The Amazing Power of “The Straw”

Dear Back Pain Sufferer,

As you can see I’ve attached a picture of a straw to this letter, here’s why I’ve done this…

For ten years, Jesse Cannone over at The Healthy Back Institute has spent a great deal of time working with, connecting and listening to his patients.  I mean really listening. There is one phrase he hears daily, over and over and over again, almost like a mantra.

One phrase is repeated daily, over and over and over, almost like a meditation mantra.

One day, he counted and said that he heard this phrase 14 times.

He’s so tired of hearing this phrase that he’s decided to give away his 7-DAY BACK PAIN CURE BOOK for FREE just to get people to stop saying it.  More about that in a minute…

Any guess what the phrase is?

Heck, who has time to guess, I’ll tell you, the phrase is…

“All I Did Was”

“All  I did was… bend over to pick up my baby”

“All  I did was… get out of my car”

“All  I did was… rake leaves”

“All  I did was… put my golf clubs in the car”

Maybe, sometime in your life you said to someone… “All I did was”… when you first noticed your back pain.

Truth is, after you say, “All I did was“… you are explaining the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

Your final action before your back “went out”.

Your back doesn’t care if you are young, old, athletic, pathetic, skinny, obese, the straw doesn’t care either.

What’s the fix?

On this, we’re a broken record, here goes…

Find the tight area(s) and gently stretch them, find the weak areas and gradually strengthen them, use ice if it’s inflamed or swollen.

This may all sound too complicated sooooo…

I have a really amazing free resource that I want to share with you today.  Earlier I mentioned that Jesse was giving away his 7-DAY BACK PAIN CURE BOOK for FREE!

I just finished reading the book and I think it is one of the most important books that I have ever read about living pain free.

The principles in this book are so simple and yet so critical to understand to make sure that you live your life without back pain, neck pain or any other type of physical pain.

The book is called “The 7 Day Back Pain Cure” and like I mentioned before Jesse is actually giving it away right now for FREE for a limited time.

You can get your free copy by clicking on the image of the book or the link below:

Click Here to Get Your Free Copy

I’ve actually known of Jesse for a long time because he’s known as the “back pain relief guy” but I’m kicking myself in the butt for not having read his book sooner.

I would have never expected a back pain guy to have such a thorough understanding of the mind body connection the way that Jesse does.

Jesse really breaks down all of the reasons for how back pain is caused, what all the “typical” options are for treating it, and tells you exactly how to eliminate any existing back pain you may have and how to prevent any future back pain.

I personally don’t have back pain any more but I’m glad I read this book because it gave me a wealth of knowledge that I didn’t previously have on how to avoid it. 

Jesse is also going to donate $1 to your choice of charity; either Habitat for Humanity or Kiva.org when you pick up a book today (even though he’s giving you the book for free).

Here’s the link again to get your copy:

Click Here to Get Your Free Copy

Enjoy the book and let me know what you think of it when you’re done (which will likely be in a few days if you’re like me and can’t put it down). 

Sincerely,

Andrew

P.S. – If you’re curious to know why Jesse is giving away his book make sure to watch the video on this page:

Watch the Video Now

P.P.S. Remember, when you hear anyone say… “All I Did Was” tell them about the straw and have them get their 7-DAY BACK PAIN CURE BOOK for FREE!

My wife was tired from the baby being up throughout the night, the baby was restless and wiggly while my wife was trying to put her in the playpen.  The moment she bent over, she felt her back muscles immediately tighten to the point where she almost dropped the baby into the playpen because of the pain.

This is a common scenario of how back pain occurs “out of the blue”.  It is when someone is either tired, distracted or in a hurry and boom the pain hits.  How many relate to this?  While you may not have a baby, you still may relate in some other way.  Perhaps picking up a grocery bag, getting out of bed, doing the dishes, etc…

She was not thinking about her body mechanics, engaging her abs, using her gluts or anything else other than putting the baby into the playpen.  Overall fatigue and distraction helped to change her focus which caused her to use poor body mechanics causing the gluts and muscles along the spine to tighten up.

Fortunately we have been married for 6 years so she has heard me give other people advice on what to do when they injure their back.  Immediately after she felt the pain she was able to lay on the couch and she started icing her back.

When I got home I was able to have her start gently stretching her gluts and alternating between ice and heat.  Within a couple of hours the pain went from excruciating and stopping her in her tracks to soreness in the lower back.  She was able to sleep well with a pillow between her knees and in front of her.

The next day she woke up sore and stiff but without the sharp pain that she was experiencing less than 24 hours earlier.  Throughout the next day she was able to walk stretch, ice and perform some gentle exercises.  It took a couple of more days for the soreness to completely go away, but the sharp pain never returned.

Since the incident, my wife is more aware of her body mechanics and now takes the time to watch how she positions herself when putting the baby in the crib, playpen or highchair.

I’ve identified some major nuggets into relieving your back pain in situations like this.

So what can you take from this.  Simple step can get you quick relief from a back pain incident.  Apply ice and heat, be aware of your mechanics and engage the appropriate muscles.

Since this scenario is such a common problem and occurrence, I wanted to share a personal example to illustrate how it happens to all of us. The difference is knowing how to treat it, cure it and prevent it from ever happening again.

Thank you.

Martin

When the hamstrings and hip flexors tighten, they pull on the pelvis creating stress into the lower back.  Once the pecs start to tighten, they pull the shoulder blades forward, causing stress on the neck.   Once those muscles tighten up, your  posture begins to become worse and the pain begins to increase.  The surface that you are sitting on can make the problem even worse if it is not supportive of your neck and back.

As a matter of fact, while I was sitting in the waiting room on jury duty the other day, I started experiencing some of this discomfort after sitting in jury duty today.  After sitting here for 45 minutes and  waiting for instructions, I started to notice how my leg muscles were feeling tight and my neck was starting to bother me.  At the onset of this uncomfortable feeling, I got up, walked around a little bit and then started stretching both my lower body and my upper body. Immediately I started feeling some relief in both my upper and lower body.

One of the things that stands out most to me, other than people not wanting to be here,  is their posture.  When we arrived this morning at 8, most people were sitting up tall, eagerly awaiting whether or not they were going to be called in.  Now that it is in the middle of the afternoon, people are slouching, rubbing their necks and squirming in their seats.  People’s sitting and standing postures are getting worse the longer we are in here.  I am noticing a lot of people who look uncomfortable and are hurting.  I have been able to stretch and walk around every 1/2 hour throughout the whole time I have been here.  I have been stretching my legs, pecs, biceps and neck.  I honestly believe this is what has helped me be able to make it throughout the day without having upper or lower back pain.

The three steps to help you avoid back pain when you have to sit for long periods of time are getting up and walking around, stretching your upper body and stretching your lower body.  Getting up and walking around whether to the bathroom or to get some water, it helps to get some blood flow through your body.  This simple amount of movement will help you when it comes time to stretch because the muscles will be less tense.

The second and third steps are stretching.  Stretching  the upper and lower body are equally important because they both are affected when you sit for long periods of time. Stretching the upper body consists of your pecs, biceps, shoulders and neck muscles.  Stretching the lower body consists of stretching the hamstrings, quads, calves, gluts and hip flexors.  All stretches should be light to medium in intensity and held for at least 40 seconds.

As you can see, the effects of sitting as related to lower back pain can be easily counteracted by applying simple stretching techniques in almost any environment.  I hope this gives those of you who sit a lot during the day some food for thought as well as a simple application for stretching while sitting in your chair.  I hope this gives those of you who sit a lot during the day some food for thought about stretching in your chair and how you can avoid suffering from upper and/or lower back pain.

In this video, Martin discusses the importance of proper foot mechanics and appropriate footwear for increased lower back pain relief. 

• Discover whether you walk in a supinated or pronated position and how this effects lower back pain
• Learn the 3 most important techniques for testing a shoes effectiveness
• Identify the 2 most common mistakes people make when walking and how to avoid them
• all this and more…

One of the best things I can recommend is to stretch when you begin to feel tightness in a particular area of the body.  For example, if you are sitting for an hour and your lower back and legs start to feel tight, immediately start stretching your hamstrings, gluts, quads and calves.  Don’t wait for the perfect time to stretch, learn to do simple stretches wherever you are.

Another example would be if you go grocery shopping and you carry heavy bags multiple times from your car to your house. After you bring the bags in, it is advisable to stop and stretch your pecs and biceps because those are the muscles that will tighten the most in the carrying motion.

Whenever you are doing repetitive activities, make sure you stretch throughout the activity.  An example would be walking for weight loss or for heart health.  If you walk a few times a day for 20 or more minutes, make sure you stretch at the half way point and again at the end.  Stretching will help those muscles stay at their appropriate length and will allow those muscles to perform at their best.

Stretching does not need to be something you do for a long time.  Rather if you do each stretch for 40-60 seconds and you are stretching the muscles that were the most active during your activity, it should only take between 3 and 10 minutes.  Again if you stretch the muscles that you feel are the tightest, it should be easy to do and you can do those stretches anywhere.

Sitting in the wrong type of position, wrong type of surface or for too long may be the reason why you are experiencing lower back pain.  Sitting with your feet dangling, back reclined too far, too much lumbar support, not enough lumbar support, chair too low are many reasons why people have lower back pain.  If your job requires you to sit for many hours, choosing the right chair and position you will be in is vital to your lower back health.

Choosing the type of surface you are going to sit on is important.  If you are going to sit for hours watching a movie, paying bills or even reading a book, sitting on a low couch with little support is disaster waiting to happen.  If you are going to be sitting somewhere for hours at a time, make sure you have adequate support for your lower back and legs.

The amount of time you spend sitting each day may be the main reason why you experience or continue to experience lower back pain.  Every 60-90 minutes, you should be getting up from your chair, moving around and stretching to ensure that your leg muscles are not shortening and creating undue stress on the lower back.  Simple 40 second stretches for the lower legs and getting up every 60 minutes will help to reduce and possible eliminate all of your lower back symptoms.

Raising your legs up by placing pillows or supports under your thighs can be beneficial because it helps to place the pelvis in a neutral position and it helps with blood circulation back to the heart.  If you need to, place a pillow along your sides to ensure that you do not roll onto your side or onto your stomach.

Sleeping on your side is also okay, but many things can happen while sleeping that can cause or irritate your lower back pain.  One of the main things that people do when sleeping on their sides is to move the top leg into a fetal-like position.  That creates a big stretch in the gluts and hip region and causes tightness to occur in other muscle groups.  Upon waking the gluts and the hip area will be weaker because they were stretched out for hours while sleeping causing an unbalance and creating additional pain.

If you are to sleep on your side, place a pillow between your knees and ankles to keep the knees, hips and ankle on the same level.  This will help reduce the chance that you will move your top leg up to a fetal position.

The least recommended position for sleeping is stomach sleeping.  Stomach sleeping forces you to turn your head to one side for long periods of time.  When that happens, the muscles of the spine and neck are thrown out of balance and will eventually lead to back and possible neck pain.

Before you go to be tonight, please remember the basic to sleeping as they relate to back pain outlined in this article.

You can also visit http://youtube/stopsbackpainnow for videos demonstrating the methods outlined in this article as well as other helpful information on back pain relief.

Once the shoulders come forward, the neck will be placed in an adverse position and will lead to neck, upper and middle back pain.  By keeping your muscle groups in a balanced state, it helps eliminate unnecessary stress on the neck and shoulders. Your stretches should be of a light to medium intensity and be held for 40-50 seconds for each stretch.
Stretches can be performed before, during and after an exercise or physical movement. Before an exercise you can do light intensity stretching, but during and after an exercise you can do a more medium intensity stretch.

Should you feel discomfort on the upper back, you should try stretching the pecs and biceps lightly to see if you can alleviate the pain. Stretching immediately will increase the chances of back pain reduction as well as assist with future occurrences.  If you wait to address your pain then your body will start compensating with other muscle groups creating additional stress and pain.

Implement a stretch routing into your daily activities and you will be greatly rewarded.  For stretch examples on video, visit our video page at http://www.YouTube.com/StopsBackPainNow

Specific stretches when performed correctly can restore balance and relieve the pain caused by disproportionate muscle tension.   Some of the most common muscles that require balance to stop lower back pain include: 

• hamstrings and quads
• gluts and hip flexors
• external rotators of the hip and the ITB.

By keeping those muscle groups in a balanced state, it helps eliminate undo stress on the spinal column.  Your stretches should be of a light to medium intensity and be held for 40-50 seconds for each stretch.

Stretches can be performed before, during and after an exercise or physical movement.  Before an exercise you can do light intensity stretching, during and after an exercise you can do a more medium intensity stretch.

When you feel  discomfort in your lower back, you should stretch the  lower leg muscles identified above to see if you can alleviate the pain. 

Choosing not to stretch and waiting to address your condition will many times cause you to start compensating with other muscle groups creating additional stress and pain previously not associated with your lower back pain.  In order to prevent this, maintain a healthy stretching regime. 

For instructional videos related to this and other posts, please visit our StopsBackPainNow You Tube Channel

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig-_T1KbGHs[/youtube]

In the video, you will hear about…

Modalities:
Modalities are outside agents that can help aid in the recovery from an injury. The two most common used are ice and heat. Ice will cause your blood vessels to constrict in the area you are applying the ice. That is important when a muscle group or joint is experiencing swelling. Ice should only be used on a treatment area for 10 minutes. Their are a number of commercial products for icing, but you could also use a bag of frozen peas or freeze a Dixie cup full of water and use it for an ice massage.
Heat creates the opposite effect of ice. It causes the vessels to dilate therefore allowing more blood flow to occur in the area. Heat is useful when muscles feel tight and stiff. Heat can also be used to help warm a muscle up prior to an exercise routine or event.

Correct Exercises
Correct exercises are important in maintaining a body’s health and also healing from an injury. The important part is “correct” exercises. Know why you are performing the exercises that you are doing. Understand what are the key muscles that are involved in the movement and make sure you are using them. Perform the exercises under control, don’t rush through them just to do them.

Strengthening
Use exercises to help strengthen the weak parts of your body. Our body requires a balance of muscle groups, so if one group or one side is overly strong, it will throw the balance off the body. When we have those discrepancies in our bodies, it usually promotes pain.