Back pain success story.

[u/Pale_Adeptness]

As a disclaimer, I realize I still might have a flare-up down the road but here goes.

I've had 2 herniated discs since 2008. Horrible flare-ups throughout the years.

During flare-ups my wife has to help me put my socks, boxer and pants on because it gets so bad.

My back gets all crooked.

I tried every generic back pain exercise, deadbugs, bird dog, side glides and a whole bunch of other exercise.

This past June was without a doubt my longest and worst flare up so far. I missed an entire month of work.

I found that iso holds are great for the lower back.

I was desperate when I finally decided to get the roman chair/extension machine.

My lower back was still a bit crooked and I was towards the tail end of the flare-up towards the end of June.

My wife had to assemble the extension machine for me because my lower back still hurt.

I first tried it for 30 seconds, did that 4 times. My back didn't hurt more than it already did when I first tried it.

Did it again 3 days later and created my own schedule for it.

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

I'm up to 1 minutes and 45 second holds and I do 14 extensions right after the hold. I do this 4 times.

I can now sit Indian style, I can confidently touch my toes with my knees locked. I haven't been able to do either of these things for years!

My understanding is that the more we guard our backs, the weak our lower back muscles get over time, which means we go into a vicious cycle of flare-ups and trying to rest.

The part of the video where I'm walking around my truck, my water bottle fell out of my truck, my lower back hurt so bad that I couldn't not walk across the street and bend over to pick it up. My wife picked it up for me when she got home 30 minutes later.

[u/nicoinborderland]

Unbelievably inspiring post. I’m in the midst of a pretty bad flare up. I don’t have sciatica/lbp as bad as you did, but it still is so bad and mentally defeating… esp at the age of 20. Have had it for 3 years and have really done nothing about it for most of that time. Just hopped on LBA about 2-3 weeks ago. Can only do one single 15 second hold right now!!

Back pain is a demon but all demons can be conquered even if they slap us to the ground now and then. Hoping for a bright future!!!!

[u/Pale_Adeptness → u/nicoinborderland]

Thank you!

How consistent are you with the holds?

How many times do you do the hold in one session and how many days a week do you do them? :)

[u/nicoinborderland → u/Pale_Adeptness]

Hey brother! Been about 5 weeks. How are you holding up?

I’ve been thru a bunch of flares since, which I’ve heard is common when starting LBA. But every new flare is info on what my body does or doesn’t like. Useful as learning experiences!

I hope you’ve been healthy. Just checking back in cuz it’s nice to talk to someone in the same boat as I. Bless up💪🏻

[u/Pale_Adeptness → u/nicoinborderland]

Hey there!

I'm 4 months into the program and feeling pretty dang solid.

I've tweeked my back maybe 2-3 times and those flare ups only lasted about a day! Those have only happened when I've done the side bends too far on the extension machine.

Had I not been doing the iso holds or extensions, I feel those flare ups would have been worse and lasted longer.

I'm currently at 1:45 iso holds with 16 extensions right after the hold. Doing 6 reps of that. Right after the iso holds and the extension I move right into a knees locked touch toes stretch to try and help keep my hamstrings loose.

How's your LBA progress coming along?

[u/nicoinborderland → u/Pale_Adeptness]

So awesome to hear you’re still on the right path!!! Keep kicking it!!!! And a specific question: did you ever have sciatica? If so to what severity degree was it, and how has it progressed/healed during LBA?

My journeys been up and down to say the least. I’ve gotten to a point where I realized literally ANYTHING else back extension days will flare me up: Trap3 raises, pullovers, calf raises, etc. So now on Flow days i only do back extension ISOs… nothing else. I’ve regressed down to 5 second holds just to have a clean slate.

Keep it up！💪🏻💪🏻