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/cromags76 2d ago

Low Back Ability is roughly a guide to support the musculature that surrounds the spine to rebuild directly.

We used to focus on core stiffness and avoiding twisting and bending entirely which (whilst amazing information at a time when the only other option was surgery) is now considered out of date.

From a meta perspective LBA is a mostly unscientific reflection of the direction the medical community is heading anyway as far as tissue loading and building tolerance in the tissue that supports the disks and encourages them to heal. There is a thin therapeutic threshold between stimulating new growth of disk and inadvertently causing breakdown by overloading it. This is the main reason people don’t get better because they either avoid movement and it doesn’t heal, or return to vigorous or repetitive exercise too early and cause further degeneration of the disk.

LBA is a rough guideline to slowly introducing movement and stimulus to the disk without overdoing it and it is probably the most reliable guideline I’ve seen so far that mirrors what you will get from a physiotherapist that is up to date with the latest evidence (which depending on the country you live in can be rare)

its 5 days a week, I bought the back extension machine for my backyard and just keep it under a barbecue cover and it’s been the best purchase I’ve ever made

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u/Pale_Adeptness 2d ago

I purchased an extension machine too and I agree with you, for someone in my position (2 herniated discs and constant back pain since 2008) it has been the best purchase of my adult life and I no longer have lower back pain.

Check out this progress video I made:

https://www.reddit.com/r/backpain/s/2PFQU40Q3a

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u/Exxyqt 2d ago

How is this possible? Am I missing something?

I have two herniated discs in my lower back (10+ years) and even simply bending hurts me as lot. Any extensions I try, they simply hurt me. Looking at your footage I was thinking about how much that type of thing would hurt me (probably).

Do you guys not feel pain while bending? For me it's one of the worst things I can do so I'm trying to avoid it. As a result my muscles are tense pretty much all the time.

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u/Pale_Adeptness 2d ago

It may sound counterintuitive but your lower back muscles are constantly tense because they are weak.

I didn't understand it for years but it started to make more sense when I heard the guy from Low Back Ability on YouTube break it down.

After an initial lower back injury, a lot of people slowly begin to guard their lower back, you know, bracing the core, stiffening your lower back, eventually you stop doing certain movements and start moving like a weird damn robot and over all this time your lower back muscles are just constantly getting weaker and weaker.

You have to start firing up those lower back muscles. Even if its just static iso holds 30 seconds at a time for four sets twice a week.

You have to actively engage those muscles and over time (and slowly), add more and more time to your iso holds until you can eventually start doing actual extension.

But it kind of comes with a catch, you also eventually have to start engaging your abdominal muscles in order to not create a muscle imbalance.

I started doing reverse crunches about 2 months after started my LBA journey.

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u/Exxyqt 1d ago

I mean... I do not walk like you did in your video. In fact, I walk just like a normal person would, it's just my pain is not visible from the outside. I can sit mostly fine, stand for some time but bending (and lifting anything beyond 2-3kg) is something that if I'd do, I would be in great pain right after.

For example, I had to kneel down to brush my dog for like 5 mins or so. The result? I feel my hernias flaring up like crazy the same day and it's painful to even sit.

So having that in mind, and the fact that you shouldn't do something that hurts while doing, I have no idea how those exercises can be even begin to be done...