Monday, April 27, 2009

How to Lose Back Pain


I'm such a goof...

...on Sunday night, while cooking a steak on the BBQ on my balcony, I ended up "walking through a screen door".
(Here's a pic of the view from my balcony)

I mean I literally stepped right into it and kept on going...and popped it completely off the rails.

You see, I left the steak beside the BBQ and had to run back inside, but didn't want Bally The Dog to steal it...so I brought him in with me and shut the screen door.

But when I went back outside in a rush, I forgot I had closed it.

And I power walked right into the screen!

I frantically tried to catch it before it crashed to the ground, but no luck, almost going headfirst into the ground with it.

As a result, I ended up in an awkward position, and frankly, if this had happened when I was 25, I probably would have hurt my back.

Sounds crazy doesn't it? But back when I was young and stupid (if you're still allowed to be young and stupid at 25 years old), I was strong but had back pain.

And I was doing everything wrong.

-> I'd sleep late on weekends in awkward positions.

-> I neglected the basic exercises to take care of my back.

-> I didn't use the best form in all my exercises either.

-> I was even using the wrong ab exercises, like situps.

And I still remember one Saturday morning back in 2001 when I rolled out of bed around 11am, bent down to put on my socks...and a felt a sharp pain hit my low back on my right side.

My first thought was..."I'm too young for back pain!"

Eventually the pain would go away, and then about 4 weeks later the same situation would happen again.

I was embarrassed. Here I was writing for Men's Health and training hundreds of men and women for fat loss, and yet I had back pain!

So I studied everything I could to get rid of annoying back pain.

I read Dr. Stuart McGill's book on Low Back Fitness and Performance (an advanced read, but necessary for all trainers - and if your trainer hasn't heard of this book...either fire them or buy them a copy!).

I even drove to the University where Dr. McGill lectures so that I could speak with him one-on-one.

I also talked to fellow trainer Jesse Cannone, and he said the #1 thing you must do to lose back pain is NOT a bunch of generic exercises, but...

...You must find and eliminate the CAUSE of your back pain.

Jesse goes over the useless exercises recommended by most doctors AND gives you a simple 3 step way to lose the back pain in his free report here:

=> Click here for Jesse's free report on eliminating back pain

Helping you LOSE the back pain for life,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS - Find out why Physical Therapy, Massage Therapy, and even Drugs won't help you lose the back pain...

Get Jesse's CONTROVERSIAL free report here:

=> Click here to lose your crippling back pain forever!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is everything a sales pitch? This stuff would be more believable if all the sites didn't look the same. Is there one guy behind all these programs???? I'm begining to think so. Feels cheap like an infomercial. :(

Anonymous said...

Agreed - this post is a bad one. On the main page there is a signup for a "Free Guide to receive" you signup and you get a sales email telling you what you can buy.
There is no guide.

Don't bother to signup........

Chris said...

Geez, stop being so negative, Anonymous commenting people. If you have back pain then you should be glad to have found the site. If you don't, then move on! Whinge-whinge-moan-moan. Negativity everywhere. Thanks Craig!

skinnybuddah said...

Agree with Chris here,

Give it a break guys, Craig doesn't need to blog for us, and you don't need to read it if you don't want. So give it a break and show a bit of respect eh?

Me, well I don't have lower back pain, and have only scanned through the book, but being a part time personal trainer and an avid student I think I might just revisit the book. So thats my take home from the blog.

The good stuff is there but only if you see it.

Danny said...

I've done exactly the same thing too many times especially when we first moved to Canada from England...you see we don't have screen doors over there, why would we it's always raining.

Anyway, I agree with Craig, when I was in my twenties I was strong too but my back would still take a hit if as an example I suddenly went down one of those steps out of the store where it says "mind your step" but too late for me!

No problem today though. Like Craig I am functionally far stronger.

If you do have back ache though Craig's recommendation is a good one-check it out.

Plus check me out lifting my Newfoundland dog in a front squat at www.DumpTheGymFitness.com for a chuckle and no bad back.

Craig Ballantyne, CTT, Certified Turbulence Trainer said...

Hey Danny, nice front dog squat!

How much does he weigh?

Craig

Anonymous said...

I'm going to agree with anonymouses:
I'm tired of all these guys selling for all their "good friends who are geniuses" in whatever..... I didn't bother going to the site as it was obviously yet another sales pitch.
And the worst part? Every single page looks the same: Scroll down for 20 minutes of bull retoric.
I'm done.
B.B.

Marcy said...

I read the free guide and I think the program would really help a lot of people with back pain.

A year ago I was struggling with back pain which I believed was caused from weight-lifting and was always aggravated by push-ups. I finally tried going to a masseuse, and he actually had a degree in physical performance. He found the cause of my back pain - my desk job.

I know that's not a suprise, but what is a surprise is how stretching my hips and pecs eliminated my back pain. I had tried "everything" and I had given up on my exercise routine. Strengthening my core didn't help. Stretching three times a day didn't help. Locating the tension lines causing the imbalance was the only solution.

Despite studying joint kinematics and compound joint theory for my senior thesis, I never made the connection between my back pain and tension lines (muscle imbalances). I never would have thought two simple stretches would eliminate the problem so quickly. Now I do them everyday (because I can't get rid of the job).

Unknown said...

I agree with the Anonymouses (anonymousses/anonymousi?). If Craig didn't link these groups of people who want to do nothing more than make a living on helping others live a healthier lifestyle, we'd all be so much better off.

Craig, I'm still upset with Turbulence Training for making me lose 15lbs and drop my bodyfat% from 25% to 13%. Because of you I had to buy clothes that fit. Because of you, people at the gym won't leave me alone. Then there's that Brad Pilon guy and his ESE. What a farce. One day a week, I don't eat..I have more energy..I lose fat.

Now your trying to prevent back pain? First you cured my knee pain, now my back? How 'bout giving me my hair back (vs back hair)?


As you always say....Stay Strong

MikeZ

Ginna dorkin said...

Back pain is definitely a big problem. It impacts activities of daily living and also affects our ability to work. Consulting Dr. Randy Stephan at 'Low Back Pain Brooklyn, New York' he uses chiropractic adjustment, stretching, manual muscle work, therapeutic exercise, etc all non-surgical treatment methods to treat his patients.

Craig Ballantyne, CTT, Certified Turbulence Trainer said...

Well MikeZ,

If that's how you feel, I'm not going to sit here and say that I d on't like to hear about you losing fat and having more energy!

Nice!

Craig