Back Pain Relief Plan: A 20-Minute Exercise-Based Program to Prevent, Manage, and Ease Pain

Copyright © 2021 by Rockridge Press, Emeryville, California

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ISBN: Print 978-1-64739-233-8 | eBook 978-1-64739-234-5

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To every patient I have treated through my many years of practice. Thank you for sharing your healing journeys with me.

Contents

Introduction

PART I: UNDERSTANDING YOUR BACK

CHAPTER 1: The Backstory on Pain

CHAPTER 2: Diagnosis and Treatment

CHAPTER 3: Habits for a Healthy Back

PART II: THE BACK PAIN ACTION PLAN

CHAPTER 4: Workout Programs

CHAPTER 5: Stretching

Pigeon Glute Stretch

TFL Wall Stretch

TFL Foam Rolling

Psoas Doorway Stretch

Hamstring Doorway Stretch

Standing Quadriceps Stretch

Butterfly Adductors Stretch

Lying Leg Rest Piriformis Stretch

CHAPTER 6: Strengthening

Cat/Cow

Knee-to-Chest Stretch and Pelvic Tilts

Curl-Up

Press-Up, or Modified Cobra

The Crunch

Supine Twist

Facedown (Prone) Back Extension

Faceup (Supine) Back Extension

Alternating Leg Balance

The Cross Crawl

Dead Bug

Basic Plank

Side Plank

Crunch with Exercise Ball

Supine Twist with Exercise Ball

Facedown (Prone) Back Extension with Exercise Ball

Faceup (Supine) Back Extension with Exercise Ball

Alternating Leg Balance with Balance Pad

Cross Crawl with Exercise Ball

Dead Bug with Foam Roller

Climbing Plank

Plank with Leg Extensions

Staggered Plank

Cross Climber

Jackknife with Push-Up

Exercise Ball Push-Up

Alternating Leg Balance with Rocker Board or Foam Roller

Hanging Leg Raise

Banana Roll

Epilogue

Resources

References

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Introduction

From an early age, I had a powerful calling to become a healer. I could always instinctively sense what other people were feeling—their happiness and joy, but also their suffering. When I discovered the world of chiropractic medicine, I found a system of healing that allowed me to actually do something about people’s pain. I could make their lives better using only my hands and my mind.

Chiropractic care is very effective for treating back pain. Almost all the patients I saw in my office were suffering from back pain, so treating it became a central focus of my work. And I’m glad it did.

Early in my career, I offered my clients standard chiropractic adjustments. I performed spinal manipulations that helped relieve their nerve irritation and stop their pain, but often only temporarily. Some patients had to see me repeatedly, which was not what I wanted. I needed to understand why their pain persisted and figure out how to give them the tools to stop the pain from returning.

Through my decades of practice and research I’ve found one simple truth: For many people, regardless of what’s causing their back pain, the most effective remedy is to build a strong and flexible body through stretching and exercise.

My goal with The Back Pain Relief Plan is to provide you (or a friend, a loved one, or anyone else you know who is living with back pain) with a customizable pain-relieving training program. I am pleased to be able to share with you the safe, effective training program I’ve worked to develop with my patients. My program focuses on the lower back, the most common area of pain and discomfort, but you can use it to treat the rest of your back as well.

This book lays out a series of exercises, stretches, and low-impact cardio workouts that range from easy to hard. In addition, it makes recommendations about diet, sleep, and workspace ergonomics.

When you’re in pain, it can be hard to imagine life without it, especially if your pain comes and goes—just when you think you’ve moved past it, it’s back. I know all about that frustration, but there is hope. When you are experiencing your worst pain, know that countless people have defeated their own back pain with a smart, consistent stretching and exercise program.

I encourage you to absorb the information in this book. Once you understand why you have back pain, you can get to work on treating it.

You possess incredible healing power, but it takes courage and fortitude to tap into it. I hope this book helps you find that power and sets you off on your journey toward a life without back pain.

PART I

UNDERSTANDING YOUR BACK

Lower back pain is one of the most common health problems that brings people into their doctor’s office. This pain doesn’t discriminate. It affects both young and old, people who are otherwise totally healthy and those with preexisting conditions, workers who sit at computers all day and those who drive forklifts or work in factories.

These statistics from the American Chiropractic Association illuminate the scope of the back pain problem:

•Approximately 31 million Americans—nearly 1 in 10—are experiencing lower back pain at any given time.

•Back pain is the leading cause of disability, preventing many people from engaging in work and everyday activities.

•From 1990 to 2015, disability claims relating to back pain increased by 54 percent.

•Approximately 80 percent of the population will experience back pain during their lifetimes.

•Each year, lower back pain costs Americans at least $50 billion, not including lost wages and decreased productivity.

To understand why back pain, and particularly lower back pain, is so widespread today, travel back in history with me. Roughly 25,000 years ago, humans had the same basic bodies we have today. It took hundreds of thousands of years for the human form to evolve to support tremendously active lives: walking every day in search of food, chasing animals (and occasionally running from them), climbing trees to gather fruit, and digging into the ground to find edible roots.

The human body is no longer in sync with modern times. Many individuals have lost strength as a result of a sedentary lifestyle. Others have occupations that require them to perform repetitive physical tasks that put a great deal of strain on the lower back. In both cases, the human body is working in a way it was not evolved to.

Lower back pain in particular is on the rise. Like so many chronic conditions, including diabetes and heart disease, lower back pain is usually the product of a perfect storm of modern factors: eating poorly, packing on extra pounds, not getting enough sleep, spending too much time sitting around, not having the time and energy to exercise, and feeling overloaded by stress.

There are many types of lower back pain. Individuals experience differences in intensity, from dull and achy to burning and