Stop Sciatica & Back Pain

Here’s the course registration form
Sample Lesson:

This is sample material from the course that outlines a set of exercises and health practices to help you stop sciatica and back pain. If you want to sample the rest of the course, register using the form above or below. The lessons are broken into 2 parts. (a) Core Activities that apply to everybody, plus (b) A more advanced set of exercises. The reason for this is that the feedback from people who have taken the course and are suffering from the more severe forms of sciatica, or who have a recent back injury, is that some of the exercises are too strenuous for them. So now, the exercises described in the “Core Activities” section of the course should be suitable for 99% of people. Feel free to move backwards and forwards between the lessons to find something that works for you. A Few Key Points: 1. We believe “whatever works” for you is just the right thing for you. That’s why you should try something different to what you are doing now - so you have a chance to find the thing that works for you. And, if you find something, anything that helps you - here or anywhere else - whatever it is and wherever it’s from - USE IT. 2. Finding a short term back fix vs building long term health You may find that one of the exercises we suggest is just what you need to help your back right now. If so that’s great - congratulations. We also strongly recommend that you take a broader look at your overall health and work out how you can improve it. Very often your back is an early warning system for issues that are building up, or have already built up elsewhere in your body. For this reason (and in case you’re wondering), some of the things we recommend are fairly general in nature becuase they’re aimed at improving your overall health. Remember to read our Disclaimer We are not medical practitioners and you should always consult your doctor, health practitioner or back specialist, especially if you experience progressive weakness in the legs or difficulties with bladder or bowel functions (e.g. incontinence). Core Activities We encourage you to learm more about how to stay healthy, because its a lot easier to stay healthy than to fix something in your body once its “broken”. You probably already know the basics - exercise regularly, eat well (meaning fresh, simple not processed foods.) As far your back in particular goes, one of the best things you can do is strengthen the core stability muscles that support your back in its movements, because whatever treatment you are already getting, or might get, your back is going to function better if these muscles are in good condition and able to do their job properly. There are simple things you can do that will make a big difference, for example: Go for a regular 20-30 minute walk. Make sure you get up and stretch regularly if you sit at a desk or behind a wheel driving all day. Lesson 1 is shown below. If you want to sample the rest of the course register using the form after the lesson. First Lesson Sample: Fact: More than 80% of us will experience back pain at some point in our lives. In fact, your back might be hurting today in which case this is just the course for you. The factors that increase the risks of you experiencing back pain, or sciatica, include common conditions such as: - Being overweight - Sitting or driving for too long, especially with an incorrect posture, without breaking for a stretch or a walk - Smoking - Heavy lifting, esp. with an incorrect posture - Repeating incorrect movement patterns over and over - Ignoring your age and capabilities e.g. if you’re like my husband, insisting on playing soccer way past your use by date. Now, many people believe that most back pain is caused by a slipped disc, but in fact less than 5% of lower back pain results from slipped discs. (A slipped disc refers to a disc that has either ruptured, or moved out of the correct position in your spine.) Also back pain is commonly caused by the disruption caused by an injured or inflamed disc. Discs have a poor blood supply like other ligaments and cartilage, so they take a long time to heal. In fact, much back pain is caused by the muscles in your spine “seizing up”, or going into spasm and putting pressure on the surrounding tissues and nerves in protection of an injured disc. It’s this pressure and tension that causes most of the pain. Why do they do this? It’s an automatic, protective mechanism that is triggered when your nervous system detects what it thinks is a threat to your back or spine. E.g. the moment you say “I’ll show them I’ve still got the moves”, your back might say “Oh no you don’t - I’ll show you”. And before you know it you’re bent over double, making noises like alligators mating. The “seizing up” is really your back bracing itself against what it thinks is a threat of injury, or to protect an existing weakness or injury. Important Point #1: A key point to understand is that for most people back problems come from patterns of behaviour that weaken the back over time. It’s not usually just one event that causes your back to “go out”, such as lifting the shopping out of the trunk, despite what you might think. Obviously accidents such as work or sporting injuries, car crashes are an exception to this. Rather it’s a build up over time of things that steadily weaken your back (and of course ageing plays its part too). Then one day a seemingly routine action sends it over the edge and it “goes out”, or freezes and goes into spasm. So there are simple but important things you can do to help yourself. 1. Change your existing behaviour and movement patterns These are probably contributing to your back pain. Change these patterns to reduce the number of times your back pain recurs. This could be as simple as getting up from your desk or workbench every 20 minutes and walking around for 30 seconds. If you drive long distances, stop your vehicle once an hour, get out and walk around it once then carry on with your trip. The same with flying long distance, get out of your seat every hour or so and walk up and down the plane. If you stand at work for long periods, seek regular sitting breaks i.e. the reverse of sitting at a desk for long periods. Basically, just give your back a “break” and a vary your movements. In fact, if you listen closely enough, you’ll learn to hear your back say “Hey Buddy, give me a break!”. These breaks mean your back is much less likely to get locked into a painful pattern. 2. Start an exercise routine that strengthens and “reprograms” the supporting muscles in and around your back to behave differently. There is a range of exercises described elsewhere in the site such as Sciatica & Back Pain Exercises and there are more in later lessons. Note: Whenever we suggest exercise we always ask you to read our disclaimer first. The material in this site and this course is all collected together in the The Better Back Book. The Book describes a whole set of different exercises and routine plan you can follow to strengthen your back. uses a set of unique exercises to loosen and strengthen your back. The results can be amazingly good in a very short period of time. The exercises stop back pain for more than 97% of people who use them. Let’s end this lesson with some good news: Fewer than one person in a thousand who experience back pain will need surgery. best wishes Rita & Chris Sign up for the course