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by Wellness Coach Dan Ma

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Fitness & Health

How To Fix Lower Back Pain

June 13, 2022 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

About 8% of the global population experience persistent or chronic back pain and it is increasing in the global population. I am writing this article because I have firsthand experience with chronic back pain. I want to share with you my journey in how I cured ten years of chronic back pain and condensed a decade of experience and knowledge into a three-month strategy. Please feel free to skip to the bottom to learn how I fixed my lower back pain.

How I Developed Chronic Lower Back Pain

My history with lower back pain started around 2009 or earlier. From gaming addiction, a web design degree, and falling into the marketing industry I have a long history of being in front of a computer. My back pain was a gradual progression.

The problem with gradual back pain is that it can be dismissed, and over a period of time it can become normalized”

After working for a company for six years, I was laid-off due to a reorganization a couple of months before the pandemic. I used my educational severance to get certified as a personal trainer specializing in corrective exercise. It taught me that physical patterns in life could affect your body. My specific pattern was too much time in front of a computer, which first came in the form of too much sitting. Later I learned that too much standing in front of a computer brought other problems.

Patterns and How They Affect Your Life

Sitting all the time created short and tight hip flexors, and long and weak my hip extensors (the glutes). This brought the classic condition for my hip complex to be tugged out of alignment. This gave me dull aches to shooting pain. In the beginning it was excruciatingly new, but overtime I got use to dealing with the pain. Standing too much in one place made my tensor fasciae latae too tight, and made it feel like my leg was being jammed into my hip socket. These are physical outcomes from physical patterns, but it took me a long time to understand the pain of non-physical patterns.

Mental and Emotional Patterns

Chronic back pain is a form of trauma and it can take a long time to develop without you being aware of the long-term effects. When you live in constant fear of acute pain, the mental and emotional patterns can become ingrained without you being aware of it. Does the following seem familiar?

  • Coming home mentally, emotionally, and spiritually drained after your commute home from work.
  • Coming home from work feeling grumpy and easily agitated.
  • Getting into fights with your significant others about the same things without any resolutions.
  • General feelings of being unappreciated and unsupported by your loved ones.
  • Feeling isolated and lonely.

These might not be your mental and emotional patterns, but I encourage you to explore what yours could be. It took me many years to see how my happy, outgoing, and adventurous personality gradually turned into being isolated and disgruntled. This slow personality change affected my relationships and eventually helped shape my heart-breaking divorce.

How to Address Negative Patterns

What are your daily to weekly patterns? For physical patterns, you should be asking what you do all day. Do you work in front of a computer? Do you commute? Are you a gamer? These are sitting patterns.

Pay attention to your mental and emotional patterns. Are they generally good or bad? Does your back pain have anything to do with them? Patterns in relationships can be hard to tackle, but I am willing to guess that your chronic back pain has some kind of impact on your relationships. It would be good for you and your relationships to identify how your back pain is shaping your mental and emotional well-being, so you can communicate that to the people who care about you. If talking is a challenge, then perhaps you could think about writing a letter. In either case of physical or non-physical patterns, it is usually a good idea to get outside help to move you along the path of recovery. Do not wait too long on this, and above all, be very forgiving to yourself and those in your life.

Foam Rolling and Static Stretching

One thing I know that helps for physical patterns is foam rolling and stretching. This helps break up soft tissue knots and helps keep them hydrated and more pliable. After foam rolling, you need to stretch and lengthen your soft tissue. For example, if you sit too much your hip flexors are probably too tight and short. Conversely, your hip extensors are too long and weak. For this pattern, you generally need to foam roll the areas that are too tight and short first, then you need to stretch and lengthen them. For the areas that are too long and weak, you generally need to exercise them to become stronger, so for the hip extensors you will probably need to do squats to strengthen your glutes. 

Foam rolling and stretching alone might not fix your issue. I learned this the hard way.”

I used to foam roll and stretch three times a day for about two years. One session could take up to one hour. It dominated my life and took time away from my family, which helped further isolate me. 

Compound Exercise and the Kinetic Chain

NASM’s OPT Model

I spent a lot of time foam rolling, stretching, and doing stability endurance exercises for many years without solving my chronic lower back pain. In hindsight, it seemed as though I was simply maintaining my pain on a week-to-week basis, which was far from satisfactory. From my experience, doing stability exercises was not enough. I also found that isolated exercises was not enough to fix my lower back.

The big turning point for me was when I started doing compound exercises for strength endurance.”

The kinetic chain is often talked about in physical therapy, because it views the body as a system of soft-tissue, joints, and segments that are all interrelated that forms a “chain”, which all works together to produce human movement. One compound exercise that had a significant impact on my path to full recovery is the single-arm squat to press. This exercise covers the chain from your feet all the way up your arm.

Any deficiencies in that kinetic chain will be addressed over time.”

The beauty of compound exercise with a focus on the kinetic chain is that the whole chain is strengthened, which is a more holistic approach than focusing on a specific area. Chasing specific areas can become a giant juggling act in where you are trying to address multiple muscle imbalances. Compound exercises also raises the heartbeat providing you with a cardiovascular challenge. Dropping weight can have an extreme amount of relief of stress on your body.

Steps to Fixing Chronic Back Pain

  1. Understand and educate yourself in what you do to your body on a day-to-day basis. I highly recommend that you track your pain. Google Sheets is great as you can access the file on your smartphone. Feel free to use my “pain rating” scale (see below), or come up with your own that fits your needs.
  2. Foam roll and stretch. This is an absolute must in my opinion. While it might hurt at first, it will get better. Foam rolling is a practice that informs you in what your body is telling you. If you foam roll an area and it hurts, your body is telling you it needs some work. After you foam roll you will need to stretch and lengthen those areas. There are plenty of resources on YouTube on how to foam roll and stretch. I recommend half a minute per stretch (at the bare minimum), but one minute will give you much better results. If you are in acute pain, I recommend two minutes per stretch.
  3. If you are not in acute pain, I recommend a month of stability endurance training with a focus on core exercise. Also, remember to do lots and lots of foam rolling and stretching (as if it is going out of style).
  4. After a month without any relapses, I would start to slowly introduce strength endurance training with a focus on compound exercise. This could look like doing one set per week and slowly increasing it on top of your stability endurance. As you progress, you can completely replace your stability endurance with strength endurance. If you go too fast and do too much, you will probably upset your body and go back into acute pain. I learned this the hard way, over, and over again. In my case, going slow would have been faster.
  5. After another a month or two of no relapses into acute pain, you will probably develop new goals for your fitness and health. Regaining your confidence to live your life without fear of acute pain is a huge accomplishment. Your quality of life goes way up along with your mental and emotional health. Realistically at this point, you should be able to maintain your process without having to worry about your back pain. Foam rolling & stretching should not have to dominate schedule, and you should be able to get out there and live an active life. I recommend that you don’t get stuck in a strength endurance pattern, and change it up every month. You can go back to stability endurance, progress up NASM’s OPT model, or cardio & core is always a great option. If you track your pain as I suggested in step 1, you will know how to fix yourself in the event you fall into a pain crisis.

Summary

  1. Month 1: Get out of back-jail and away from being in acute pain. Foam roll and stretch at least three times a week or more. When you start to feel better start to slowly introduce stability endurance training with a focus on core exercise. Start with one exercise a week after foam rolling and stretching, then slowly build up three times a week.
  2. Month 2: Still being out of back-jail, you should definitely start to introduce stability endurance training with a focus on core exercise. Slowly introduce a stability core exercise such as floor bridge, bird-dog, or planks. Start once a week, then build up to three times a week. Pay attention to what your body is telling you and know your limits. Don’t worry about keeping to a three month plan, take as long as your body needs. Here are the acute variables (reps & sets) for phase 1 stability endurance.
  3. Month 3: Continuing to be out of back-jail, begin to slowly introduce a compound strength endurance exercise like a single-arm squat to press. Be even more careful to slowly introduce this phase of exercise as you will be adding external weight to your body frame. Here are the acute variables for phase 2.

That’s it, take it slow and listen to your body. If you have a setback, go back to the beginning and get out from acute pain. Please comment below and share your experiences, and let me know what you are experiencing. Perhaps I can further help you. I’d love to hear from you.

Filed Under: Fitness & Health

Acute Variables

March 29, 2021 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

What are acute variables?

Research suggests there are specific acute variables to follow in order to maximize your results for wanted adaptations. Acute variables determine how much stress is placed on the body. Here are some variables to follow depending on the phase you are in.

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

Phase 5

Correctional

Filed Under: Fitness & Health

The Floor Bridge for Core Exercise

March 12, 2021 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

There are a lot of ways to enjoy this great core exercise as it offers many progressed varieties.

The Classic Floor Bridge

The most gentle entry into this exercise is to 1 to 3 sets with 12 to 20 repetitions. Further progression is to use time under tension or isometrically hold your hips in the air for 1 to 2 minutes. The next point of progressing difficulty is using weights and bands to resist the upward hip movement. You can also use a BOSU ball and use it to try and stabilize your feet.

The Movement:

  1. Start in a lying down position with your knees bent at 90 degrees and your feet placed flat on the floor at a hip width distance.
  2. Pull your abs in and engage your glutes as you push through your heels to raise your hips into the air.
  3. Be sure your lumbar spine alignment is straight.
  4. Lower your hips back into resting position.

The Single-Leg Floor Bridge

The next logical progression is to use one leg! This exercise challenges your anti-rotation and cross core stabilizers. Be sure to keep the hips, knee, and ankle fully extended. Don’t let your hip drop by keeping them level to each other. You can start this progression with 1 to 3 sets with 12 to 20 repetitions. Both sides count as a set. If you want to jump into a harder challenge, try the single-leg floor bridge with a time under tension for 1 – 2 minutes. The next point of progressing difficulty is using weights and bands to resist the upward hip movement.

The Floor Bridge Pullover

Turn this great core stabilization exercise into a great compound stabilization exercise with a 10 – 15 pound weight! This exercise can be progressed much in the same manner as presented with the classic floor bridge.

Filed Under: Fitness & Health

The Kettlebell Pull-Through

March 12, 2021 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

Compound exercises are exercises that work multiple muscle groups at the same time.

Benefits:

  • Increase caloric outtake
  • Improve intramuscular coordination
  • Elevate heart rate
  • Do more in less time

If you are feeling good and strong with the extended arm plank and can do 3 sets with 20 reps easily, or the ability to stay in the plank for two minutes, then you might like to progress to the Kettlebell Pull-Through.

The Position:

  1. Have the kettlebell positioned just below one of your hands.
  2. Get into an extended arm plank.
    1. Hands under your shoulders
    2. Abs in
    3. Engage your glutes
    4. Lock your shoulders
    5. Good cervical alignment

The Movement:

  1. If the kettlebell is by your right hand, reach across your body with your left hand and move the kettlebell to the other side just below where your hand would be.
  2. Rinse and repeat, remembering to keep your shoulders and hips square while maintaining good plank posture.

Filed Under: Fitness & Health

Squat to Row

February 22, 2021 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

  • Position: The anchor point can be chest level or below chest level. Grasp both ends (cable or resistance bands) and walk backwards until you reach your desired resistance. Stand with your feet hip width apart, with correct spinal alignment. Knees slightly bent. Lock your shoulders and open your chest. Abs in.
  • Movement: Push your hips back and “sit” into a squat, hold for a couple seconds with a straight back looking forward, then push into the ground as you stand up and perform a row. Extend your arms to repeat.

Single-leg Squat to Row

  • Position: If you wanted to start with your right side, grasp the handle with your right hand and walk backwards until you reach your desired resistance. Stand with your left leg and your right foot off the ground.
  • Movement: Starting with the right side, squat down using your left leg and go as far as you can without extreme discomfort. If your leg gets shaky or the knee starts to move inwards, that is a good sign of where your current depth should end. Hold the squat for a couple seconds and rise up and perform a row.
  • Position: If you wanted to start with your right side, grasp the handle with your right hand and walk backwards until you reach your desired resistance. Stand with your left leg and your right foot off the ground.
  • Movement: Starting with the right side, squat down using your left leg and go as far as you can without extreme discomfort. If your leg gets shaky or the knee starts to move inwards, that is a good sign of where your current depth should end. Hold the squat for a couple seconds and rise up and perform a row.

Filed Under: Fitness & Health

The Wood Chop

February 22, 2021 by Dan Ma Leave a Comment

This versatile core exercise has a lot of great benefits for your core.

  1. Multi-planer movement: This exercise challenges the 3 planes of motion:
    1. Sagittal Plane: Forward and backward movements.
    2. Frontal Plane: Side-to-side movements.
    3. Transverse Plane: Twisting movements.
  2. PNF movement: The Wood Chop exercise is in the Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation pattern, because of diagonal arc of motion within the midline of the body. PNF movement is fundamental to the human movement that involves spiral vectors or diagonal line of actions within the body using simultaneous coordination of several joints.
  3. Versatility: Can be used for stabilization, strength, and power training depending on modification and acute variables. Sitting, standing, with an object, without an object, cable, or with bands…

The Seated Wood Chop

  • Position: Sit on an object that will give you ideally 90 degrees of bend in your knees. Let your feet be flat on the floor and a shoulder width open or more. A wider stance will dictate the level of intensity of stability. A stability ball and the ilk will give balance a greater challenge as to a stable object.
  • Resistance: You can choose to hold an object for resistance or you can use a cable system or bands. Be sure to orient yourself where the anchor of the resistance is on your flank. In other words, if you are starting with your left, the anchor point would be located to your left as you are facing forward. You will ideally have the anchor point higher than your shoulder.
  • Motion: Clasp the resistance with both hands above on either side, then bring it down and across your body towards your hip on the other side below. Depending on the condition of the body, the most gentle variation is to not rotate the spine.
  • Benefits: Targets the shoulders, core, and hip complex while limiting demand on the body’s lower half.

The Kneeling Wood Chop

  • Position: The width of your stance will dictate the intensity. Tucking the toes of the back leg will provide more stability.
  • Benefits: Targets the hips, core, and shoulders in a more integrated manner.

The Standing Wood Chop

The original gangster of of Wood Chops!

  • Position: Your stance can vary in width as long as your feet is at least a hip width apart and your knees are aligned over your feet.
  • Resistance: This exercise is typically used in gyms with cable systems, and almost anywhere with resistance bands. Similarly to the seated version, you will ideally have the anchor point higher than your shoulder.
  • Motion: Using an athletic stance, clasp the resistance with both hands above on either side, then bring it down and across your body towards your knee as your rotate to the other side. Be sure to push with the leg closest to the anchor point and get triple extension (ankle, knee, and hip. Abs in and maintain optimal spinal alignment.
  • Benefits: A wide “horse” stance integrates the foot and ankle. An athletic stance (wider than shoulders) is a sporting position that is used in most sports. A narrow stance will increase the stability challenge.

The Stagger Stance Wood Chop

  • Position: If using the left side first, get into a split stance with the left leg forward and the right leg back. The heel on the back leg can be on the ground or can be up off the ground to enable greater intrinsic foot muscle action.

The Lunge Wood Chop

  • Motion:
    • Ipsilateral: If using the left side first, step back with the right leg into a lunge while you perform the wood chopping motion down towards your right hip. Keep your knees from touching the ground.
    • Contralateral: If using the left side first, step back with the left leg into a lunge while performing the wood chopping motion down towards your right hip.

Single-leg Wood Chop

  • Motion:
    • Ipsilateral: If using the left side first, stand with your left foot off the ground while you perform the wood chopping motion down towards your right hip.
    • Contralateral: If using the left side first, stand with your right foot off the ground while you perform the wood chopping motion down towards your right hip.

Filed Under: Fitness & Health

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