Have you ever had a day where you wake up and can’t even bend over to put on your own socks and shoes, let alone dress yourself? It is so frustrating when that pops out of the blue. Recently, one of my assistants was walking out of her house and was hit with a sudden excruciating back pain. This reminded me of a time when that happened to me.
One day, I woke up and rolled out of bed, I knew something wasn’t quite right. I had a little discomfort in my lower back, but it just felt like I my back was tight so I didn’t think anything of it. I got up and as soon as I bent over, I was hit with pain through my lower back. When I tried to stand up, I couldn’t stand up straight. My back was completely locked up and I couldn’t do anything. In an attempt to get myself ready for work I tried a hot shower, putting ice on it, and took some ibuprofen, but nothing was worked. Frustrated I didn’t know what was happening. I had to get to work!
Can’t Even Dress Myself!
My wife helped me get my socks and shoes on. She even had to help me tie my shoes. This is so frustrating when you’re used to doing everything on your own. Little unknown fact about me, I am stubborn, I hate asking for help to do simple things. Things as simple as brushing my teeth were painful, but the worst was trying to get in the car.
To get in the car, I had to become a contortionist to avoid extreme pain. I had to turn myself and push my hips back into the end of the car seat, but the pain was terrible when I had to tuck my head to get underneath the top of the car. The pain went from down the back of my neck all the way down into the spine. It felt like everything was just absolutely ripping apart. Then, when I got to work, I had to do it all over again to get out of the car.
This sharp pain continues throughout the day. I tried to ice it and take more medicine, but it just doesn’t get where it needs to be. It’s not as much of a problem until it hits those day to day life things and you can’t be normal. While riding into work, I was incredibly uncomfortable, which can alter how you feel and how you interact with people. You’re not your normal self because you’re hurting. It’s just one of those things that hits all of us at some point in our life.
So Much Misinformation!
Because there’s so much misinformation out there, we aren’t sure how to fix the pain. You can put heat on it, ice it, stretch it, get a massage, etc., but we don’t know which one is right. I’m a physical therapist and even I wasn’t sure what to do. I ended up going to the clinic, where they were able to address some of the key issues. I had to take it easy and my back continued to hurt for the rest of that week, but I could get better once I got on track.
Around 80% of Americans who try to fix their own back and their own back pain, will most likely fail. Why is that? Shouldn’t we, as a country, be able to fix back pain if we are able to travel to space and to the bottom of the ocean? Why are there so many different treatment methods out there? The answer to this is because they don’t address the root cause of the problem, which is what I had to do. I had an amazing team that was able to help me think through what I was doing and focus releasing the muscles, which were working too much. I had to activate the ones that weren’t working enough to bring everything back in balance.
The Problem
The problem of why that society can’t fix their back pain is because Western medicine today only addresses the symptoms. It does not address the root cause. If you have a pain in a specific area, most health care providers will just go directly to that area. However, the area where you have pain is not usually where the cause is. It’s usually elsewhere in the body and Western medicine doesn’t address that; it addresses the symptoms. So, you go to the doctor and they’ll just put you on some ibuprofen or they’ll tell you to use ice or heat. If you have acute back pain, stay away from heat. Doctors will tell you to rest and put you on anti-inflammatory medication or a muscle relaxer. For the most part, they will tell you just to wait it out, and this is just addressing the symptoms.
Does NOT Address the Cause!
Your body is not going to fix itself until you address that root cause. The root cause of back pain, except for trauma, is the muscle groups that are not in alignment and balanced with each other. You have some muscles that are very weak. Those are the muscles that are under active, and they’re not being activated enough. Then, there’s those that are overactive and they’re just working too hard. Usually, these muscle groups are opposing each other, and one is overpowering the other.
This leads to compression of the spine and It’s going to squeeze it down. This is going to wear out the discs and cartilage, causing inflammation, which is what leads to pain. In my case, while it seemed like the pain happened suddenly, this had been coming on for a while. When I thought about it, I realized that I had gotten off track from my diet and I was getting less exercise.
So, this is where the imbalances occurred. These factors which contribute to these imbalances, you can change them. You can take the right steps right now to change them. First, you are probably sitting too much. Too much sitting is killing us as a society, and it is a major cause of back pain that frequently happens. The other thing is repetitive movements. If you try to do too much of the same movement, you’re going to over-utilize one group and under utilize the other.
Think about this…
When you get in and out of the car, how do you do it? You always do it the same way. When you climb steps, which leg do you lead with? You usually lead with your dominant side, and you always tend to do things the same way when you’re picking things up. If you have a job that requires you to do repetitive movements, how are you doing them? If you’re not changing up your position, you’re going to create some imbalances in your body. The third thing is inactivity. We do become more inactive because we’re not getting out and doing as much. You can change that. Get out and walk or even just get out and move your body the way it was meant to move. Improper movements and positions could also be causing your back pain.
If you’re not lifting correctly, you’re going to place strain on your back. When you do that repetitively enough, you’re going to create those imbalances. Eventually, you’re going to have some disc issues. The last thing that could be causing you back pain is inflammatory foods. You’ve got to watch your diet and you’ve got to focus on an alkalizing diet, which keeps that inflammation down. Your body can heal as it mends itself. There are things that I did that allowed me to quickly be able to put my socks and shoes on again. I don’t want you to wake up one day and suddenly not to be able to get dressed.
I want you to know..
You can make a difference in your back health and it doesn’t matter how severe it is. There are things that you can do and steps that you can take on your own. You don’t need a healthcare provider. There’s an old saying that says “knowledge is power.” Well, that’s false. Knowledge is not power. It’s what you do with that knowledge that counts. There’s a quote that I love that I want to leave you with.
“Action is the most important key to any success.” – Tony Robbins
All you must do is take one of those five items and make a change in your day to day life.
You will be amazed at what kind of impact you can make on your body if you do a little bit at a time. I’m going to be live next Tuesday at 1:00 PM. If you want help putting a plan together or putting a plan into action to fix your back pain, shoot me a Facebook message with your email, or send me an email at Mike@flex-pt.com and I’ll send you my free report. The report goes a lot more in depth and is titled “The Five Best Kept Secrets to Fast Back Pain Relief”. It’s going to be very helpful.
Until next time, stay healthy and keep moving forward.
