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

In my practice as a physiotherapist in Toronto, I often come into contact with people who end up at the clinic seeking relief from their low back pain.

While many of their stories are unique, there are always certain similarities.

This holds true for not only back pain, but also shoulder pain, hip pain, knee pain or any other pain that you can imagine.

One of the most common questions I’m asked at the clinic is:

“How long will my low back pain last?”

And that, my friends, is a great question.

In some cases, my clients had low back issues resolved within days while others have taken months or longer.

But really, that just means I don’t know.

I wish I had a simple answer but since the actual mechanisms of low back pain are so varied and distinct for each sufferer, I wouldn’t honestly be able to answer that question with a blanket timeframe.

It just doesn’t exist.

There is no magic bullet, cure-all pill or results-guaranteed surgery. There is no exercise panacea.

Unfortunately.

However, in cases of mechanical low back pain, if you remove the root causes of the pain, the body has the incredible ability to heal itself.

While that task may appear simple, it’s not necessarily easy.

Fixing a bad back will take time and effort on your behalf. You will have to be consistent in working on improving your situation.

You’ll have to be willing to acquire the knowledge to learn what’s causing your pain or keeping you there.

You’ll have to be willing to break old habits, be aware of your postures and alter your positions.

You’ll have to be willing to do the work.

Basically,  you’ll have to give your body a chance to heal.

And that begs the question that has become the title of this blog post:

“How long will you let yourself suffer with lower back pain?”

What would you do to stop it?

What steps would you take?

What information would you need?

What price are you willing to pay?

What would you be willing to sacrifice?

These sound like hard questions to ask yourself, but they are absolutely necessary.

I’m looking forward to hearing your comments.

To your low back pain relief.

Dev Chengkalath

As the name implies, this isn’t for those people who are in the midst of an acute low back pain attack.

In fact, I would say this isn’t a physiotherapy core exercise for most people who are in any form of pain…

…Unless they can get out of the pain through abdominal bracing and using a neutral spine position. And they can hold that position without much difficulty.

That being said, in my Toronto physiotherapy practice, I use this exercise often when my client has progressed from the basic core re-training program to add a little variety to the exercise and rehabilitation program.

In this dynamic variation of the plank exericse, the key is to keep your body in that set “plank” position, without allowing your hips or your low back to sag or peak, while you raise and lower your body from your forearms to your hands.

This follows the idea of avoiding excessive flexion or extension based (forward or backward bending) positions through the low back (as discussed in the 3 Worst Core Exercises For People With Low Back Pain).

Yours in planking (dynamically or otherwise!)

Dev Chengkalath

Just a quick video clip of a more advanced physical therapy core exercise to help relieve low back pain: The Cross Over Plank.

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath

Just wanted to mix things up a bit and try out a new method (at least for me!) of getting the information out there.

I put together this short clip discussing the major causes of lower back pain.

Let me know what you think!

Yours in movement,

Dev Chengkalath

Well my friends, I know I said that I would write about strategies to improve hip mobility and spine stability in order to buffer against the deadly effects of low back pain.

However, I would like to switch gears a little bit just because I’ve had a pretty incredible weekend and wanted to share it with you.

The old dog in the title of the post is me. And boy did I learn some new tricks this weekend!

Here’s the background story:

I’ve never been a big winter sports kinda guy. For most of my life, I’ve been telling anyone who would listen, and many who didn’t want to listen, that I’m allergic to the cold. It’s more than likely that this is the reason that I have only skied once in my life, on a school ski trip about 16 years ago.

Now fast forward to this past weekend:

It all changed!

I hit the slopes as an adult beginner trying to learn a sport that has at its foundation some of the things I most detest: ice, snow, cold.

For the record, this is NOT me

Would I be willing to deal with those frigid elements to learn how to balance precariously on a two, incredibly thin, parabolic boards strapped to my feet, while hurtling down the side of a mountain in the name of fun?

My weekend at Mont Tremblant started with a beginner skiing lesson with a very patient, and understanding gentleman by the name of Jean Landry, on a hill that at best had a max altitude of 40 feet with a kind and forgiving slope. He started with the basics: how to balance, how to stop, how to turn, and most importantly, how to get up when you fall.

And that was probably the most important lesson.

Because in life, there will be falls.

There will be tumbles.

Some worse than others. Some a little softer.

Some, like the ones I experienced at Mont Tremblant, which gently kicked up clouds of fluffy white snow. Some, like the ones that my body aches remind me of, which had enough force to smack my helmeted noggin into the icy hillside.

But after every fall, I learned to awkwardly shuffle, twist, turn and twitch until I was standing again. I would stumble robotically towards my skis which were designed to liberate themselves well before the point where my ankles snapped. I would clip them back on to my feet, and then dust off the snow that had made its way through my four or five clothing layers.

And before I would start down the hill again, I would take a quick, wide-eyed peek up  the busy ski hill and see the other skiers coming down towards me with the control akin to a rally car that missed a turn and at speeds that I’m sure the human body is not designed to experience outside of rocket-ship travel. When the coast was clear, I would point my skis back to the bottom of the abyss and start my journey over again.

And that’s when something amazing happened.

I learned to ski.

This old dog, learned a new trick.

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath