Overcome Back Pain: Start Here

If you're here it's likely because you've recently hurt your back. What are the first steps for recovery?

See a Doctor

Visit a doctor if you’ve had a traumatic event like a fall and to rule out serious forms of pain like cancer, tumors, or disease. Constant pain that doesn’t change based on the day or what you do is a sign of a more serious cause of pain. Visit BackFitPro.com to find a qualified clinician that can help you diagnose your back pain.

However, understand that when you visit a doctor they run a business to make money. They rely on scans, which are not linked to pain and commonly lead to overdiagnosis [Source], and doctors don’t have solutions to chronic conditions. Drugs and surgery are what they study, and these are only temporary solutions to chronic pain that often do more harm than good. To a hammer everything looks like a nail.

Over 50% of people have a disc bulge with zero pain [Source], yet scans like x-rays and MRIs are the primary tool doctors use to diagnose back pain. Do you see the problem with that? Imagine you have back pain, so you go to the doctor, and the doctor claims your back pain is caused by an abnormality on a scan that isn’t the actual cause of your pain! The problem isn’t getting the scan, but rather what we are told about it and what happens next. In the worst case scenario, doctors will use these scans to convince you your body is broken and you need surgery, but most spinal surgery shows no better results than placebo surgery [Source].

“The notion that surgery will eliminate back pain does not have statistical support.” (Page 14, Low Back Disorders, Stuart McGill)

85% of people who visit a doctor for back pain are diagnosed with nonspecific back pain, which means the doctor doesn’t know what’s causing your pain. They’ll label you with a fancy name like degenerative disc disease, joint dysfunction, myofascial pain syndrome, or arthritis, but this is just the doctor saying they don’t know what’s wrong with you. These are the people I help.

What to Do RIGHT NOW?

Let's assume you visited a doctor or made an appointment, but you're in pain NOW! What should you do?

Let’s pretend you hit your thumb with a hammer 1,000 times. It’s going to be damaged, inflamed, and even the slightest touch will cause you to flinch and feel pain. This is similar to what happens when your back is in pain. Even the slightest thing can cause you to feel pain because your back has become sensitive from repetitively poor posture and movement.

Stop Triggering Your Pain

The first step to healing your back and becoming pain-free is to stop hitting yourself with the hammer. Stop performing the micro damage to your spine by learning good spine hygiene. Think of your pain as a scab that has been damaged and is trying to heal. Avoid picking the scab.

One of the best positions of rest while your back recovers is lying on your back with your feet elevated on a chair, couch, or up a wall. If you use a wall, just make sure your butt is far enough away that your hamstring mobility isn't an issue. Another helpful position is lying on the side, but only if pain-free. The key is that you avoid triggering your pain while your back heals. In the below video I share some postures that help most people find pain relief.

To summarize, the first thing to do is to identify what triggers your pain and avoid that activity until you learn how to improve how you perform these activities. Once you've been careful not to trigger your pain, after a few days your back should feel much better. If you've been unable to avoid triggering your pain, work with a professional for help or schedule a consultation to work with me directly.

Make a List Describing Your Chronic Pain

After working with hundreds of clients, I’ve discovered that most back pain is caused by how we use our bodies. To avoid triggering your pain, you must study yourself to specifically identify what causes you pain, so get a piece of paper, journal, or use the notes app on your phone to make a list of things that cause you pain. Do this NOW!

This is the most important step to healing your back! Yet, some people avoid starting a list because they think they “already know what hurts,” but this arrogance will see that a solution is never found. Begin your study of yourself by starting a list.

Write the following headers:

1. When is my pain worse?

2. When is my pain better?

Then answer the following questions under the appropriate header:

• Does the pain get better or worse depending on the time of day? Does your pain gradually build throughout the day or is it greatest upon waking?

• Are there certain postures that make your pain better or worse? Does bending forward cause pain? Bending back? Rotating or reaching? When your back hurts, what's your go-to posture for relief? Describe it.

• Does picking up your legs, getting out of bed, or standing up from a chair hurt? Explain it.

• Are there particular activities or situations when you notice your pain more? Things like carrying objects, sitting in a car or on a plane, rolling over in bed, reaching, or sneezing?

• If sitting causes you pain, how long until you notice? Does it depend on the chair?

• Do you feel better or worse after exercising? Do particular exercises make your pain better/worse?

• Does your pain worsen when stress increases or with the changing seasons?

• Are certain muscles habitually tight or do you notice areas of your body that store tension?

• What movements, postures, or activities make your pain better?

Write down as many details as you can because these are pieces of the puzzle that is your chronic pain. You might notice simple patterns in postures and movements that trigger your pain. How or how long you’re performing these activities is the likely cause of your pain! Creating a list is important because we're not as smart as we think we are, and it's easy for us to miss obvious patterns. By avoiding your pain triggers and adopting the right protocol, your body will heal itself.

This list will help you begin studying your body and also help if you decide to work with someone else like a physical therapist or personal trainer. Over time as you learn you can add to your list as this forms the foundation of your recovery program. If you feel frustrated like you don't know why you have chronic pain, this list is the solution to that hopeless feeling because it empowers you to begin taking ACTION!

Road to Recovery

Now it's time to begin building coordination, stability, mobility, and strength. Two days of rest is as effective as 7 days rest for low back pain [Source], and pain-free movement as soon as possible following injury accelerates healing of muscle and bone [Source], so we want to get you moving ASAP.

What movements should you do? It depends what causes you pain. Generally, light activity like walking, hiking should be fine as this cardiovascular activity will help to aid circulation and healing, just make sure not to do too much too soon or you'll trigger your pain.

One of the best exercises you can do to heal back pain is deep diaphragmatic breathing as this increases circulation to the spine, which will speed up recovery (Read this article to learn how to breathe better).

Most people have poor habits that cause muscles to be chronically tight and sore, compress joints and nerves, and put stress on bones and ligaments. Try this yourself. Place one hand on your low back and the other at the back of your neck and then round forward and hold. You’ll feel these muscles become firm. Now, lean back until you feel these muscles relax. If you have chronic pain that changes based on the day and what you do, your spine is not broken, but your posture and movement habits are. To heal your body, you must change your habits.

For example, let's say sitting for too long causes you pain, then one area we want to focus on is how you're sitting and for how long (Read this article to learn how to sit better). Perhaps you're sitting with great technique, but after 40 minutes you know back pain is unavoidable. In this case, find alternative resting positions that provide relief like half-kneeling or set a timer for 35 minutes and get up and move for 5 minutes to avoid exceeding the capacity of your back. This process of self-analysis is the same for every activity that causes you pain. You can improve how you sit, stand, walk, work, exercise, or anything else that you do.

Exercise & Stretching

As soon as you're able to begin stretching and strengthening, focus on the areas where you have the biggest opportunity for growth. You can use this spreadsheet to perform tests to identify the unique areas where you can improve posture, movement, strength, and mobility.

It's important that you follow a plan that is customized to your needs otherwise you can spend a lot of time focused on areas that provide little to no benefit for your unique situation.

The 3 most common areas for improvement that people share are core stability, hip mobility, and thoracic mobility.

Core stability exercises like deadbugs, side planks, and bird dogs are a great place to start as these exercises teach you to connect your body and resist excess movement at the low back.

Hip mobility exercises like the couch stretch for hip flexors will allow you to use the hips more and the back less.

Thoracic mobility exercises like the lying thoracic rotation will open your mid back so your low back doesn't suffer. Read this article for more information on stretches for back pain.

The critical thing to remember is that randomly stretching and strengthening is unlikely to help your back pain. You need to identify where you have the most opportunity and then perform targeted exercise and stretches to improve these areas.

Sleep, Stress, & Belief

Is back pain all in your head?

The brain and body are one. Goals, values, knowledge, culture, and beliefs are as important as symptoms because the brain encodes everything. I’ve met people with back pain who really didn’t want to get better or didn’t believe they could improve. They’ve lost before even starting because of their limiting beliefs and conditioning. Back pain is as much an emotional and psychological problem as it is a physiological one. The mind and body are inextricably connected: pain catastrophizing and fear greatly amplify your pain.

Realize that your body isn't broken, but it's likely that your habits are. To improve your quality of life it's necessary to improve your physical and mental habits. Nobody is going to heal you and there's no magic drug - I wish there were. The only way to experience permanent relief is to change what you're now doing.

Conclusion & Next Steps

This article is about taking the first steps to get out of back pain. The only person who can fix your pain long term is YOU! I've helped hundreds of people overcome chronic pain, and the people who see results are those stubborn enough to NEVER GIVE UP!

With all things in life, it's difficult to enjoy the journey when it's happening, especially with back pain. However, your attitude will determine your success. Realize that IT'S POSSIBLE to get out of pain! Once you've overcome your chronic pain it teaches you so much that you can then use to be a stronger person who helps others. Even something as horrible as chronic back pain has its blessing if you'll look for them.

I had severe chronic back pain and I healed myself with the methods I describe above. Now I help the 85% of people with chronic nonspecific back pain to overcome their pain and live fulfilling lives. If you want to work with me directly, schedule a consultation.

Hope this helps! -Tom