Heal your bad back and slipped disc

Your slipped disc is rarely the cause of back pain. Making the mistake of believing the slipped disc is the cause of the pain in your back can add weeks to your recovery time. (Of course, you should check with your doctor just in case your slipped disc is an exception).

It very rarely is an exception. Scans regularly find people with a slipped disc who have no back pain. When people do get pain from slipped discs in their lower back, that pain is usually down their leg or in their buttock, not in their back.

If the slipped disc is not giving you the pain, what is?

The real reason for your back pain

In almost every case of back pain with a slipped disc, the pain comes from extreme tension in the back muscles. Tight muscles hurt. Really tight muscles damage themselves. Those extremely tight, damaged muscles and tendons really, really hurt.

So why are your back muscles tight? The reason is almost always harmful habits of movement.

Your harmful habits of movement

There is a fundamental difference between the way a back is meant to work and the way most people use theirs.

The human spine is meant to move all of a piece, with no stiffening and, usually, very little bending. Bending should not be in your spine: it should occur above and below your spine. The bending should be between your head and your spine and between your spine and your legs. Moving in this way leaves your spine with all its joints very supple and flexible but not having to bend very much or very often.

In contrast, most people habitually bend at many joints when it would be much better to fold at just one joint. They bend the whole top of their spine every time they need to move their heads. They bend the whole lower spine when they really only need to move their legs and fold neatly at their hip joints.

These habits both strain your muscles and put immense pressure on the joints of your spine. Consequently, once you get rid of these habits, you both stop getting back pain and stop damaging your discs.

These habits are underpinned by certain mistaken beliefs.

The mistaken beliefs that underpin your harmful habits

There are four (actually five) such mistaken beliefs:–

1. You believe your hip joints are somewhere else

Almost nobody knows where their own hip joints really are. Even doctors, who know exactly where the hip joint is on a skeleton, don’t know where their own hip joints are. (I’ve taught plenty of doctors and that’s what I found).

2. You believe and feel you’re leaning forwards when you aren’t

You don’t stand straight because, if you did, you’d feel like you were leaning forwards. So to stop yourself leaning forwards, you lean backwards instead. (In addition, when you have back pain, you’re afraid of leaning forwards in case it gives you more pain. That fear makes you lean backwards even more.)

3. Your Demented Mechanic

Huh? What’s a Demented Mechanic? Your Demented Mechanic is the name I give to a major mistaken belief most people have. In short, it means you believe you need to use your back to hold your chest and shoulders up. This belief is false. This Demented Mechanic is a whole new subject that I’ve written about in detail elsewhere.

4. You believe your head should move from too low down

Even people who know where their head sits on top of their neck don’t move their head from there. They bend their neck and back instead.

In time, you’re going to need to deal with all four of these mistaken beliefs but the urgent one you need to see to first is actually the fifth.

The fifth mistaken belief

The fifth mistaken belief is a big fear. It’s the tremendous fear that kicks in when the other four mistaken beliefs have landed you with that horrible pain in your back. This overwhelming fear is the fear of hurting and damaging yourself more by moving while you’re in pain.

Although it’s very natural fear, it’s actually only appropriate if you’ve just had an accident where you might have broken something. Once you know you haven’t broken anything, this fear of hurting yourself more only makes you rely even more strongly on those four mistaken beliefs. It makes the habits that depend on those beliefs kick in extra hard.

While you have the pain you have the fear. While you have the fear, kicking those habits is next to impossible.

NOTE: Of course, even once you know you haven’t broken anything, you should see your doctor about any pain that doesn’t quickly go away by itself, if only to make absolutely sure there isn’t some other condition that needs medical attention. So, yes, go for a medical check as soon as you can just to be sure.

Besides, there’s nothing like making sure to re-assure you and help you allay those very natural fears. Once you’ve had the medical check, what can you do about the pain?

Don’t be afraid

That’s right, don’t be afraid. The first purpose of this article is to help you understand what’s going on. It’s to let you know that nothing dire is about to happen. It’s going to be okay.

Fearing the worst when you get sudden bad back pain is normal. However, the reality is that the pain will almost certainly gradually go away by itself, even without any treatment. As you get used to being in pain and begin to move about a bit anyway, you see that nothing bad does happen. You begin to forget the fear and move more freely.

Having tightened up your back so much, you will have caused temporary damage to muscle. It will take a little while for that damage to heal but you don’t actually need to do anything to help it or protect it.

In the meantime, while the damage is healing, here’s what you should do to loosen your back up more quickly.

Once the pain has subsided

Once the pain has subsided, it’s time to rid yourself of those false beliefs and their accompanying habits. That’s the only way to prevent your back problem from recurring again and again.

In addition, if you do rid yourself of those beliefs and habits, you will also begin to recover the ease and agility that you’ve been gradually losing ever since you were about four or five years old.

So that’s two reasons to tackle those beliefs and habits:–

To stop getting episodes of back pain
To gradually become more mobile, more agile as you get older.

That’s while almost everybody else you know is gradually stiffening up and turning into more and more of an old crock.

Articles to help you once the pain has subsided

These articles will help you understand and tackle your four mistaken beliefs:–

Summary

Don’t be afraid of the pain in your back. Your slipped disc is not the problem. You’re not in danger of further injury.
Don’t be afraid to move about as much as the pain will let you. You will heal more quickly for doing so.

If you’re serious about permanently de-crocking yourself, you will also benefit from the following resources.

The other articles in this category are here:‒

Bad back (back pain and stiff back)

Personal Coaching by Philip Pawley

If you want to get the best kind of help, come to me for an introductory lesson in Liverpool.

If you’re too far away, then the next best thing is to get personal lessons and advice from me online at Repoise.com, my on-line school. (Both far-away and local pupils use Repoise).

In more detail:–

If you’re in Liverpool (or can get to Liverpool)

There’s nothing better than individual lessons. My practice is at 37 Hope Street, Liverpool L1. Ring me on 0151 708 6172 to book an initial consultation and first lesson. (Leave your number so I can get back to you).
If you’re short of funds, you can still have first class training from me — though it will require a little more work on your part.

The thing to do is have an individual, in-person lesson just once a month. That will entitle you to also get regular on-line lessons from me through Repoise. That way, you have the best of both worlds: in-person lessons and very regular, even daily, on-line Personal Coaching by Philip Pawley from me. That’s a real bargain because Repoise costs the equivalent of three lessons a year to everyone else.

Ring me on 0151 708 6172 if you want to arrange this.
I occasionally run group lessons. If you’re interested in these, go here for details.

If you’re further away and can’t get to Liverpool

There’s still nothing better than individual lessons. Here’s where you can find a teacher near you in the UK or elsewhere
I suggest you also get direct day-to-day guidance from me by joining Repoise.
If you’re having plain Alexander Technique lessons from someone else, you still need to discover the Smiling Back Method of the Alexander Technique. You’ll get a lot more out of your lessons when you do.

37 Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside L1 9EA, England
Telephone: +44 151 708 6172 Mobile: +44 7872 905 154

Philip Pawley

top

- About | Contact | Privacy | Search -