On July 23rd, I paired with Braden Mowry, a local fitness enthusiast and owner of AVID Crossfit, to help educate our community on back pain. While I have a solid understanding of fitness from my education and competitions, I constantly learn new things about improving how I move my body from Braden’s humble coaching style. He approaches people’s fitness at their level to help reach their goals. While there was a great turn out, we know Saturday is often busy, so here is a recap of the Back Attack Seminar.
Back pain is broken into 3 common classifications:
70% – strains and sprains
27% – discs, fractures, other mechanical causes
3% – everything else – autoimmune, cancer, infections
Signs of an emergency:
While over 90% of causes of back pain are not an emergency, there are a few red flags (in other words CALL ME ASAP OR GO TO THE ER):
- Recent trauma (this can vary based on age or other conditions)
- Inability to control the flow of urine (either cannot go or leaking because of a full bladder)
- History of cancer
- Worsening neurological findings
- Recent spinal procedures
Recovery/Prevention:
Now for the vast majority of back pain the first step to recovery is to keep as active as you can without exacerbating your pain. It is important that when we have a spasm, we intentionally get out of bed and maintain a safe level of activity.
Once we are over the acute spasm, the next step is recovery and prevention. I recommend a program put together by the US military to help our soldiers recover from injury, and it is a valuable resource for you. The program is broken into 3 components:
Strength, Mobility, and Cardio.
Braden did a great job working with us on Saturday going through each of the activities that can be found at the bottom of the page. The goal is to start 3 times a week and progress until you can complete it 5 times a week without pain. Remember the value of this is CONSISTENCY.
If you are struggle with back pain like I do, incorporating these activities will significantly improve your ability to protect your spine and improve your activity. If you would like to work with Braden at AVID click here to set up an intro meeting.
If you are looking for the home exercises, check it out here:
https://www.hprc-online.org/physical-fitness/rx3
Have a great week,
M. Ryan Odom, MD
