I use a little feature called Google Alerts to help me track chronic pain information on the web I’m interested in. I have a setting for “neck pain”, “headaches”, and “back pain”. It’s always good to keep up with what’s being said out there, which, I’m sorry to say isn’t much. I’m thankful that I can discern between what is meaningful and what is often just a recycling of old ideas. Judging by the comments of people reading these articles and blogs, I realize that the average consumer has no real way to understand what is good information and what is bad.

If you have no knowledge of anatomy, biomechanics, and physiology, how can you be expected to make an intelligent decision as to whether to see one practitioner over another to help you with chronic pain? Or try one product or another, not to mention undergoing surgery. Unfortunately it often comes down to word of mouth but even that isn’t very reliable because the practitioner being referred to, may have just set up that person to come in on a monthly basis forever to keep their pain at bay. I see plenty of people who have been to see “experts” and are left with no lasting answers and their bank account more than a little depleted.

Even when I say that you can trust my books because I lay out the specific anatomy and biomechanics involved with particular injuries, you really can’t. I’ve heard fitness or health care practitioners explain anatomical or biomechanical concepts completely wrong and people buy it because it “sounds” right. Well, on what basis do you as a consumer decide that something “sounds” right?

I’m afraid I don’t really have an answer for you. I suppose that is why I’m writing these blogs–to help give you, the consumer, some intelligent background so you can make the best choices for you. So here’s where I’m coming from:

One of my basic tenets regarding chronic pain is that our bodies are not designed to be in pain. They are perfect working machines. In my experience, doing something right for the body pays instant dividends regarding eliminating chronic pain. Most of my clients instantly feel better after one or two exercises because we’ve restored proper function. This inspires my clients then to fix themselves. Most people feel significantly better in two or three treatments as a result.

The same goes for using my books. After testing yourself and performing the exercises, you will feel significantly better very quickly. You can read my testimonials if you’re not convinced.

I determine my success by how few times I need to meet with a client. If I’m doing my job right, then they won’t need to see me again–ever. As one doctor I treated for neck and back pain stated, “You’re not much of a businessman then, are you?”, I replied, “But I can sleep at night.”

Conversely there are practitioners whose goals are to see you as often as possible and for as long as possible. Yes your pain may temporarily reduce after seeing them but are they really fixing you if you need to keep coming back? Would you be happy with this set-up if it was your car? Continually returning to tweak it again and again? No, of course not. Do you then, think your car is built better than your body? I’m here to say your body is perfect. It just needs a little help to get back on track and you’re off and running again.

So the next time you’re looking for information about how to fix your chronic pain, ask yourself, “Does this person (or product) require that I visit them (or use it) perpetually? That’s one hint that maybe they are geared more toward temporarily easing your pain rather than fixing the source of the problem.

I’ve recently read an interesting article in the NY Times about whether abdominal training actually contributes to back pain. There was no revolutionary information offered but I was amazed at the comments to the article. Many people swore certain abdominal exercises fixed their back pain while other claimed abdominal exercises made their back pain worse. Yet another group defended abdominal exercises as a strengthening must and yet others discussed how Pilates and Yoga are really where it’s at.

In my view, everyone is right and everyone is wrong. I say this because each person is speaking about their particular experience with particular exercises whether beneficial or not. But we get into trouble when we take our personal experiences and assume they should apply to the general population. We do this when we don’t fully understand what we are discussing–in this case biomechanics and pathomechanics.

The one unifying concept that I’ve found true regarding exercising and pain is that we must understand our personal biomechanical approach to each exercise to understand whether that exercise is beneficial or not. Not everyone will perform identical exercises identically. This is due to the history of each person’s experiences and how those experiences have formed movement habits predisposing them to certain injuries.

This is exactly why I am writing my books–to help people understand how their particular habits are causing pain and the simple remedies to correct them. This article confirms my belief that there is so much mis-information out there that noone really knows what to do. I’m very successful at what I do because I have studied, observed, experimented with and practice using biomechanics to correct chronic pain. While there seem to be endless muscles, bones, nerves and ligaments involved, the solutions to common problems are made simple and effective by understanding and correcting movement function as well as strength or range of motion issues leading to movement impairments. My books have distilled this information into very digestible bites. I hope they are helpful.

Leslie Fishbein, a community leader and business owner here in Denver, died about a year ago due to complications from a cortizone injection  she received  from a physician to relieve chronic back pain.

Recently Rodger MacFarlane, ex-director of The Gill Foundation, took his life due in part to debilitating back pain and a heart condition which did not allow him to enjoy his life.

We’ve all read the statistics that 8 out of 10 Americans will suffer from back pain in their lifetime or that currently more than 65 million Americans suffer from back pain. But the tragic stories above emphasize that, unlike a broken arm that eventually mends, back pain affects more than the tissues it irritates. It casts a cloud over most of the activities that give us joy and therefore can lead to depression and hopelessness if it is not solved. No one is immune from the potentially devastating effects of chronic pain.

I feel for all people who suffer from chronic pain. Each person has a story—often a fine line between managing pain and life-changing suffering. My experience has taught me however, that most chronic pain need not be chronic. It can be cured by correcting the underlying factors causing it. Yes it can be a mystery but not an unsolvable one.

As a physical therapist and author of several books for self-treatment of chronic pain conditions, I’ve seen many people with chronic pain become significantly better if not completely pain free by addressing the anatomy, biomechanics, and daily habits that contribute to their pain.

Don’t give up on the idea that your body is not meant to be in chronic pain. There are answers and I hope you will discover that they are contained in you.

I just began working with a man scheduled for right knee replacement surgery. He wanted to know what pre-surgical strengthening he might do to help him recover from his surgery. When I examined his right knee, he was unable to extend it fully–lacking approximately 10 degrees. It was swollen and painful. During the course of my examinating I found several things wrong with his left hip, namely poor gluteal function and hamstring dominance. My initial thoughts were he was compensating for deficient strength of his left leg.

Then I decided to try and alleviate his right knee pain through a few alignment tests I like to perform. None of these had any effect. That is until I distracted the knee. Immediately he felt pain relief so we stayed with it for a few minutes. I asked him to stand up and he could almost fully extend the knee! I educated him about activating the gluteals while walking and we practiced that. Within 15 minutes his knee began to flex again so  we tried the distraction again, this time lying on his stomach so I could anchor a small weight on his ankle to assist the knee into extension while I provided the traction. The result was dramatic. He could fully extend the knee and walk correctly without pain.

We’ve since had two treatments (1x/wk) and he is now calling off the surgery and contemplating skiing this season. Again, my thoughts return to the fact that by improving his biomechanics by both fully extending the knee and correcting his gait dynamics we are able to improve pain free function. I do not doubt that his cartilage is still missing but it begs the question once more that just because we see an alteration in the structure of a joint or soft tissue, it doesn’t mean that is where the pain is coming from. To me it is an indication that something is wrong biomechanically. If we correct the mechanics, pain eases and function returns.

My name is Rick Olderman. I am a physical therapist, personal trainer and Pilates instructor working in Denver, CO. I’ve worked with countless patients and clients with back pain and wanted to share some observations which help me treat pain more efficiently and effectively. I’ll also cover weight training, cardio and Pilates concepts.

Currently I’m working with a woman with severe spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal), spondylolisthesis (small spinal fracture) and an extra lumbar vertebra. She has been in pain for more than a decade, has been to specialists, therapists, accupuncturists, Pilates instructors -you name it. In three sessions her pain was 75% relieved and now rarely returns. We are just beginning on a weight training program and she’s eating it up!

It didn’t always work out this way. Often it was hit or miss whether I could help my back clients. However now I’m just over 90% successful in eliminating back pain these last few years. There’s no weird technique involved, instead I apply my understanding of anatomy,biomechanics and function to help people. In fact I rarely do any hands-on work aside from assessments. My approach is to teach people to fix themselves, thereby ensuring the fix will be longer lasting than by passive means such as adjustments or manipulations.

In the next posts (this is the first blog I’ve ever done), I’ll go into more detail as to how I look at the body and treat it as well as how I apply that to Pilates and weight training. I’ll be curious whether anyone actually reads this so if you are, please drop me a line and let me know. If there is something you’d like to discuss specifically (including other topics or injuries of the body), let me know that too and I’ll try to help you with it.

Thanks,

Rick