Every day I go to my office, 50% of the clients I see suffer from back pain. I had a client in so much pain that he could not sit in a chair, lie on his stomach or on his back. He was on the floor on his knees with his head on the chair when I came out into the waiting room. In 1 week I helped reduce his pain by 50% and in 3 weeks he was back to work without pain. This man had tried everything for years. This was not a fluke as I see this every week in my office. It’s not a miracle either, just an understanding of why our backs hurt. Somehow the medical establishment overlooked this in their training.
First of all, I am not a doctor nor do I claim to be. I am a masseuse who has gone beyond giving massages. I have been fascinated by the muscles of the human body and how they play a role in how we feel. Too much attention has been paid to strength training our muscles. In every peer-reviewed journal, there are hundreds or thousands of studies on strengthening our muscles. There has been very little research on why we need to stretch and what is the best way. This is mainly the reason why we can’t solve back pain, once and for all, until now.
There are three areas of our body that can cause back pain. To find out which one is not difficult. If your back hurts when you stand up after sitting or lying down for a while, or after standing for a period of time, or after bending down to pick something up, the cause is probably in the front. from his body. More specifically, the front of the thighs if the pain is on either side of the lower back. If the pain is in the middle, it is likely that the inner thighs are causing the pain.
As you can see, I didn’t say anything about the back. These three sets of muscles can actually tilt the pelvis forward or backward putting enormous pressure on the lower spine. This can lead to bulging discs, herniated discs, or pinched nerves later on if left untreated. Let’s not wait for that to happen.
If you work out at the gym and talk to a trainer about these areas, they will show you stretches that don’t really work. The quad stretch where you stand and lift your heel to your hip is really more knee-friendly at best. You may feel a pull in your quads, but that’s only because they’re tight and any tight knee flexion will trigger it. Squatting will do the same. Once the quadriceps are tight enough, the knee can’t bend as much. In the resource box below I will add the link to some of my videos.
The second mistake in back stretching is trying to stretch your back by leaning forward. It feels good in the moment, but since you’re not stretching your front thighs, it won’t last long.
Inner thigh stretches where you sit on the floor, place the soles of your feet together, then press your knees down won’t work either. If you are already flexible this is great, if not you can hurt yourself.
Touching your toes while standing and leaning forward thinking it will stretch your hamstrings or back is also a mistake. First, you have three hamstrings, so you’re only stretching one at best. Secondly, if the cause is on the front side, then this will not help. I worked with a woman who was an avid yoga person. She had back pain and she went to her doctor. When she showed him that she could lean forward and place her palms on the floor, he said, “Yeah, you’re flexible, that’s not the problem.” When I asked her about bending back to stretch her front thighs, she said she never did it because it was too hard. I taught her how to stretch them and within 2 weeks she was pain free and she still has it after 5 years.
The biggest mistake people make when stretching, or teaching stretching, is not to include the brain. Your brain won’t let you do something if it thinks you’ll hurt yourself. If the brain doesn’t believe you can do it, you won’t. Stretching is about showing the brain that movement is possible. When people try to force a stretch or hold for more than 5 seconds when they feel pain, the brain contracts the opposing muscles to stop the pain. this can cause cramps. It will take a different mindset to learn how to stretch correctly.
The key is to be able to unlearn everything we were taught about stretching and relearn a new way that is much more beneficial for your body. If you can do that, you’ll find that the older you get, the less pain you’ll endure. I am virtually pain free every day at 60, however at 40, I was in so much pain that it led me to create this technique.