Relieve Low Back Pain | Reduce Low Back Pain | Canada's Leading Authority in Human Movement | Dev Chengkalath

As a head’s up, this post is a little longer than usual (that too after a LOT of cutting and editing!) but I felt that I needed to put it all together instead of splitting it up.

As I stated in my last post, how is it possible that with the ever-growing body of available knowledge, with the lightning-paced expansion of medical science and with all the incredible technological advances, that we still fail our clients in modern medicine?

I feel as though I came close to some sort of an answer to the above just recently.

Or at the very least a brief glimpse into what could be part of the answer (or maybe a better way of putting it would be part of the problem!).

I know I started off by talking about chronic pain, but this realization could just as easily relate to almost any type of pain or injury.

In our hurried and hectic world, we’ve stopped treating the person and we’ve started treating just the symptoms.

The Search for Symptomatic Relief.

I realize that this isn’t exactly Earth shattering or groundbreaking news. I won’t be getting any CNN headlines with this one.

But I think a good number of people in the medical health professions forget this basic tenet, and I know I’ve been guilty of this as well.

This became very aparent to me these past few weeks when I was working with a new client. In the years that this client had been seeking the care and guidance of his various healthcare professionals for chronic pain, no one had ever asked this client what was going on in his life.

Every appointment, meeting, or test was set-up solely for the purposes of medical assessment rather than human interaction. This gentleman had seen everyone for his pain. However, all of his practitioners were too busy to actually talk to him. He’d been put through the gamut of diagnostics from MRIs to CT scans and everything in-between.

Sadly…

No one asked him what was going on in his life now.

No one asked him what was going on in his life when the pain started.

No one tried to discern any of the social or emotional stressors that would exacerbate or propagate altered pain responses.

Because that is what chronic pain usually is.

It is, in a very broad sense, an abnormal, painful response to non-painful stimuli. Things that shouldn’t hurt, do.

In modern medicine, we’ve become so disjointed and specialized that we’ve forgotten that everyday stressors do impact how our bodies respond to our environment. We forget the elegance that is the construction of our physical selves.

Whether you believe in creationism or in evolution or something in between, you would be hard pressed to deny that the body knows what’s going on inside itself.

Eventually, these distinct stressors are replaced by amorphous, diffuse stressors that no longer resemble the original instigator.

And this takes me back to what I believe are the top three causes of pain (be it low back pain, knee pain or any other type):

1. Lack of knowledge-What’s causing, contributing or exacerbating the problem?

2. Motor Control-How do we move? How do we stay still? How is our body awareness?

3. De-conditioning-Are we using aging as a cop out and letting our bodies degenerate? Can we tolerate physical stressors?

Drop your comments and let me know what you think

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath

During my time as a physical therapist, I’ve come across a fairly significant number of individuals suffering from chronic pain.

These people have experienced pain for far longer than what would be expected from their form of injury or they had pain with no known cause that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

No trauma, no falls, no apparent reason for their debilitating pain and discomfort.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve seemed to have had an influx of clients come in with long-standing complaints of chronic pain similar to the above.

While completing the assessments and taking the histories, I found myself asking some of the same questions over and over again.

Mostly to myself, I would hear my deep masculine voice in my head (I swear that’s what my voice sounds like!) asking:

Why were these individuals still in pain, over such a long period of time, when there wasn’t any significant physical or organic cause for the pain?

Many had been tested using all the latest in technology from MRIs to CT scans to doppler imaging. Scopes, probes, blood and tissue samples etcetera etcetera.

It would seem as though no medical stone was left unturned.

Multiple medications had been prescribed and ingested. Referrals had been conducted. Second, third and fourth opinions had been sought. Specialists consulted. Therapies rendered. The list goes on.

But still no solutions.

And often, even no hope of salvation from the unyielding shackles of pain were given…Typical responses included “you’ll have to learn to live with it.”

With the exponential growth of medical science, why were these people still suffering?

Why were they still at the mercy of the relentless battering placed upon their bodies, minds and spirits by this crushing beast we call chronic pain?

As my cognitive wheels were turning, I kept coming back to a single question. It kept repeating over and over again in my head:

Where had modern medicine failed them?

In my next blog post I’ll discuss in greater detail HOW modern medicine missed out. And what you can do to fill in those gaps to protect yourself or your loved ones.

Yours in movement,

Dev Chengkalath

As I’m off to a wedding in a couple hours, this post will be  a short one.

In my last post about pains, trains and automobiles, I espoused the power of posture and how awareness of the same will give you control over most your aches and pains.

There’s another element that I’d like to explore in today’s post.

As the title says, it’s pretty simple.

But as always, simple doesn’t always mean easy.

Reduce your stress.

After all the traveling I’ve done the past few days I had a chance to partake in some incredible and breath-taking stress-relief therapy myself.

I would invite anyone and everyone  to make it a part of their bucket list to go visit the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada.

More specifically, go to Canmore (an incredible, picturesque mountainside getaway) about 45 minutes West of Calgary for a spectacular savory crepe breakfast at the Gourmet Croissant and then make the trip out to Moraine Lake, which is just a short trip from Lake Louise.

Peace of body and mind.

Just stand and stare into the magical waters of this lake and I can guarantee your stress will melt away.

The water colour was overheard quite accurately being described as “make-believe”.

I couldn’t agree more.

Yours in stress relief.

Dev Chengkalath

So I’m sitting here at the Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Canada just preparing myself for one of the most physically challenging events that I undertake about a dozen times a year or so.

Flying.

My travel schedule is typically full of courses and seminars but this time I’m off to sunny Alberta, Canada for a family visits and a wedding.

Five days of Rocky mountains, prairies and family fun time.

The problem is Alberta is a significant distance from Toronto. It’s true. Canada is an expansive piece of landmass.

Which is why I fly.

Therein lies my issue (some of my friends may say that this is just one many that afflict me!)

I hate flying. I really do.

My thoughts exactly

If you’ve been following anything on my blog, you’ll realize that I’m not a big fan of sitting. And flying, especially long distances, typically entails hours upon hours of just that (the same could be said of trains and automobiles as well!).

In fact, I would say that the simple act of sitting is, or has been, one of the fundamental reasons why people have consulted me for physical therapy to relieve their varying and incessant aches and pains, most notably low back pain.

I could go on all the other issues that arise, but I’ll save that for another time.

Let me guess…at this point you’re probably rolling your eyes in disdain at me with my sitting equals doom and gloom decrees.

Well, let me clarify this a bit.

Sitting isn’t so bad in itself.

The problem is that we tend to sit for LONG periods of time.

Without moving. In set positions like the famous slouch. Especially in airplanes with their cramped seats and long delays.

And that, my friends, is the reason I hate flying.

Think of it this way.

How often do you really get a chance to stand up and move around on an airplane? Do you really stretch your legs? How comfortable can you really get? And those tiny bathrooms…don’t even get me started on those.

I’ll be the first to admit…I’m a chronic fidgeter.

And it’s pretty damn hard to fidget when you’re strapped to what could essentially be considered a flying “profit-maximizing” seat.

Now imagine taking a flight that lasts 8-10 hours (thankfully, most of my flights are 5 hours or less). Now imagine doing that 5 or 6 days a week.

What kind of chronic stress and trauma do you think is placed on your body? On your bones, joints, tendons, ligaments and muscles? Or even on your mental state?

For those of you out there who work in offices, sit at desks or drive for long periods…this is what you do to your body. Everyday.

You take that daily airplane ride, without the airplane.

Think about that for a few minutes and ask yourself about the power of your posture.

Yours in fidgeting.

Dev Chengkalath

Well, it’s been over a month since I’ve last posted on this blog.

And if it weren’t for my friend Rumu in Calgary, it would have probably been even longer. Thanks for the kick in the pants.

I realize I was getting  fairly sporadic with my posting.

I had all the excuses.

And I could come up with a million more excuses.

All of them would be fairly valid.

I’ve been working 12 hour days at the clinic doing physical therapy, I’ve been out of town for continuing education courses and seminars, and I’ve been putting out a slew of professional fires. But in reality, if I actually look at the reasons for my absence they’re pretty weak…

Now, you’re probably wondering what the hell this has to do with motivation to move.

So here it is: how often have you created, crafted and customized an excuse not to move?

We’re all guilty of it.

Too tired. Too busy. Too (fill in the blank here).

In our mind it’s pretty easy to create justification for not only our actions, but our inactions as well.

I told myself that I was too tired, that I’d worked long hours, that I’d write tomorrow, or the day after. Somehow, I still found time in the past month to watch a few movies (I don’t watch TV, but I do have a DVD player) or just veg out. In that time, I could have pumped out a few blog posts or written a few articles.

In reality, it comes down to my poor planning and preparation. I knew my hours at work would be increasing. I knew I would have those courses and seminars. I didn’t plan ahead and for that I am at least a month behind on my blogging.

There was, however, one area where I did take a few steps in preparation.

My training.

I knew that with my increased work and education load that it would be easy to push this fairly important aspect of my life to the back-burner (or even off the radar!).

Then serendipity struck.

At the same time that these changes were taking place, about 9 weeks ago, I came across a forum post on Precision Nutrition.

In this post, a gauntlet had been dropped, a challenge had been set forth. It was a 16 week body transformation challenge where the only prize on the line was EGO. No cash. No prizes. Nothing more than self-actualization.

Putting my name down and being accountable, even to an essentially faceless group of people on an internet community, has kept me on task at the gym. That an those half-naked pics.

My goals were lofty but not body composition related.

I figured if I chose performance targets my body would change during that journey.

In the 16 weeks I am to complete a triple body weight squat, a triple body weight dead lift, a double body weight chin up and a double body weight bench press.

I hit one of the four already. Because I had to.

I am getting close on the second. But that still leaves two more that need work in the next 7 weeks.

So here’s my challenge to you.

Find your motivation to move.

And let everyone know about it.

That social accountability will go a long way in keeping your on track towards your movement goals.

I know it worked for me.

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath