How to Fix “Low Back” Pain (INSTANTLY!)

JEFF: If you've got back pain that you canliterally put your thumbs right on, I'm going to show you how to get rid of that today, and more importantly give you a strategy for making sure it does not come back ever again.

What's up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.

com.

Here with Jessie and Raymond.

If you're looking for a way to get rid ofthat back pain – and I'm talking about the type that you can literally put your fingerright on, where you can feel it, and sometimes even by putting your finger there, it shootspain down, into your butt.

There's something you could do about it.

You need to, first of all, start by identifyingwhat it is properly because it really isn't low back pain.

We're not talking about the muscles here, in the low back, even though you might feel some of that pain up there.

Really, what we're talking about is a glutemedias.

This is a rampant problem, and one that iscaused by a lot of sitting, and a lot of things that we're possibly even doing wrong in theweight room.

First of all we want to make sure we're alltalking about the same thing.

Right here, if you look on Raymond, the glutemedias is this muscle that runs right up under here.

It's actually underneath the glute max, andit attaches just on the inside of this bony area here that we're going to call the PSIS.

Now, why does that matter? Because big, bony areas make it really easyto feel, and find out, and make sure that you're on the same spot.

So if you look here on Jessie, if you leanforward you can rub your hands across the low back, and you should instantly be ableto feel two spots where the bones are sticking out.

That is exactly that same are that I justshowed you on the skeleton.

If you run your fingers just to the outside– where you get all the increase in pain, and tension – then we are talking aboutthe same thing, and this is what we're going to be able to take care of right now.

So what's the muscle supposed to do for youanyway? Two things.

The first is: you should be able to use itto abduct your hip.

Meaning, to lift your hip up, and out to theside.

The other thing that's even more importantis that, with every step you take its job is to make sure that your pelvis stays level.

We know when we lift one leg the body wantsto fall in that direction.

Meaning, the hip on this side wants to fallout this way.

So it wants to, instead, if the muscles wereworking right, keep your pelvis level so it's not doing this.

There's something called a Trendelenburg Gaitwhere, when your hips can't do this you start to look like – show them, Jessie.

Yeah.

Sort of like that.

It starts to drop on every step.

You don’t want that to happen.

But here's what's even bigger.

If you lift weights and you squat, the problemis, I can almost guarantee you that when you start to get this pain, at some point, it'sbecause you don't have an equal distribution of weight through both of your legs.

We can test that very, very easily.

You're probably going to be very shocked bywhat you see.

Just stand with your feet shoulder width apart.

Like here.

Now, when you go, all you'll want to do isjust lift one leg up, off the ground.

If I lift the left leg I can do that.

Not a problem.

If I have to lift my right leg I have to shiftmy weight too much.

A lot more significantly than I did on theother side.

If you have to shift your weight, or if yousee that your shoulders move a lot to one side in order to get your weight off thatfoot; then you don't have an equal distribution.

What's going to happen there is, it's goingto cause imbalances that will start to rear their ugly head in the form of this more frequentback pain, and we can eliminate that.

When you squat you want to have equal distribution.

So now, the most important thing is fixingthe damned thing, right? So if you come down on the ground, I'm goingto show you exactly how we can do this, and get rid of it right now.

More importantly, some exercises you can doto strengthen it so it doesn't come back again.

So the fix for this is actually pretty easyto do, and most importantly, quick.

If you find this and you do it right you'regoing to feel relief right away.

So you take your finger and your thumb, youput it right up on that spot.

JESSIE: You going to draw me like one of yourFrench girls, Jeff? JEFF: I can't draw, dude.

Let's go.

So you put your – what an idiot.

You put your thumb right on that spot.

From here, now all you're going to do is useyour own pressure from your hand, and then move your leg in a certain direction.

What you don’t want to do is, you don’twant to start reaching for a lacrosse ball and putting it underneath you because whenyou're in pain, you're already inflamed, you're putting too much pressure on this area that'slikely to resist what you're trying to do, and not help to fix it.

In this case you want to use the top downpressure that you can control.

So once your finger is on that spot you'regoing to take your leg through the same direction right here.

You're going to come down until your kneetouches the ground.

Once it touches the ground it's going to kickback, behind you, into extension.

It's key that you get past the midline ofyour body here, and then when you do, you're going to lift up.

You toes should be pointing a little bit downtoward the ground when you do.

So when we make sure that we're getting alot of hip abduction here.

So then the thumb pushes in and holds thisback.

Now, I don’t have to do any of this.

This is going to be done all by you and Jessie.

You're pushing as hard as you can to thatspot, he comes up, he lifts, goes down, touches down nice, and slow, back into extension, lifts up, toes pointing down, and every time you feel that.

Right, Jessie? You can feel it flossing through there.

You do this about 10 times.

Once you're done with those you rest for about10 seconds.

Now we want to try and fatigue out this musclespasm here; this trigger point.

Try to see if you can burn it out.

You hold that spot one more time, you getright back into this position.

So the leg is getting back into extension, toes pointed down, abduct it, and hold it, and squeeze it as hard as you can.

In other words, lift this up, squeeze it ashard as you can.

Now, one of the interesting things – he'sgroaning over here – one of the interesting things that you're going to notice is, whenyou have issues here, and you get this frequent low back pain, this muscle is probably really, really damn weak.

This alone feels like agony.

You can't even hold it up, even though – Iknow people that can squat hundreds, and hundreds of pounds that really can't do this exercisevery well.

That shows how much pain and weakness thereis, right? So once we've done that, now when you standup you should notice an immediate relief.

Go ahead and stand up, Jessie.

You should notice an immediate relief in theamount of discomfort that you feel in that spot.

We've actually gotten rid of that pain forthe short term.

More importantly now, how do we keep it away? That's what I want to show you next.

Okay, so here's what you're going to wantto do to get rid of this pain once, and for all.

One exercise here is, you're just going touse a wall.

You put one arm up, just like that – that'snot meant to push against the wall with.

It's just meant for support, and balance.

You take the leg that's on the inside andyou lift it up.

Now, what they did is, it should let thiship just drop out to the side casually, this way.

But the glute medias, remember, it wants tomake sure that it doesn't drop.

So it's going to drive it back in until thatleg touches the wall.

Then you let it drop out again, and then itdrives up, and across.

So we're actually working this outside hip– the one with the leg on the ground – and you want to do this for about 10, or 12, or15 reps.

But most importantly, make sure you get reallygood, solid contractions here so you're teaching it to get stronger.

How many times? You want to do this at least 3, 4, 5 timesa week.

Maybe even just once a day if you have theback pain right now.

You want to get into the routine of doingmore of this, especially if you're sitting a lot.

We have another exercise here that you cando and this is a little bit odd, but I promise you, it's going to work.

Okay, so this one's a little bit elaborate, and yes, it's definitely weird.

We actually call it what it looks like.

It's a sac swinger.

You'll see in a second.

You just basically take a dog leash and youtake a kettle bell – any kind of weight here.

Of course, this could be a dip belt, too.

but if you don’t have a dip belt, you putit right around here, and then what you're going to do is, you're going to step in.

so Jessie's going to step into it, and thenhe's going to hook it around his waist.

Just from there.

Now, it's hanging in between him.

Now you know the name – why it got the name.

Now he's going to turn around this way andall he's going to do is, he's just going to start walking and try to maintain a nice, slow, normal gait.

And you can see every time he lifts one footit's challenging now.

Not just to try and hold up the weight ofthat leg that's in the air, but now he's got to control the weight that's hanging beneathhis legs, too.

So this is a more advanced version of whatwe just showed you, but this is going to really start to free up those hips, teach those musclesto be a lot stronger than they are, and more importantly, you do this as a little bit ofa warmup and you can feel that, and your low back pain should start to be a thing – he'salready burning.

Just from one, little walk down, and back.

Just do it – again, you want to do thisin the privacy of your own house? That's fine, but I can promise you that thislow back pain is going to become a thing of the past.

Finally, the other exercise is the treatment.

Remember when we had you lay on the groundand put your finger there? Well, just the movement itself – bringingyour leg back behind your body, lifting up, toe down, coming forward, touch the ground, come back, and do those leg lifts – you do as many of those as you can until you buildup your tolerance, and your endurance there, and you make sure you do it on both sides.

That exercise, from the treatment standpoint, becomes a thing that you actually want to do to make sure it stays away long term.

Guys, low back pain is one of the most commonthings that we all deal with and it can undermine any of your workouts.

As anybody who knows, when your low back ishumming it's really difficult to even get yourself in the gym, let alone to lift anythingof significance.

We want to make sure we have that fixed.

Guys, if you're looking for a program thatputs the science back in strength – as a physical therapist everything I do has boththings in mind.

Not just getting you to look better, but tofeel good, too.

All of our programs are available at ATHLEANX.

com.

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All right, guys.

I hope you get rid of this pain once, andfor all.

I'll see you guys back here soon.

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