4 Steps To Back Pain Relief with Dr. Gonzalez

Anyone who has ever experienced a back injury knows how crippling the pain can be. It's an unforgiving beast. The negative effects of a back injury are not just limited to physical performance. They creep into your social life as well, affecting you mentally and physically.

Back pain is extremely frustrating. It will put your whole life on hold if you let it.

Have you every experienced this?

Maybe you're currently battling back pain and not sure what to do about it.

Keep reading.

I recently reached out to Dr. Sebastian Gonzalez, owner of Performance Place Sports Care one of the leading Sports Chiropractic facilities in Orange County, CA.

Some of his credentials:

• Doctor of Chiropractic

• Diplomate American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians®

• Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

• Registered in Musculoskeletal Sonography®

• Russian Kettlebell Certified

• Elite Active Release Techniques® Provider

• TPI Certified Golf Medical Professional – Level 3

Dr. Gonzalez specializes in sports related injuries and is an expert in body mechanics. His methods are up to date with current research, he puts out a TON of great content, and has a strong conviction to change how trainers and healthcare professionals educate their clients on sports injury prevention and treatment. This guy is solid.

So where do you begin?

I'll let Dr. Gonzalez take it from here...

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Start with a symptom check.

Are you experiencing any of the following:

• Loss of sensation to the outer calf

• Slight ache in the butt cheek

• Tight back muscles when sitting for even a short period

These are all signs of a back condition that’s very treatable when addressed early. I should know… I’ve had this exact symptom pattern.

In this article I’ll cover the top 4 tips I’ve personally used for my back condition.

#1 Seek A Diagnosis

Some of you may be thinking,”Oh crap, this is another one of those articles telling me I have to go to the doctor to manage my condition,” and you wouldn’t be wrong, but hang on there. I know for a fact you’ll learn more from this article than “rest, heat, ice, medicate etc.”

Before I jump into the things that helped me get back to my active lifestyle, I must admit that I wasn't able to diagnose myself.

I attempted to treat myself for 2 weeks before I finally grew up and admitted I was too emotional about my own case. I couldn’t think clearly. My emotions ranged between anger, to depression, to the feeling that my sporting career was over.

Theses emotions are common post-injury, but it’s extremely self-defeating.

The rough estimate for adults with back pain is 7 out of 10. Back pain is an epidemic! A correct diagnosis means a possible correct treatment plan.

Here was my treatment plan.

#2 Isometric, High-Tension Core Work Daily

Isometric, in this case, means keeping spinal posture throughout the entire exercise. Ideally there’s zero spine motion.

I have a huge article on this topic. Here’s the section on isometric core exercise and here’s the section on dynamic core exercise.

As a general rule, if your injury is triggered through spine motion, then dynamic is a bad idea… funny though, most people do dynamic core work.

Here are a few exercises I used, and still use daily:

• The McGill Birddog

• The McGill Modified Curl-up

• The Side Bridge

(Demonstrations in the video above)

#3 Go for a daily walk

Forget walking the dog or sipping coffee as you walk. The type of walking I'm talking about is a brisk, power walk. In my Huntington Beach facility, I teach this daily as therapy.

Therapeutic walking involves:

• Large arm swings

• A quicker than normal pace

• Not walking through the symptoms

Dr. Stuart McGill PhD directed me to this concept. I worked up to an hour a day in blocks of time. He calls it “Intermittent Walking,” because it is exactly that. I did it in “pain-free” blocks of time, up to an hour. The goal is to move well, not push through pain.

What did I do next?

#4 Build A Stiff Torso

I spent two months building my torso endurance and then proceeded to “ball and socket work.” This may seem like a confusing concept. You can read all about how the ball and socket joints guide the motion of the spine in my article section on The Pillar System.

I have more examples coming out in 2018 but they're on a scheduled release. Here’s the link for when they come live.

I learned some valuable lessons from my back injury. I reaffirmed my belief that this style of treatment helps… notice how I never mentioned stretching. People tend to think stretching is a critical part of recovering from a back injury, but it's under 25% of the correction in my opinion.

Building the resilience of the spine to withstand deviations from optimal position require stiffness. For this reason I did what I call “stiffwork” for my back injury… and it worked!

Lastly, if you’re going through all the emotion that go hand in hand with an injury, don’t give up. You just need to find someone who can diagnose you correctly, figure out what works for your body and motivate you to do your recommended rehab DAILY.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions. I do take phone calls, but, due to the volume of requests, I’ve had to schedule them and have people pay for my time. I’d love to talk to everyone but I'd have no time for my hands-on patients. Thanks for understanding. You can book your 30 min call with me here if you'd like.

Dr. Sebastian Gonzales DC, DACBSP®, CSCS

Director of Care, Performance Place® Sports Care