Time to Get Your Back In Shape!

I see so many clients in my studio with back pain. Many of them sit at a desk all day, struggle to manage the pain, are unsure of which advise will really help, but ultimately come to me knowing they need to do something!

If you've ever experienced acute back pain, you know it's no joke! It can become impossible to be comfortable in any position, it can feel like there is no end and it can really start to weigh on the experience of living our lives!!

I have experienced the classic, "gone" back three times in my life; at either end of my 20's and again about 18 months ago, around the time I turned 45. I'd also had an acute experience with sciatica a couple of years earlier and knew I needed to do something to change my back health. There was something I was doing (or not doing - actually both!) which wasn't working, I just needed to find out what it was.

After watching some videos on YouTube looking for some answers, an ad came up. I was hovering over the button to skip, but it grabbed my attention within those 5 seconds and I continued watching. It was an advert for the 'Back In Shape' program. After watching the video and feeling encouraged by what I heard, I went over to the website and signed up for Phase 1.

I worked through the program as it was presented and in the first 2 days I was suddenly equipped with knowledge of how our spine works, of how we damage it constantly due to tight muscles, incorrect posture and weakness. I mention those first 2 days because it was after 2 days that I first did the stretches, accessible in the free Phase 1 of the program. However, my back pain was already decreasing because I now understood what the correct spinal position was. I was learning new words, like "lordosis", I was engaging my core when getting in and out of the car, or bed, or on and off the toilet, I was thinking about my posture, but from a place where I understood how it should be!

I had been doing forward folds and hugging my knees to relieve the pain, but although they felt useful at the time, after I'd exercised my back felt worse than before. The program told me how and why this was happening - and I didn't even have to ask!! This all made me see that we're all making the same mistakes!

I've been a physical therapist / bodyworker since 2017 and something very clear to me was that this program was based on sound knowledge and experience of working with people in 'real world' situations.

I worked through Phase 1 and things gradually got better, I continued onto the strengthening phases, I stopped doing certain types of movement which compromised my back, I thought about my posture, I engaged my core, I bent my knees more and used the large muscles in my quads and glutes, rather than straining my back. All of this got my back healed and strengthened and the pain gradually went.

When I find something that genuinely works I want to tell everyone about it and to be honest, I'm holding back on what I want to tell you about the program, because you just need to go see it yourself: https://backinshapeprogram.com/

Let me be clear, massage can play an important role in recovery from back pain. When that internal nerve pain hits, the surrounding muscles spasm and brace to keep you upright. The muscles of the back can get 'saturated' with tension, which is only adding to the issue. This is where massage can bring relief, by easing out those tense muscles and helping to re-set the area. However, internal issues of the spine need to be addressed by posture, stretching and strengthening.

Investing in therapies is an important part of self-care, but their effectiveness will always be limited if we don't take the "self" part of that phrase as seriously as we should. If part of our daily lives consists of practices which cause some damage, we need to also dedicate part of our day to addressing those issues (as well as time to consider how to minimise the damage). We can feel trapped into back pain, but once we have the knowledge, we develop the practices and we maintain the commitment, we can look forward to a future without chronic back pain!