BACK PAIN - LEARN HOW TO BEND CONFIDENTLY AGAIN

Back pain can affect up to 80% of people at some stage during their life. Normally, for the vast majority of people, the pain settlers down within six to eight weeks. This is a good approach to treat back pain provided the person does not develop a compensatory movement.

The body is very good at adapting to pain. Sometimes these problems are beneficial (Adaptive) other times , they are not (Maladaptive). The consequences for some people who may learn to move with a maladaptive pattern may include altered movements that predispose repeat injury to the back. Others may include another body part having to work to take on the extra strain which can have knock on effects.

Such compensations will affect how the body is working as a whole. For example, if a person strained their lower back lifting something heavy, five years ago, and then let it settle down naturally. They may have stopped moving through that area of their back to avoid the pain recurring. This is a good idea at the start to allow the injured area to settle. But the essential omission here is that full normal movement patterns were not restored and the compensations were not corrected.

So we see this with people in our clinic all the time. Where they may bend by keeping their back dead flat because they’re afraid to bend. This occurs because the injury from five years ago has not been corrected. Those injured tissues in the back are still afraid to take strain. The brain is the supercomputer and it regulates everything including how we move. It is very clever at avoiding pain because it does not like it. It sees pain as a threat so does everything it can to avoid it.

So at this stage, even five years down the line the brain is going to perceive that ‘bending movement’ in the lower part of the back as a threat. So as we try to restore a normal bending movement people struggle initially because their brain is sending out warning signals ‘not to bend’.

Then over time, with a simple, step by step approach, normal movement is restored. The essential key points here are to get the whole body working together so that the foot, leg, buttock and back all work as a unit to restore full confidence and strength as the back bends. It is essential to get everything working well together because if there is one chink in the chain, then it affects everything else.

Our five step approach ensures that all these chinks in the chain are identified very early by conducting a through assessment. Then bit by bit each of these chinks are addressed as you progress through your rehabilitation so that your recovery is successful.

The end result is that your movement is far better than it ever was in the last five years. You are fully confident that you are doing exactly the right exercise at the right intensity, suited for your age and ability. You understand exactly what is going on with your back and how to fix it. These are core principles that we apply across the board with every client. This approach has been tried and tested for over 13 years at this stage and ensures our five star rating for so many other word of mouth clients.