Rick Kaselj, MS & Mike Westerdal – Fix My Pain Series
REVEALED: The Best Stretch To Do In The Morning For Your Lower Back…
Over half of the people subscribed to our health & strength newsletter either are suffering or have suffered from some form of back pain in the past year. With a fan base of over a quarter million people, the numbers are near epidemic.
Doesn’t that make you wonder how on Earth some people are able to train with 100% effort month after month, without ever having to slow down or miss any workouts due to a nagging injury caused by a sore, stiff or injured lower back? It makes you wonder what they’re doing that you’re not.
If so, I’ll tell you how they do it.
But first I’d like to share with you 4 Tactics to Eliminate Back Pain that were taught to me by injury specialist and exercise physiologist Rick Kaselj, MS.
I’ve spent a lot of time and money consulting with Rick, so be sure to pay close attention and take notes. These 4 strategies could be the difference between a nasty re-occurring back blowout versus taking the fast track to the pain free “limitless” workouts you need and deserve at any age.
TACTIC TO ELIMINATE BACK PAIN #1:
DO THIS EXERCISE FIRST THING IN THE MORNING!
Recently I attended a Jerry Seinfeld stand up comedy show and he joked that in today’s society all we do is move from seat to seat. We wake up and sit in our breakfast seat. We drive to work in our car seat to sit in our office seat. Then it’s back home to our dinner seat and ultimately the couch seat, or if we have plans for the evening we’ll be lucky enough to sit in a “show seat”.
Okay maybe it’s not quite that bad, but we do sit a lot, putting our bodies in a constant state of flexion which leads to chronic back pain.
The number one exercise you can do to alleviate an achy back is called a standing back extension. To perform this exercise, simply stand up and place your hands on top of your pelvis. Arch backwards and return back to standing. With each repetition try to go further and further. Your feet should be about hip width apart.
This exercise has been shown to be beneficial for 95% of the people with back pain either first thing in the morning or as a break from sitting.
Quick Fix: Do this back extension exercise 3-4 times per day for 5 repetitions whenever your back feels tight or sore. Your back should feel looser and better.
TACTIC TO ELIMINATE BACK PAIN #2: DON’T GET STUCK IN THE VICIOUS
BACK PAIN CYCLE
Years ago, before meeting exercise physiologist Rick Kaselj, MS I found myself caught in this vicious cycle after having a football-related lower back injury. In fact, I’ve “thrown out” my back on multiple occasions, but not once since consulting with Rick.
As Rick later explained to me, this cycle is very common and has happened to most of his clients in the past. It goes a little something like this…
TRADITIONAL BACK PAIN MODEL
At some point in your lifting career you come home and your back tightens up on you and you know something just isn’t right so you take some anti-inflammatory pills and throw an ice pack on. It’s not a big deal and part of playing sports and training hard right? Hopefully in a few days it will be completely better, but usually some kind of discomfort or pain lingers. That’s no reason to miss a workout though. Besides you can just avoid whatever causes it to flare up.
Eventually this gets old and if it doesn’t feel better after a few weeks or months it’s probably time to visit the doctor to find out what’s going on. After using up a sick day and sitting for an hour in the waiting room, it’s pretty annoying when the doctor tells you to rest, ice, and don’t do things that hurt. Seriously? If your insurance isn’t that great, you’ll probably have to go back to your primary care doctor to get a referral to see a specialist. They’ll have you do an MRI, which is super expensive so hopefully you have a low deductible. You’ll have to schedule another appointment for that though.
After the MRI you’ll get the diagnosis at your next appointment. How many appointments is that so far? I’ve lost track already…sigh.
Step 4 of the pain cycle is when you get sent to a physical therapist. If you’re in luck your therapist has worked with athletes in the past, but who are we kidding? Most of the people in the center are not physically fit at all.
Modalities you might be exposed to include hot packs, cold packs, ultrasound and electrical stimulation to name just a few.
Once your insurance runs out or you think you know the stretches and strengthening exercises well enough, you can continue with the rehab on your own time.
If it still doesn’t feel better, it’s time for another MRI……cha-ching, the cost is really adding up fast.
Next you can try more physical therapy or you can cover the symptoms with a cortisone shot that will numb the pain for a couple months. After that there’s always surgery, but something in your gut tells you that’s not what you really need. Listen to your instincts.
Hopefully you’re asking yourself …how do I make sure I don’t get caught in this twisted back pain cycle? I’m glad you asked and my reply is outlined in tactic #3 below.
TACTIC TO ELIMINATE BACK PAIN #3: DEAL WITH THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM NOT THE SYMPTOMS
Having chronic back pain most of my adult life, I have spent a lot of time researching alternative back rehab solutions.
With these traditional back pain protocols, they focus on purely stretching and strengthening. This alone does not work or at best provides temporary back pain relief. The reality is that stretching focuses on symptoms, not necessarily the problem.
While strengthening is important, it needs to be done when the lumbar spine has been reshaped into a pain-free back area. If you have not reshaped the lumbar spine into a pain-free area, you are just adding more strength to a painful region and making the problem worse. In time this stress leads to repetitive back injuries, increased vertebrae damage and overall lower back pain.
If you’re a personal trainer like me, this example will illustrate what I mean by reshaping. Lets say you want to become a strong deadlifter but your form is all jacked-up.
All the workouts in the world aren’t going to do you any good until you get your technique down. Once you have your technique perfected you have the platform to start planning your reps, sets, assistance exercises and other areas of your overall program.
It’s the same deal with your back. Don’t jump ahead to the stretches & exercises until you’ve reshaped the lumbar region to give you a solid foundation to progress from. In the next strategy I’ll share with you how to re-shape your back so that when you strengthen it you will NOT be causing more damage.
TACTIC TO ELIMINATE BACK PAIN #4: RESHAPING YOUR LOWER BACK CAN ACTUALLY BE EASY (WITH THE BR3-METHOD)
The BR3-Method is short for “Back Reshaping 3-Part Method”. It was invented by Injury Specialist and Kinesiologist Rick Kaselj, MS who has over 20 years of hands-on experience, and a Master’s Degree in Exercise Science.
In the vicious back pain cycle above, I mentioned how the doctor simply told me to not do what hurts? The entire reason I came in for the visit was to get back to what I love doing, not to stop doing what I love.
As I mentioned earlier I have personally been battling with lower back pain off and on for most of my adult life. Let me give you some quick background information.
The first time I hurt my back was my senior year of high school right at the beginning of football season. There was nothing I wanted more than to play my senior year and it looked like I was done for the year. I heard a pop one day in the weight room when I was doing lat pulldowns behind the neck. I’m sure I was using awful form and from that point forward I entered the world of lower back pain.
It hurt too much to sit down and I had to stand in class while taking notes (embarrassing). I had an MRI done and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me. I went to physical therapy and that didn’t help much either.
After missing the first three games of the season, I was getting really depressed and I cried out to God begging him to let me play my senior year of football. Shortly after that my back pain reduced and I was able to play the rest of the season.
That wasn’t the end of my back pain though. In college I threw my back out a few times so badly that I had to stay in bed for days. No, that wasn’t just an excuse to skip class, I physically couldn’t walk around when the muscles were tonic and spazzing out.
Being the competitive, stubborn guy that I am, I wasn’t going to let back pain rule my life. I kept putting my body through more stress by walking on the College Football team and played four years of D-IAA football. After college I had a short stint in Europe before tearing my ACL (knee).
WHAT IS THE BR3 METHOD?
The “Traditional Back Pain Model” involves endless cycles of appointments, investigations, stretching and strengthening.
After having hundreds of Rick’s clients follow this model with minimal success, he needed to find a new model that breaks the traditional back pain model and moves clients from painful lower backs to a pain-free lumbar region.
This led to the creation of the BR3 Method which is based on one key concept: Reshaping your lower back from a painful lower back to a pain-free lumbar spine.
I know it sounds amazing but let me show you how you can do this for yourself…
PART 1: INTERNAL RESHAPING
The first part of the BR3 method involves using internal reshaping. You take simple steps to create an environment in your lower back so that you have a pain free lumbar region.
PART 2: EXTERNAL RESHAPING
The second part of the BR3 method is reshaping your back from the outside. Now we are doing things that will continue the reshaping of the lower back, with a focus on what we can do to reshape it from the outside so that the lumbar region becomes pain free.
PART 3: INJURY SPECIFIC EXERCISES
Now that we have started the reshaping of the lower back from the inside and outside, the next step is to focus on injury specific exercises. Most therapists do all the same exercises, no matter what the back injury is, but this is not right. About 60% of the exercises are the same for all back injuries, but the last 40% are injury specific and this is very important to note.
TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR BACK PAIN & ELIMINATE IT SAFELY
Rick will show you everything you need to do in the Fix My Back Pain system. He will go through the 3-part program in detail using easy to follow videos and instructional guides so you can reshape your lower back to a pain free state.
INTRODUCING “FIX MY BACK PAIN”
QUICK START VIDEO TOUR
This is your speedy introduction and welcome tour to the system. Rick tells you what you need to do and how to get started right away.
This will be an invaluable time saver to help you dive right in and get started without any delay or questions.
The video portion of this segment will help you determine “What Is Going On With Your Lower Back“. Rick will take you by the hand and walk you through your self-assessment. You can follow along with the online DVD. It will be great. You’ll simply perform a movement that Rick shows you and based on how it feels you’ll know for sure what injury you have.
Rick charges $150 per assessment with his local clients but it’s included in your package. [$150 Value]
INTERNAL BACK RESHAPING
In this component you take simple steps to create an environment in your lower back so your lumbar spine can begin to reshape from a painful state to a pain free state.
There are 5 easy to understand simple steps that you need to do in order to start the reshaping process. [$150 Value]
EXTERNAL BACK RESHAPING
The second part of the BR3 method is reshaping the lower back from the outside. Now we are doing things that will continue the reshaping of the lumbar region, with a focus on what we can do to reshape it from the outside from a painful state to a pain free state.
With this component, there are only 5 steps that you need to take and the best part is it will only take a few minutes for you to implement. [$29.99 Value]
INJURY SPECIFIC EXERCISE
Now that we have started the reshaping of the lower back from the inside and outside, the next step is to focus on injury specific exercises. Most therapists do all the same exercises, no matter what the lower back injury is, but this is not right. About 60% of the exercises are the same for all lower back injuries but the last 40% are injury specific.
Looking at all back injuries, they fall into four categories: Herniations and Bulges, Sprains and Strains, Sciatica and All Others. The category your back injury falls into will decide the injury specific exercises that you should do.
Now you’ll be able to implement exercises and stretches because you have addressed the root cause and not the symptoms.
The Online DVDs explain everything step-by-step. Or you can refer to your handy PDF for a quick reference guide to over 60-exercises and techniques you can start using immediately to alleviate pain and feel better in just minutes. This segment will save you time, money, heartache and ultimately your health when you no longer look to medication and surgery as the only alternative. [$150 Value]
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