Why your back pain won't go away
I know why you still have back pain.
You stretch, you strength train, and you may even use medication to mitigate the pain - but nothing makes it go away.
It’s not getting better because you're only focusing on one tiny, teeny little bit of the problem.
You focus all your energy on healing your muscular system - and you neglect the other systems that are actually causing you to stay in pain.
If you want to finally get rid of your back pain, you need to focus on healing these three systems (in this exact order). BVP.
Breathing
Vision & vestibular (seeing & balance)
The proprioceptive system (The body)
That’s right… the body itself is actually the last thing you need to focus on. That means you’ve been doing things backwards. Let’s talk about the right way to heal your back pain.
Improve your breathing
Your brain controls absolutely everything and it’s main nom nom is oxygen.
If your brain doesn’t get the fuel (oxygen) it needs, it’s going to think it's starving. When this happens, your brain responds by limiting your movement and sending pain signals.
Here’s a little breathing exercise to free up your lower back and help you move a bit easier.
Strengthen your vision and vestibular systems
Your vision is what affects… your vision. - and your vestibular system affects your balance. While these are two separate systems, we count them together because they depend on each other.
Think about it…If you can't see well and you can't balance well, your brain is going to try and stop you moving - and it does that by sending a pain signal to your lower back.
Here’s a lovely little exercise to help your balance and visual system get in sync.
Finally, work on the proprioceptive system (The body)
This should be the last thing you focus on when healing your back pain, but most people start here (which is why they never get out of pain).
If there’s a problem with your breathing, vision, or vestibular system, your muscles may be spasmed and will benefit from stretching, mobility work, strength training, etc.
But working on your proprioceptive system will only help you get out of pain if you’re putting in equal (or, more) work into healing your other systems.
Once you’ve done the other two exercises every day for one week, then you can start focusing on strengthening your back and improving your range of motion (and it’ll actually make a difference).
And this is the exercises I want you to use.
I want you to think of these three pillars as satellites, and you’re the GPS.
The more satellites that are online, the better and clearer the picture will be. You need all three to get a good, clear GPS picture.
Stop wasting your time focusing only on your muscular system, and start looking at the whole picture.
Strength training, yoga, pilates, massage, stretching - these are all valuable things when used in tandem with breathing, vision, and balance exercises.
Start by working on your breathing so your brain has enough fuel to do its job. Next, sync up your balance and vision so your nervous system can do it’s job. Then, once your other systems are working properly, make sure your body is in good condition.
If you address these three pillars in the correct order, your pain will disappear (unless your leg is hanging off, or you have some sort of bone disorder).
The exercises only take about 30 seconds each, so you can fit them into your day no problem. I like to weave them into my morning, or nighttime routine.
Use the BVP exercises and watch your back pain disappear.