this into a gradual progression I created a detailed step by step program called Back Pain Secrets that includes a 85 page Ebook and 90 minute video with exercises, stretches, mobilizations and in an easy to follow format. This can be done at home or in the gym and we cover everything about your condition in great detail from eliminating the cause to best strength exercises, even nutrition to speed up the healing process! For more information you can watch a quick trailer video of what is included. 

Click here or on the image below to get a copy.

For more ideas and information on specific topics I may not have covered in detail be sure to check out our INDEX PAGE on the website that has over 200 of our best articles. These are all sorted into categories for quick reference so you can find what you are after more easily.

If you do need specific help with your exercise program please feel free to reach out to me for help and we can set you up with your individualised program. International readers can request a Zoom call.

About The Author

Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 16 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specializes in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.

References:

• Movement - By Gray Cook
• Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
• Back Pain Mechanic - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes - By Shirley Sahrman
• Low Back Disorders - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance - by Dr Stuart McGill
• Core Stability - by Peak Performance
• Athletic Body in Balance - by Gray Cook
• Anatomy Trains - by Thomas Meyers
• Motor Learning and Performance - By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
• Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance - By Vladimir Janda
• How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
• Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
• Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek
• Twist Conditioning Sports Strength - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Movement - By Peter Twist