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OMG! This is so timely because someone asked on Twitter, what is one thing you wish you could've learned 10 years ago? My answer was taking care of posture. Thi

OMG! This is so timely because someone asked on Twitter, what is one thing you wish you could've learned 10 years ago? My answer was taking care of posture. This is so epidemic, IMO. This is the closest I have come to feeling chronic pain that I had no control over. I tried never ending solutions including Physical Therapy but nothing helped. But I finally got control over it by doing TWO things: 1. Reading 8 steps to a pain free back by Susan Adams and putting lessons in action right away. 2. Performing THORACIC MOBILITY WORK I can't speak for you but this CHANGED MY LIFE! I am back at it again with no pain. If you would like to read my experience dealing with the pain check out this thread https://twitter.com/mihirchronicles/status/1217449317201596416?s=20 https://twitter.com/mihirchronicles/status/12174493172015964....

ravedave5 7y ago
Exersizing and stretching your back is so important. * Edit - properly and with what works for you :)
- gameswithgo 7y ago
  I have back pain problems right now that go away only when I stop exercising and stretching. I found this out when I broke my ankle and couldn't do anything. Back pain gone!
  - EpicEng 7y ago
    You were doing something horribly wrong. You'd be best server by figuring out what that was and continuing to exercise and stretch.
  - jeppebemad 7y ago
    Sounds like you need to stretch correctly after exercising. I had the exact same experience, and it wasn’t until I began focusing my stretching on my hamstrings that I saw immediate and significant relief. It’s the holy grail to a back pain free life for me now.
  - fhbdukfrh 7y ago
    I love how everyone immediately goes to "you were doing it wrong". Gee thanks. It could also be you perform at a very high level and your body is aging, you have an underlying condition that had never had a chance to fully heal, or many other nuanced reasons.
    - EpicEng 7y ago
      So, in other words... he's doing it wrong. Perhaps "wrong" is "pushing too hard given age or some underlying condition", but the fact is that exercise and stretching should never make you worse off... assuming you're doing it correctly.
- knicholes 7y ago
  In my weight training class, we always avoided the deadlift due to the high risk of injury. Now I'm in middle age and starting to feel back pain, I picked it up, and performing this exercise completely fixes my back pain.
  - jniedrauer 7y ago
    I did once throw out my back while deadlifting. It was completely preventable, but it turns out that the consequences were minimal. I've become a lot less worried about my back since then. It was the day after a hard 20 mile run, and I stupidly tried to deadlift my 1 rep max in that fatigued state. Something popped and I felt a sharp pain in my lower back. It hurt really badly for about 3 days, and made it difficult to put on socks and pants. And then it healed right up. No pain ever since, and I went right back to deadlifting.
    - fhbdukfrh 7y ago
      3 days? I'm glad you got better but this is not a serious or chronic back injury under any definition.
      - jniedrauer 7y ago
        It was probably a back strain/sprain. Before going through that, I expected that a deadlifting injury would be debilitating and would take months to heal from. The reality was... different. That's my point.
        nitrogen 7y ago
        Someone I know hurt their back during a deadlift. They were out of commission for months until they had surgery to shave a disk. So.. don't assume that your results are predictive of the results for everyone (typical mind fallacy/typical body fallacy?)
    - matwood 7y ago
      As an aside, there is almost zero reason to PR on any exercise unless it's for a competition. The risk of injury at a PR load is simply too high for recreation. Your 3RM is a good indicator where PR lies, and carries far less risk of injury. I'm saying this as someone who loves the dead lift and picking up heavy things.
- config_yml 7y ago
  This. It's incredible. I've had back pain for about 2 years, up until recently. I did weekly physiotherapy for an extended amount of time until my doctor recommended neurodynamic exercises. It's basically focusing on stretching your nerves. I did that daily for 6 weeks and my pain was mostly gone. When I feel it's coming back, I do the exercise maybe once a week and I'm good. On top of that I can now focus on improving core strength. It's a huge motivator knowing how bad it feels, but that you have it under control (which was a huuuge relief). Edit: my back pain was caused by bad posture, which was caused by pain from an untreated slightly ruptured intervertebral disc.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - sjg007 7y ago
    How do you do neurodynamic stretching?
ip26 7y ago
Your PT didn't bring any of that up?
- mihirchronicles 7y ago
  My PT didn't mention much about posture like the book did. The book covers a lot of detail on how to sit, sleep, stretch, lift, breath and other basic human activities. Sleep was a huge win because I would wake up with pain most of the time but the moment I learned how to sleep properly and put those lessons in action, I woke up without any pain. I was sore the first day (a good sign, IMO). It is sad that I am old enough but my body has forgotten to perform these basic activities. My PT did not mention anything about thoracic mobility exercises either. Book also covered chin tucks and shoulder rolls but it didn't stop there. These are some of the common exercises you find on internet and are recommended by mostly all of PTs. But when you are done with your sessions, there is no one to tell you at home about not exaggerating your neck while doing chin tucks. But the book did with amazing visuals. PT (4.5 yelp reviews) did lot of trial and error solutions focusing on strengthening and mobility exercises. Great, if something worked, otherwise continue trying different solutions. I also had to meet $1500 deductible for my insurance to cover these PT sessions but I could only afford 2 sessions a week. This point was not an obstacle but I wanted results from PT after 3-4 sessions to justify the cost which didn't happen to be the case for me.
udfalkso 7y ago
8 steps to a pain fee back helped me quite a bit as well. But is the author not Esther Gokhale?

ravedave5 7y ago

Exersizing and stretching your back is so important. * Edit - properly and with what works for you :)

gameswithgo 7y ago
I have back pain problems right now that go away only when I stop exercising and stretching. I found this out when I broke my ankle and couldn't do anything. Back pain gone!
- EpicEng 7y ago
  You were doing something horribly wrong. You'd be best server by figuring out what that was and continuing to exercise and stretch.
- jeppebemad 7y ago
  Sounds like you need to stretch correctly after exercising. I had the exact same experience, and it wasn’t until I began focusing my stretching on my hamstrings that I saw immediate and significant relief. It’s the holy grail to a back pain free life for me now.
- fhbdukfrh 7y ago
  I love how everyone immediately goes to "you were doing it wrong". Gee thanks. It could also be you perform at a very high level and your body is aging, you have an underlying condition that had never had a chance to fully heal, or many other nuanced reasons.
  - EpicEng 7y ago
    So, in other words... he's doing it wrong. Perhaps "wrong" is "pushing too hard given age or some underlying condition", but the fact is that exercise and stretching should never make you worse off... assuming you're doing it correctly.
knicholes 7y ago
In my weight training class, we always avoided the deadlift due to the high risk of injury. Now I'm in middle age and starting to feel back pain, I picked it up, and performing this exercise completely fixes my back pain.
- jniedrauer 7y ago
  I did once throw out my back while deadlifting. It was completely preventable, but it turns out that the consequences were minimal. I've become a lot less worried about my back since then. It was the day after a hard 20 mile run, and I stupidly tried to deadlift my 1 rep max in that fatigued state. Something popped and I felt a sharp pain in my lower back. It hurt really badly for about 3 days, and made it difficult to put on socks and pants. And then it healed right up. No pain ever since, and I went right back to deadlifting.
  - fhbdukfrh 7y ago
    3 days? I'm glad you got better but this is not a serious or chronic back injury under any definition.
    - jniedrauer 7y ago
      It was probably a back strain/sprain. Before going through that, I expected that a deadlifting injury would be debilitating and would take months to heal from. The reality was... different. That's my point.
      - nitrogen 7y ago
        Someone I know hurt their back during a deadlift. They were out of commission for months until they had surgery to shave a disk. So.. don't assume that your results are predictive of the results for everyone (typical mind fallacy/typical body fallacy?)
  - matwood 7y ago
    As an aside, there is almost zero reason to PR on any exercise unless it's for a competition. The risk of injury at a PR load is simply too high for recreation. Your 3RM is a good indicator where PR lies, and carries far less risk of injury. I'm saying this as someone who loves the dead lift and picking up heavy things.
config_yml 7y ago
This. It's incredible. I've had back pain for about 2 years, up until recently. I did weekly physiotherapy for an extended amount of time until my doctor recommended neurodynamic exercises. It's basically focusing on stretching your nerves. I did that daily for 6 weeks and my pain was mostly gone. When I feel it's coming back, I do the exercise maybe once a week and I'm good. On top of that I can now focus on improving core strength. It's a huge motivator knowing how bad it feels, but that you have it under control (which was a huuuge relief). Edit: my back pain was caused by bad posture, which was caused by pain from an untreated slightly ruptured intervertebral disc.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- sjg007 7y ago
  How do you do neurodynamic stretching?

ip26 7y ago

Your PT didn't bring any of that up?

mihirchronicles 7y ago
My PT didn't mention much about posture like the book did. The book covers a lot of detail on how to sit, sleep, stretch, lift, breath and other basic human activities. Sleep was a huge win because I would wake up with pain most of the time but the moment I learned how to sleep properly and put those lessons in action, I woke up without any pain. I was sore the first day (a good sign, IMO). It is sad that I am old enough but my body has forgotten to perform these basic activities. My PT did not mention anything about thoracic mobility exercises either. Book also covered chin tucks and shoulder rolls but it didn't stop there. These are some of the common exercises you find on internet and are recommended by mostly all of PTs. But when you are done with your sessions, there is no one to tell you at home about not exaggerating your neck while doing chin tucks. But the book did with amazing visuals. PT (4.5 yelp reviews) did lot of trial and error solutions focusing on strengthening and mobility exercises. Great, if something worked, otherwise continue trying different solutions. I also had to meet $1500 deductible for my insurance to cover these PT sessions but I could only afford 2 sessions a week. This point was not an obstacle but I wanted results from PT after 3-4 sessions to justify the cost which didn't happen to be the case for me.

udfalkso 7y ago

8 steps to a pain fee back helped me quite a bit as well. But is the author not Esther Gokhale?