Name: How To Fix Back Pain (7 Science Backed Steps)
Uploaded: 2025-02-04T02:18:35.000Z
Duration: 18 min 40 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

In this video, I'm going to give you a science-backed, 7-step process to fix your back pain.

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The method you learn is one that I've learned personally from the world's leading expert in spine biomechanics, Dr. Stuart McGill.

Now before we get into the corrective exercises, we first need to understand how you got here in the first place.

Your spine is biologically and architecturally different than any other joint in your entire body, and therefore functions and operates under a different set of rules.

For example, your hip and shoulders are ball and socket joints, designed to create a lot of movement and power.

Your spine is not comprised of ball and socket joints, but instead 33 individual bones stacked on top of each other, each separated by a disc.

The disc has an outer section, called the annulus, which is composed of multiple fibrous rings similar to the layers of an onion that are connected and function like a strong fabric.

Inside the annulus is a gel-like nucleus, which is pressurized to a high degree as you move and perform daily tasks.

Your discs allow the spine to act as a very flexible rod, giving us the ability to bend over and tie our shoes, twist to swing a golf club, and perform the latest dance craze.

They also act like shock absorbers when carrying or moving loads.

Now our spine is at its strongest and most resilient to injury when it assumes its natural curvature when we lift weights with good posture, called neutral.

Research has consistently demonstrated a neutral spine spreads load evenly across the spinal structures, preventing excessive stress concentrations on any one part of the spine.

Now to keep our extremely flexible spine from buckling when lifting, all of the muscles that surround the spine work together like a guy wire system to a radio tower to create stiffness and stability.

So while a good looking set of abs may look great in the mirror, the primary purpose of your core muscles is to actually help you better control and stop excessive spine motion.

This person is lifting by moving about his hips while his back remains in a relative neutral position.

This hip-centric motion, called a hinge, decreases injury risk when lifting loads.

However, if he flexed his back while lifting, the spinal disc is bent, creating large posterior stresses on the inner nucleus.

If this poor lifting technique is repeated enough, the combination of compressive load and spine movement creates shearing loads on the disc that will eventually cause the ring-like layers of the annulus to loosen, a process called delamination.

Similar to how the fibers of your shirt would unravel and open up a bit if stressed back and forth enough, this creates a pathway for the pressurized nucleus to now push through.

And this is how a disc bulge is eventually formed.

Now this is just one of the many types of back pain that I see amongst my patients as a doctor of physical therapy, and rest assured, the exercises I show you later in this video can very likely help you too, but only if you don't skip this crucial step.

You see, the truth is that most people would see dramatic improvements in their back pain recovery if they realized it was the way in which they were moving during their day that was actually causing their symptoms.

Today, I'm going to take you through five different tests and screens to help you find the movements that are triggering your symptoms.

Based on what we find, I'll then offer you some different ideas for ways in which you can move throughout your day without pain.

To start, if your pain is worse when sitting slouched and pulling up on the underside of a chair, or with bending movements and lifts like picking up objects from the ground, or especially deadlifting, your pain can be categorized as a flexion intolerance, often due to a disc bulge or herniation.

If this sounds familiar, you need to learn how to avoid spine flexion when sitting by using some support for your low back and with bending tasks by hinging about your hips.

The most simple way to learn how to hinge is with the short stop squat.

Push your hands into your thigh and simultaneously push your butt back as you slide your hands down to the top of your knees.

The act of pressing your hands into your thigh creates sufficient core stiffness to help eliminate excessive spine bending, allowing you to move about your hips as you bend forward.

Use this with everyday tasks like unloading your dishwasher, and you'll notice that your pain starts to eventually wind down.

If you need to pick up something heavier from the ground, use this short stop squat, and then drop your hips straight down, grab the object, stick in your core, and stand straight up.

The same goes for reversing a heavy object back to the ground.

If you're going to pick up a very light object off the ground, think about moving like a golfer picking up their ball, by taking one leg back and hinging forward on one leg.

Both options will help concentrate movement about your hips while minimizing triggering spine flexion.

Now some with a flexion intolerance find benefit from lying on their stomach to relieve pain.

If laying like this for 3 minutes reduces your symptoms when you stand back up, I'd recommend performing this a few times a day when you need some relief.

If however you find lying on your stomach, arching backwards, or creating an anterior pelvic tilt causes pain, you may be dealing with an extension intolerance due to a facet joint irritation or spondylolisthesis, an injury where one vertebrae begins to slip forward on another.

Extension intolerances are common for gymnasts, cricket bowlers, and those in the gym who overarch their low backs when performing certain lifts.

In this situation, learning to maintain a braced neutral spine with the cue ribs down will help you avoid this pain trigger.

Next, let's see how you respond to dynamic loading such as running, jumping, or even the olympic lifts.

Raise up onto your toes, and then drop quickly onto your heels.

You may feel a shockwave of load shoot up your body.

When you drop onto your heels quickly like that, you create spine compression.

But when someone has pain with this test, sometimes it's because their vertebrae will slide a bit, unevenly loading the disc and the facet joints on one side of the body.

If this sounds like you, brace your core like this.

Stick your fingers into the sides of your stomach, then activate your abs in a way that pushes your fingers away.

Then keep this stiffness engaged as you perform the test again.

If your pain decreased, you just proved to yourself that enhanced core stability will help you minimize spine instability and help you reduce your symptoms moving forward.

If your pain was however worse with bracing, you're likely dealing with a compressive injury to the thin layer of material that separates the disc and vertebral bones called the end plate.

We see this sometimes with powerlifters who don't allow adequate rest between sessions to allow for appropriate adaptations.

If this is you, it would be a good idea to take a big step back from lifting at this time to allow your body to heal.

Next, try holding a light weight out in front of you at arm's length while you take a few deep breaths in and out.

If this sparks pain, try that abdominal bracing strategy again and see if that changes your symptoms.

If your pain is reduced, you again proved that enhancing core stability will be helpful for controlling your pain and you need to think about that bracing strategy in the same way when you do simple tasks during your day like picking up a cooler from the ground.

If however your pain is still present, your injury is very load intolerant and you need to consider postponing your lifting workouts at this moment and having someone else help you with daily lifting tasks until your back can further heal.

Last, if your pain is present when sneezing or rolling over in bed, you may be dealing with an instability.

In this case, bracing strategies such as pushing into a countertop before sneezing or making sure that you're rolling your entire body as one unit when turning over in bed will be key for preventing painful micro movements.

It would also be wise to avoid chiropractic manipulation in this case as you already have too much motion at certain joints.

Now I can't stress how important it is to perform these types of tests when you have back pain or any type of injury.

That's why I wrote my book Rebuilding Milo.

It contains all of these tests and more to help you fix your back pain along with other common injuries.

So when this video is done, go head on over to Amazon.com and pick up a copy of my book Rebuilding Milo.

Some of you may find your symptoms fall into more than one category.

In these situations, it's key to try to maintain a neutral spinal posture throughout your day and move about your hips to help your symptoms wind down.

Our next step to fixing back pain is to enhance spine stability with the McGillVic 3 routine.

The modified curl up is the first exercise.

Start by lying on your back with one knee bent and one leg relaxed on the ground.

Have one hand under your back to support the spine.

Take your other hand and push your fingers into your side.

You're going to first pre-brace your core by engaging your abs in a way that push your fingers to the side.

Then you will lift your head, neck, and shoulders as one unit a bit off the ground and enter to.

Your focus of rotation will be your upper back.

As you perform this movement, you should not feel your lower back flatten out into your hand.

So think of your hands as pressure sensors and keep your low back in its neutral position with the slight arch.

Hold this position for 10 seconds while you take small sips of air in and out before relaxing back down.

This will be followed by the side plank to address the sides of your core.

The most simple version is to lay on your side with your knees bent in front of you.

Move into a side plank by squatting your hips up.

Maintain a neutral spine the entire time.

As you hold this position for 10 seconds, keep your core tight and you should feel your downside abs and even your downside glutes a little, helping you keep your pelvis level.

After 10 seconds, squat your hips back down to the ground to limit bending your spine.

A progression would be going to the full side plank and you could even lift your top leg if you really want to work your core and lateral glutes.

The last of the McGill Big 3 routine is the bird dog.

Start on your hands and knees with your back in a pain-free position.

Free brace your core slightly before then lifting your opposite arm and leg off the ground an inch.

Without any spine movement, extend the arm and opposite leg.

Make sure to keep your back leg close to the ground as lifting the leg too high could cause you to move your lower spine.

Making a fist with your extended hand can also help engage your body optimally as well.

A helpful cue is to think about pushing the floor away with your plant arm to help stabilize the torso.

Take small breaths in and out for about 10 seconds while keeping the core braced before sweeping your legs back to the start position.

If this is too difficult, try performing the bird dog off a bench or a chair.

If this is too easy, you could progress by drawing squares with your outstretched arm for the 10 seconds.

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How To Fix Back Pain (7 Science Backed Steps)

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