Wondering about the process weâll follow if you sign up for the How to Overcome Lower Back Pain consultation and the online course? Here Iâll go through the process in detail and explain how it worked for one recent client, Beth (not her real name.)
An overview
Letâs take a look in more detail.
Are you struggling with low back pain? Click Here to join our How to Overcome Low Back Pain Workshop
The initial questionnaires
Click through here, enter your email address and youâll be sent an email with the initial and consultation questionnaires. Â Iâll be in touch by email, within 24-hours, to book in your 45-minute online consultation.
The consul...
If youâre looking to improve your core strength, youâll find plenty of experts suggesting exercises you should try. You might be surprised, therefore, when after a little while youâre not getting the results youâre after.
Do you want to build core strength & stability? Click Here to start my How to Build Core Strength & Stability 12-Week Online Program
Here I explore the 4 stages weâll work through in order to effectively improve your core strength and why this really is the best way to approach things:
I often talk about eight fundamental movements:
These are movements you do every day whether just going about day-to-day life or exercising inside or outside of a gym environment. By refining these movements and building the patterns or programs in your brain youâll be able to ensure your body gets into a more effective position naturally, improving performance...
If you suffer with Lordosis and want to improve your posture, stretching and exercise are an essential part of any plan. But, how you stretch and exercise is important â thatâs why I wanted to talk a bit about how to perform stretches and exercises for lordosis so you get the best possible results.
Here are some common mistakes I see clients making when theyâre stretching or exercising to correct Lordosis:
Mistake 1 - Not using everyday activity to correct Lordosis.
Each day you have 24 hours. You sleep for 8 hours so that leaves 16 hours. And how many of those hours do you exercise? Maybe one? Well, that leaves 15 spare hours you can use to either undo the good work that you did in that hour or to really make a positive difference to your posture. Imagine if you did good quality exercise for one hour and then used those 15 hours more effectively, being mindful about the position your body is in, and really thinking about the way you move. Â Your brain would learn much quicker and y...
When it comes to exercises for lower back pain, there are plenty to choose from, but how do you know which ones are right for you?
Some exercises can help lower back pain and some can hinder it, it all depends on your situation, but arming yourself with information about how each exercise works anatomically is a great place to start in working out which will be most effective.
Are you struggling with low back pain? Click Here to join our How to Overcome Low Back Pain Workshop
Why are some exercises better than others for low back pain
Different exercises will require your body to undertake distinct movements, each bringing different muscles into play and exerting force on your spine and other joints. This can be in the form of compression, over extension or ineffective working of the muscles. To get the most out of any exercise you perform, your goal should be to maximise muscular activity while reducing the risk of further injury.
In this tutorial weâve chosen to compare the Bird...
The floppy push-up, or McKenzie press-up, as you might have heard it called, is an exercise that is often prescribed as a way to help overcome low back pain. There are good anatomical reasons why that is the case, however, there are also limitations that itâs important to understand before you decide whether this is the right approach for you.
 What is the McKenzie floppy push-up?
To perform a floppy push-up, first lay down on your front. With your hips touching the floor, gradually push up onto your hands, bringing your head and chest upwards away from the floor. Youâll notice youâre creating an exaggerated curve in the lower spine and itâs this that physiotherapist Robin McKenzie, advocate of this approach, claimed could have a positive impact on lower back pain.
And he was right, to a point.
To explain, we need to turn to anatomy.
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The anatomy of a disc bulge
The floppy push-u...
As a beginner to the world of core training, it is vital that you go about things in the right way.
Exercises you choose should be simple to understand and to master, they should work on the fundamental aspects of core strength and stability, and they should offer a robust foundation from which you can build.
Of course, when weâre exercising, we want to push our bodies and try out more and more complex exercises. But I believe itâs so important to get these foundations right that Iâve chosen five key exercises and made them the cornerstone of my online core strength and stability programme.
I talk you through them below, but if you prefer a more visual approach, youâll find plenty of images as well as more detailed explanations of the muscles youâre using in the video linked above.
Do you want to build core strength & stability? Click Here to start my How to Build Core Strength & Stability 12-Week Online Program
5 of the best core exercises for beginners
How?
Yes,...
 Core training isnât just about achieving that flat, six-pack stomach or abs. Itâs far more important than that!
Strong core muscles are vital to support your body and aid even the most common of everyday movements, from running and walking to sitting, bending and carrying the shopping. If your core muscles are weak it can lead to problems with the spine as well as other parts of the body such as the hips and shoulders.
But unfortunately, many of the things weâve been taught are good to develop core strength can actually do more harm than good. And Iâve seen these problems affect people time and again.
Do you want to build core strength & stability? Click Here to start my How to Build Core Strength & Stability 12-Week Online Program
What are the 3 fundamental errors people make when train their core?
Itâs easy to make mistakes when training, but itâs important to learn what will and wonât benefit your body so that these errors can be kept to a minimum.
Weâve talked about core stability plenty of times on the blog, discussing the anatomy surrounding it as well as various exercises that can help to improve our balance and coordination. I often talk about the fact that core stability, unlike core strength, is about muscle timing and smoothness of movement. Itâs not how many repetitions of an exercise you can do, but the quality of the movement that is important.
The limitations of training for core stability
When we train for core stability, we are really looking at general principles. This is because core stability is specific to the aspect of sport and fitness weâre doing. Whether weâre running, cycling or swimming, a strong core can help us to balance, maintain the correct position and support the larger muscles to generate the power and consistency we need.
One exercise to help improve core stability
If I had to recommend just one exercise to help you work on these general principles of core stability, this is the one I would go...
McGillâs âBig 3â
Thanks to years studying the spine, Dr McGill has identified three specific exercises that work together to effectively rehabilitate the back and build core stability. Known throughout the industry as âthe Big 3â, these are some of the first exercises reached for by people and professionals alike when trying to overcome lower back pain.
In this tutorial, however, I want to explain why I think thereâs more to it than that.
What do I know?
Iâm not trying to be controversial, or to negate the work Dr McGill has done. I use it with people with lower back pain all the time, so I have a good understanding and appreciation of it. But we do have to understand the context in which weâre doing the exercises and make sure we donât build them up to be something that theyâre not.
Iâve read all four of Dr McGillâs books, Iâve completed his level one foundation course, his level two course on assessing lower back pain and his level 4 performance course. And Iâve interviewed him ...
 Have you ever thought about how hard your spine has to work? It allows you to stand and bend. It enables you to walk and move around. In fact, itâs integral to almost every movement you do. And if you suffer with any degree of pain in your spine, youâll know it can be really quite debilitating, impacting on large parts of everyday life.
Unfortunately, as we age, our spine starts to degenerate and weaken, leading to âwear and tearâ of its various parts. In todayâs tutorial I want to talk about one such issue that can crop up, the bulging or herniated disc, as well as exercises I advise (and donât advise!) you to do to aid recovery.
What are spinal discs?
Your spine is made up of 33 vertebrae which are split into five different categories, or types, depending on where they sit and how they behave. The lowest nine, around the tailbone or sacrum, are fused together, however the remainder, from the lumbar region upwards are separated by spinal discs. These discs have a hard, fibrous wal...
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