The Back Pain Solution

By the time you finish reading this article, more that 30 million Americans will experience some form of acute back pain. By the end of this year, roughly half of adults in America will have at least one symptom of back pain.

Back pain is a terribly complicated issue because there are so many factors that play into its origins. It affects almost all of us, yet we clearly do not have a handle on how to best manage it. It comes up for a while, we seek help, sometimes get relief, and then at some point in the future, we very likely experience the same issues if not worse.

The worst part about back pain is that it is rarely due to traumatic events. It would be one thing if the only time we had back pain was after falling off a ladder or playing tackle football, but for most us, it just happens seemingly without cause. We were fine yesterday, and today we are in pain! Today, I would like to explore some of my philosophies behind the origins of back pain, and give a few prescriptions for how to avoid it as best as possible.

Cause & Correction #1: DIET!

This is probably not what you would expect to be the first and most important thing to correct when it comes to back pain, but when it comes to chronic issues, there is no better place to start than this. Diet can negatively affect the stability of your spine in two ways. First, if you have a poor diet, you are probably overweight and have a constant load on your spine. The weight puts a strain on your back, especially when it is concentrated around your midsection. You and your back have to work pretty darn hard when you have that extra weight pulling on your midsection.

The second but more important reason diet can be a problem results from the effect that inflammatory foods can have on your ability to stabilize your spine. The reason I feel this is a bigger problem is that you do not have to be overweight for this situation to lead to back issues. Regardless of weight, if you eat foods that cause bloating, intestinal irritation, or leads to inflammation in your joints, you will be INCAPABLE of bracing your core. This means that no matter how you think you should pick up something, you will not be able to brace your core for the lift. With no ability to use your core, your back must take the entire load. This is a bad situation because your back muscles were not designed to help you lift; they were designed to stabilize your spine. Because of this, when you try to use them to extend your back to lift something, they are structured in such a way that they will actually take about 10-20x the load of the weight you are lifting. So when you go to pick up your 50lb suitcase, the load on your back is more like 500-1000 pounds!

Hopefully it is clear that this is not a situation you want to put yourself in. So how to you avoid it? Well the most important thing is to listen to your body. If you feel bloated after a meal, you can be pretty sure that something you just ate does not agree with your digestive system. If you commonly wake up with aches and pains (which is NOT normal, by the way) you can be pretty sure that the diet you are on right now is inflammatory. If you get sick often or have big energy swings, you can also be confident that it is time to reassess your diet. All of these things are indicative of inflammation and gut irritation, both of which can lead to back pain (along with a lot of other health issues). Start here and you will be setting you and yourself back up for success!

Cause & Correction #2: Posture & Sitting

This is probably the most obvious solution, and yet it is amazing how few people do anything to tackle this problem. Someone suffering from back pain for 20 years can be taking anti-inflammatories, seeing a chiropractor 3x per week, and using heating pads all day but will not spend any time working on their posture.

Posture simply means keeping your body in optimal alignment. This should not be challenging, but becomes so when we spend our whole lives sitting. I have written on this subject plenty of times, so I will not spend too much time on this point. Just know that if you have back pain you better start doing some stretching, strengthening, massage, and a whole lot less sitting if you want anything to change.

Cause & Correction #3: Inactivity

Inactivity is closely tied in with posture, but it is its own issue that must be addressed. This is another recommendation that is made day in and day out for people with back pain but people seemingly do not prioritize it.

There is a great quote from one of my favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption.  Hopefully you have seen this film as well (and if not, I highly recommend it!), so I will not go into the context of the quote, but there is a point when the two main characters are talking and one of them says “I guess it comes down to a simple choice…get busy living or get busy dying.” I love this because this is exactly how it works when it comes to staying active. If you choose to move, you choose to live fully. If you choose to be stationary, you are choosing to literally shorten your life and decrease your quality of life. Our bodies were designed to move for most of our waking hours and without this stimulus, we give our bodies no reason to stay healthy.  So again, it comes down to a simple choice…either get busy moving or get busy dying.

Cause & Correction #4: Sleep

There are two key points to be made about sleep. First, the better sleep you can get, the more likely you are to stay healthy in general and the faster you will recover from any back issues you may be dealing with.

Second, the type of mattress you use can make a HUGE difference in the health of your back. I know there are a lot of people that love their nice soft mattresses, but over time, this can wreak havoc on your back. Your spine needs support as you lie down, and when you have a soft mattress, your body ends up bending into positions that are less than optimal. This cannot only lead to back pain in the morning, but it can also lead to poor posture over time, which in turn can lead to back pain…so it’s hitting you from both sides!

In the end, you will get used to a firmer mattress, but you will never get used to a bad back.  

Cause & Correction #5: Fashion

This is a short one for the ladies, but it should not be overlooked. Wearing heels excessively is a surefire way to end up having back pain. The problem here is actually not in the heel-wearing itself, but in the adaptation your body makes to having your heels lifted all the time. When this is your norm, you end up putting strain on your back when you are NOT in heels. All of that tightness from your calves pulls along your posterior chain (the whole backside of your body) and puts pressure on your back. This is painful at best and can lead to injury at worst.

If you can, try to keep heels for special occasions and try to stay as flat-footed as possible the rest of the time.

The Wrap Up

While this article does not cover every component of the back pain epidemic, I hope that it does give you some insight into things you can start doing today to help get yourself out of pain. There is nothing worse than living your life unable to move freely and without pain, so I hope you find guidance and motivation through this article. It may take time to fully resolve a back pain issue, but when given the alternative of lifelong pain, I would always choose the former. 

How to Eat to Look Amazing and Feel Like a Million Bucks

by Sepano Hassanzadeh

Just by virtue of reading this article you are demonstrating your devotion to a healthier lifestyle. Not everyone has the courage to embark on the journey that comes with seeking optimal health, especially in this age of information overload. Now more than ever, there is an overwhelming amount of information available at our fingertips. While this can seem like an advantage, many times it leaves us more confused and frustrated than when we started.

So how do we sift through the vast piles of literature to determine right from wrong and how can we then APPLY that information to enhancing our own lifestyles? Well, I believe that simplicity is a sign of perfection, and with that principle I set out to deliver the straight facts when it comes to eating right and eating SMART.

Let's begin...

What to Eat and When to Eat It

“You are what you eat.”

I've always been a fan of this phrase. It is basically saying that the stuff you put into your body breaks down and affects you on a cellular level. And your cells make up your tissue which makes up your organs which make up your organ systems which make YOU. Therefore it would be wise to give your body the best “fuel” whenever possible.

Here are some easy-to-follow guidelines when it comes to food intake and what you should eat:

1. Eat a lean source of animal protein with each meal: poultry, beef, fish, eggs are all great choices. Protein is great for boosting metabolism and digestion of the meal in addition to managing appetite and blood sugar levels.

2. Carbohydrates should primarily come from vegetables (also great for curbing appetite). Green leafy should be top priority, but you should look to get a variety of types of colors in your diet.

When it comes to starchy food like sweet potatoes, squashes, and rice, you should really keep those to a minimum. Only have what you require as per your weekly training volume. The more you exercise and the harder you train, the more starchy carbs you can handle. CUT ALL WHEAT-DERIVED FOODS (bread, pasta, orzo, etc.)

3. Take long stretches between meals (at least 4 hours) with no more than four meals for the day (as few as two meals per day are appropriate for some people).

4. Stopping eating when you are no longer hungry, not full. Most people do not even pay attention to their level of satiety during a meal, but this can play a major role in staying lean and feeling your best. Try to stop when you are about 80% full and wait to see if you really need any more food.

5. Have your first meal within two hours of waking up and your last meal at least two hours before bedtime.

6. Limit beverage choices to water, green tea and black coffee. Water should be consumed all day, and a tall glass first thing in the morning is a great way to start. Green tea is best between or right before meals, but is not recommended in the evening. Coffee should be limited to the morning.

7. Cut sugary, processed foods, also known as junk foods.

8. Consume healthy fats. Good sources include: extra virgin olive oil (NOT for cooking), virgin coconut oil, macadamia nut oil, red palm oil, avocados, raw almonds, walnuts, pecans, and/or organic nut butters (almond butter).

9. EAT TO FUEL PERFORMANCE. (see more on this topic in my previous article: Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Workouts?)

Wrap-up

The foods you put into your body have direct effect on how you will look and feel. The primary nutrients we put into our bodies are proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

It's important to have clean, rich sources of these nutrients in our eating regimen. The higher the activity levels, the more carbohydrate-dominant your daily nutrition should be, still maintaining above-adequate amounts of protein and fats. Pay attention to your meal size and timing. Stick to water as your main beverage, but tea and coffee can be good in the morning or right before a workout.

Apply these simple rules to your daily nutrition and you'll begin seeing and feeling the results!

The Anti-Cubical Workout Plan

Never in history have so many people been faced with such long hours of constant sitting as they are today. We sit at work all day only to go home and sit to eat and then sit to watch TV (not to mention sitting in our car to get to and from work!). This means that out of our 16 hours of wakefulness, we could spend 12-14+ hours sitting! This not only bad news for our weight and waists, it's also terrible for our posture. 

The damage done by chronic sitting is two fold. First, it leads to a degeneration of health from every perspective. We hurt more, have less energy, get sick more, and are generally less satisfied. Second, when we finally realize that we NEED movement in our lives, we are unable to move properly! We have chronic back and neck pain that are compounded when we start to exercise and discover that we have limited range of motion. Most types of exercise require good posture BEFORE you can properly perform the movements. Running, biking, swimming, weight lifting, and even yoga can actually be more harmful than helpful if the proper steps are not taken to rework posture.

The best way to keep your body moving well is pay attention to your posture from the beginning. Given that most of us, regardless of current activity levels, have some sort of postural limitations, here are a few approaches that are safe, effective, and that you can start doing today:

1) Breathing. Learning to breathe properly can have a huge influence on maintaining good posture, so check out my previous article, Start Acting Like a Baby and MOVE!, to learn about a great breathing exercise.

2) Stand. The more you stand, the better posture you will have. This can be done at the office, around the house, or in transit (walking).  By staying on your feet more, you will help your body to relearn how to hold itself properly. If you do this, make sure that you wear flat shoes. The less sole, the better (and barefoot is preferred when possible.)

3) Massage. For those of you who can afford it, regular massage can help to loosen tight muscles and re-align joints. Certain types of massage are posture-based such as Rolfing or Heller Work, but others can be helpful too, including trigger point therapy and hands on muscle therapy. If you cannot afford professional massage, I would still recommend learning how to use self-massage techniques to release common areas of tension. The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook is a great source for this. Once you are set with your massage, you have to do the next one (stretching) to make it count.

4) Stretch. We can all stretch more, and it does not have to take that much time. You may already have a few stretches that you know and enjoy doing from time to time. Start doing those 2-3 times per day (makes for a nice break from the computer) and you will be on your way to less tension and better posture. Some of my favorite stretches are the Lying Twist, the Prone Press-up, the Hip Flexor Stretch, and the 90/90. I like these because they help to lengthen those areas that are most affected by sitting.

5) Pulling Exercises. This is going to be important for anyone who is involved in weight training or is interested in starting. I highly recommend including strength training in your weekly routine if you have not already. Strength training produces a wide variety of benefits, including increases in bone density, strength, power, and energy, and potential decreases in fat, joint pain, and muscle fatigue. When we look at strength training in regards to posture, there are a few key exercises that can be especially beneficial. Deadlifts, Single Leg Deadlifts, Rows, Pull-Ups, and YTWLs are all great movements in working your postural muscles. 

Each of these steps can have a positive effect on posture, so start incorporating some today. I have listed these in the order of importance and convenience. If you can do nothing else, just learning to breathe better will change how you sit at your desk, hold tension, and carry yourself. If you can then find ways to not sit as much, wonderful! Standing and walking are almost always beneficial. For some of you, massage, stretching, and strength training will be needed to create lasting changes for the better. However, one without the others will be not nearly as effective. If you only stretch without massage or strength training, the muscles will be limited in their ability to stretch and have no reason to maintain their length. If you only go for massage, you will quickly tighten up again as you have not re-established length or strength. 

We all sit too much, but let’s see what we can start doing today to make a difference in how that sitting will affect us over the next 5, 10, 20+ years. The sooner we start, the easier the road will be to regain our posture and our ability to move. 

5 Steps to Your Best Summer Body

If you are ready to get in the best shape of your life and want it to last, this is just what you need to get started. We all have goals for the summer, but how many of us have a plan? Here are five steps to help ensure your success this summer and to help you keep that body for the rest of the year.

Step 1: Nutrition before exercise.

When most people think about losing weight or getting in shape, they think about exercise. They sign up for a gym, hire a personal trainer, or grab a book or a magazine to find a workout plan. But while exercise is a crucial part of losing weight and getting healthy, I’d argue that it’s not the most important piece.

Research shows that with exercise alone you can expect to lose only about one pound per month. That’s not something to get too thrilled about, especially for the amount of work you should expect to put in during a month of training. So if exercise alone gets dismal results, what does work?

Nutrition. And not just what you eat, but also HOW you eat. Eating habits can be just as powerful as food choices in helping you to lose weight, so make sure you look also at your whole eating routine (e.g. speed of eating, activities during meals, time of day, number of meals, etc.) By focusing on nutrition and eating habits, you can expect to lose up to five times more fat in the same one month period as before.

Step 2: Find you key motivator.

We’ve all heard that to make a big change, motivation must come from inside. And it’s true. We all need a “reason why” — a real purpose and a sense of why losing fat and getting in shape is important to us. But sometimes you need extra motivation to actually start making change. You need a big motivator that pushes you into action.

So while looking good in your bathing suit may be motivation enough, it never hurts to add motivation to help ensure your success. You can make a bet with a friend—money is always a good motivator. You can actually GIVE money to someone to hold that you can only get back when you reach your goal. You can do the “5 why’s exercise” where you keep questioning your goals until you get to your most true and meaningful reasons behind them.

Whatever it is, find the motivation you need to not just start your program, but to see it through until the end.

Step 3: Do one small thing each day.

Dan John, a well known strength and conditioning coach, once put it this way: “If something is important, do it every day; if it’s not important, don’t do it at all.” That’s especially true in body transformation.

When trying to create new habits, there is nothing more important than repetition. We must do something daily, if not multiple times per day to ensure that it does in fact become a habit. The key here though is doing only ONE new thing at a time, but doing it daily. Any less, and you lose momentum; any more, you get overwhelmed.

Most people find this out the hard way. They make a heroic effort to change every part of their life, from the time they wake up in the morning to the kinds of foods they eat to adopting a new workout program and dozens of other changes. This all-or-nothing attitude may work for a week or two, but pretty soon they’ll crash and burn and be right back where they started. That’s why it’s important to practice one small thing at a time instead of trying to make a mad-dash for the finish line.

So instead of taking on the world, find one thing that you are confident that you can do every day, and start doing it. This can be as small as drinking an extra glass of water each day. The only two requirements are that it will help you reach your goal and that you are confident that you can do it every day. Once you have met these two requirements, work on this goal until it becomes habitual and only then look to add on anther habit.

Step 4: Find a support group.

You’ve probably heard this saying before: “You’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” And that’s exactly right. People who have a strong network of friends, co-workers, family members, or even complete strangers online that are supporting them in their goals often have more dramatic results than someone who goes at it alone.

With a good support network you can connect with people when you’re excited, confused, or wondering what to do next. You’ll have people around you who can offer feedback, guidance, support, and accountability.

This last point may be the most important. We are terrible at being accountable to ourselves, but we are exactly the opposite when it comes to others. It is very hard for us to let others down, and when they are counting on you to lose weight, get to the gym, change your diets, or anything else, you will be much more likely to follow through.

So find a group or a gym that you feel supports your goals, is there for you when you struggle, and is ready to hold you accountable in reaching your goals, and you will be much more likely to find success.

Step 5: Actions speak louder than outcomes.

We can’t control outcomes, but we can control our actions that may lead to those outcomes. In other words, you can’t lose 20 pound just by focusing on losing 20 lbs. There is no “lose weight” action. What you can focus on, however, are all the actions that can help you reach your goal.

This is important for two reasons. First, a focus on outcomes is more likely to lead to frustration and failure than it is to lead to long lasting results. That can then lead to two negative outcomes: you either quit or your do whatever it takes to reach your goal, regardless of sustainability. You focus on something that is out of your control and you miss an opportunity to learn from your journey.

Second, a focus on actions will lead to manageable successes, increased motivation and self-esteem, and will actually help you learn how to maintain your results once you get there! The goal is to focus on what is in your immediate control and the rest will follow. These actions, when practiced daily, will compound in there effect over time and lead to amazing results.

What to do Next

So what do you do with all of this? Here’s what: the key is to make one simple change right now. Don’t try tackling all 5 steps at once (remember step 3!) Instead, take an inventory of which of the 5 you are doing already. Have you found a support network? Do you have a solid nutrition AND exercise program? Do you have a big motivator? Are you good about just taking things one step at a time?

Ask yourself these questions, pick one thing you need to work on, and start there. It doesn’t matter if you go through the steps in order. And if you have something that is limiting you even more than these things, start there! It’s not about right or wrong. It’s about taking action. Because, while all of these are important, getting started is the most important step of all.