MEANING: If you have no idea what lower back pain feels like then you must be either very young or very lucky.
It is highly debilitating, and at times painful almost to the point of paralysis.
TYPES: The only type I truly know about is the Lower Back Pain that I had. A result of a sudden and unexpected tear to a lower back muscle when I was in my early thirties – a result of me racing my friend across a swimming pool and trying to jump out quickly by swinging my legs up and over – a big clunk and that was it. I couldn’t even get dressed without his help, and when back at home I was flat on my back calling the doctor. I never fully recovered from that. But through the years I have learned to control it and keep it strong with multiple back exercises in the gym, along with several one-to-one gym sessions with a personal trainer who had a sports science degree – and wow how truly enlightening that whole period of my life was!
TIPS: The best way to fix your lower back pain is by using a carefully constructed exercise program which includes lightweight flexibility and relaxation exercises (e.g. swimming and walking) and highly controlled back exercises in the gym – using perfect technique.
The quickest way to destroy your back (apart from jumping off a high building) is to lift weights with bad technique.
The quickest way to fix and strengthen your back (assuming the injury is not too severe) is to lift weights with perfect technique. This one factor (amongst a few others) was highly influential on me – and inspired me to create the Mojoh Method.
DETAIL:
A Vicious Circle
The human spine is full of nerves which carry pain signals to the brain. When a small to medium impact injury occurs near the spine, swelling occurs and this presses onto the spinal nerves, causing pain. The lower back area is the most vulnerable part of the human spine because of its location half way along the body.
Once you have some problem with your lower back it is extremely hard to put it right again – why?
The injury causes swelling, the swelling causes pressure and pain. This leads to loss of sleep in the patient, and this in turn makes it difficult to relax, so the patient becomes tense and bad tempered. This increased tenseness, stress and tiredness quickly weakens the lower back even more, because tired muscles take longer to heal, and so the pain and swelling will increase, and the whole thing continues to get worse until the patient finds it hard to do anything at all except lie flat on their back, and many will resort to strong painkillers or other drugs such as alcohol, which can also disrupt the sleep cycle, causing further stress and discomfort. So what can you do if this happens to you?
Breaking the Circle
Remove as much stress from your life as possible, and take as much gentle exercise as possible – walking out in the fresh air is ideal as this will help gently massage the lower back with natural movements, and the activity will help to promote sleep which you will be losing. You should also try doing gentle back stimulation in a swimming pool or a qualified sports massage or physiotherapy – all geared to help you to relax and get some flexibility back.
To summarise, in the order you should do these things – walking and remove stress, jacuzzi, massage, physiotherapy, swimming pool, much longer walks, and more of all this stuff until you feel better able to cope. Not all people will be lucky enough to have access to all of these facilities and professionals, but you should try to do as many of these things as possible.
That is the first thing to do, and you should not attempt anything else until you feel you are ready for something a little more energetic.
Then get to a gym and start following the Mojoh Method – with extra emphasis on the Pilates, Back and Shoulder sessions. Exercises which are considered to be extra beneficial for LBP are marked with [LBP!]. Start very slowly and use ultra light weights. If in doubt about any exercise, just skip it and move to the next exercise in the sequence. You will probably feel some discomfort with some or all of the exercises and only you (perhaps in consultation with your doctor or under the guidance of a personal trainer) can decide if you should continue or stop. But please do try. Go slowly, carefully and controlled. Concentrate hard on your technique for all things you do.
Honest hard work in the gym, or pay out big money for potentially risky pharmaceuticals and operations?
At the end of the day this is a personal choice. Sometimes a person has no option due to the severity of their medical condition. I have helped many people to fix themselves, and I have also helped myself. I firmly believe that many people can be greatly helped or even totally fixed by adopting the techniques I have described above.
Do you want me to show you how? Then start getting better with my online consultancy.