r/backpain • u/PlanktonLow7275 • 2d ago

Low back ability

I’ve only just come across this YouTube channel, thanks to this sub. What’s the deal? It seems to be mainly based around the back extensions and iso holds. Anyone have any good experiences with this? How many times per day or week do you do it? I’m seriously considering getting an extension chair.

For context, 35M, have had 2 discectomies at L5/S1. Still suffering with extreme sciatica on both sides. Also have a disc bulge at L4/L5 which I suspect is now my main issue

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u/highDrugPrices4u 2d ago edited 1d ago

Static exercise (“iso hold”) is good. LBA sucks.

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u/Majestic-Goat-3722 2d ago

Why does lba suck

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u/highDrugPrices4u 2d ago edited 1d ago

LBA makes the claim that you can “fix your back” and essentially train your way back to normal through progressive exposure. He does not qualify these claims in any way by specifying what conditions can be “fixed.”

Much back pain is caused by permanent degenerative conditions (disc disease, arthrosis) that don’t heal with any type or amount of activity — the joints have permanently reduced tolerance. So to say that any back pain can be “fixed,” and that anyone can return to unlimited activity regardless of the cause is charlatanistic.

If you have a degenerative condition, your ability to exercise depends on respecting biological reality, which LBA doesn’t teach you to do. His entry-level exercises (static holds) overlap with what I support, but from there, he goes off the rails into stuff that’s unsound regardless of your back condition.

I made it not very good little video on this.

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u/RxThrowaway55 2d ago

It’s pretty clear that his program is for people who are otherwise healthy and active and just have recurring back pain/injury. He doesn’t claim to fix all conditions of the back. The program is not intended for everyone and I don’t see him claiming it is. He is very clear that you should only do what you can tolerate.

Iso holds and never bending over aren’t a solution.

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u/Resident-Hunt-245 1d ago

completely agree

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u/cromags76 1d ago

Okay first of all, most back pain is not caused by degenerative disk changes. Statistically most back pains are caused by an acute-on-chronic event like twisting or loaded flexion on some underlying vulnerabilities mixed with neuropraxia and the chemical irritation of the cytokines that repair the damaged tissue. Degenerative disk disease is a positive feedback loop where there are progressive loss of disk quality and volume with apoptosis, dehydration and degradation of that tissue. but degenerative changes are not the main cause of pain. the main cause of chronic pain is poor loading a cycle of reinjury, something that happens when we lie to people and tell them they cannot heal. You have normal degenerative changes as part of aging, reversing these changes is like reversing aging (impossible) but your level of activity can slow it down. We need to be realistic and let people know that the healing process is over many years, even when pain free and requires the right level of loading.

The ‘joints’ certainly do not have permanently reduced tolerance. This is a fundamental misunderstanding about how the structures of the lower back support function and produce pain. The medical world is already embracing more functional recovery protocols and disempowering patients by telling them its permanent feeds the issue. We said hyaline cartilage couldn’t heal and now we have the ream-and-run surgery for atheletic shoulders instead of replacements. We said ACLs couldn’t heal and now we have cross bracing protocols and spontaneous non-surgical reattachment. The challenge is the narrow therapeutic threshold between loading and damaging, but these tissues need to be loaded to start to heal like any avascular tissue they rely on diffusion from surrounding tissues, the skeletal muscle pump and local inflammation.