Back Pain – “The truth behind bulging discs”
I get so many enquiries every week about clients wanting to start pilates and yoga for back pain. Social media and the national press have done studios and teachers a great favour by promoting lots of articles. However there are a few important facts. People are forever telling me that their back pain is because of a prolapsed,herniated or fused discs – but can that really be correct all of the time?
76% of people with NO HISTORY of back pain have disc bulges, while 96% of people with a history of pain have disc bulges. This is often overlooked by many therapists and personal trainers. Random corrective exercise programs, yoga asanas, pilates movement patterns are given without truly knowing the route cause or the client being truly assessed as an individual.
For my summer holiday this year I attended a full dissection course. What an eye opener indeed, most medics and trainee surgeons would never have the opportunity to see, feel and observe the connections and textures in the body on a full corpse. As the bone song goes everything is connected. Then if this is so why are we only treating the knee, hip, ankle shoulder, lower back rather than looking at the bigger picture.
Our body has a way of communicating with us whether it’s back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, flu and others. Optimal well-being is created from a balanced contribution of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects. As a practitioner initially looking at the physical body is a great beneficial starting point as many people are unaware on how their diet and lifestyle affect their connective tissues. The person’s ability to manage food, drink, work and stressful relationships will create long term imbalances in which the body cannot deal with. However if the pain does not subside and the client is still running round in circles a deeper responsibility has to be taken by the client with the practitioner leading the boat. A poor lifestyle and diet will weaken the immune system and cause dis-ease, meaning the body is not at ease.
When we are tired, wired, burnt out, stressed and unbalanced, the environment becomes ideal for pathogens to move in. This makes us prone to fungal, parasites and viral infections. Hence inflammation shows in various forms around the body from arthritis, bursitis to IBS. An individual’s health is a result of the direct lifestyle. Anyone can produce a cure or quick fix, that is the easy option. A cure is the removal of symptoms and any good practitioner can do this, however creating well-being is not just the absence of symptoms but maintaining optimal well-being in order to live life to the full and this is the harder one to coach and create.
“If you choose to alter your dependency cycle the choice is yours and therefore the power becomes yours”. Emma Lane
So if the back pain is not coming from the prolapsed disc as mentioned at the beginning could it be something else? External things can influence us and affect the physical body, particularly emotions. The body stores trauma in the muscles, organs, fascia etc. We live in an environment of constant output. The degree on how we perceive a threat is whether it affects us. Sympathetic stress (yang) is catabolic so breaking down, parasympathetic stress (yin) is repair, digestion and healing. A chronic or on-going problem of pain will have an output of cortisol leading to syndrome X, diabetes, affecting the immune system and switching off digestion.
Everyone has neural reflex patterns thus meaning our organs can most definitely be linked to pain in the body. The medical community is aware on the impact of emotions and organs. If organs get overloaded a neuro reflex loops sends energy off around the body landing in the muscular skeletal system.
The inventor of GYROTONIC Julio Horvath – “The cause of all disease is STAGNATION, regardless if mental, emotional or otherwise, therefore with a systemic and a well calculated process, we can attain a natural aging without too much discomfort, indulging in the gift of life and in one’s body and dance free in the spirit”.
So which came first the pain or the injury?
Eugen Sandow (1867-1925) is still known today as the father of modern body building in the Victorian era. He was ahead of his time in that he had a strong belief in the connection between organ health and muscle. Sandow was compared to a Roman god. His resemblance to the physiques of classic Greek and Roman sculpture was no accident. Eugene said “You can’t have healthy muscles if you don’t have healthy organs and glands.
What can you do if you are suffering from pain?
The purpose of movement is to keep your body oscillators pumping. So move, whether it be Zumba, dancing, walking, or playing with the children. We are a system of organs and the organs are constantly working, moving and cleaning substances around, so eat right to think right and have effective digestion. Join a social group movement class to keep you motivated to turn up each week, this can be Pilates, Yoga, GYROKINESIS or any other form of exercise. If it ain’t working see a CHEK corrective exercise coach, this is the only system I know of around the world that looks at the body as a full holistic being. Not only healing from the inside but the outside too.
“The ultimate aim is to be at home in one’s body, free of pain, unrestricted and uninhibited and to be one with nature of oneself, to be tool and fulfilled”. Julio Horvath
Bibliography
“HLC 1” Paul Chek
“Messages form with- in” – Emma Lane
http://hal.bim.msu.edu/cmeonline/basicconcepts/FacilitatedSegment/start.html
http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-540-29678-2_6337
