Continuing on with my series of back-pain treatment, the next type of treatment that I did was :

Corrective Exercises

Or rather, how I did exercises that helped to strengthen my back muscles to hold my back up.

The first time I started this was when the physiotherapists at NMSC taught me a series of corrective exercises to help strengthen my back muscles. I had seen two different people and they always recommended corrective exercises that helped a bit but I didn’t feel that there were any improvements to the situation.

It was only years afterwards did I realized that with Corrective Exercises, it was important the effective Corrective Exercise that will work for my back. Now to find the right person to teach you these effective exercises was and is difficult. And I found that unless you find a CHEK Practitioner, it would be very hard to know which Corrective Exercise will work for your situation.

Here’s a summary about Corrective Exercises :

Pros

1. You can do it yourself without having to pay anything to do them
2. You can do them anywhere and usually pretty easy to do

Cons

1. Requires a lot of self-discipline as you have to do them for the rest of your life
2. Learning the effective Corrective Exercise is hard without an experienced CHEK Practitioner with a great track record
3. The risk of injury is high if your back injury is very severe and you are doing corrective exercise without supervision from a trained professional

That’s a quick and easy read about Corrective Exercise. You can check out my videos on some of the exercises that works for me and is simple for you to try out.

As mentioned in the previous post, I’m going to share my experience with each of the back treatments that I’ve gone through over the years, in chronological order. My first one was Infra-Red Treatment.

I had Infra-red Treatment at Normah Specialist Medical Center. I actually started this when I was first diagnosed with a prolapsed disc in March 2000 and another time in August 2009. In both cases, I only carried out the treatment for only 3-5 sessions for the following reasons.

March 2000 : It seemed expensive and time-consuming to drive back-and-forth from Normah for this treatment. There was pain relief and my back eventually got stronger but never as strong as before my injury. Plus, when the physiotherapist mentioned that the treatment was never going to be effective, it seemed like a waste of money having to go for this treatment in the long run. So once I got stronger, I explored other options but not seriously, thinking that since I have to bear with this pain for the rest of my life, I didn’t bother.

Here was how I look at the Infra-red Treatment :

Pros

1. It gave immediate pain relief
2. No surgery required
3. No physical scar

Cons

1. The journey travelling back and forth during a week day taking up office time and a 30 min drive, pending traffic
2. Expensive with regular treatments and considering that the physiotherapist at Normah told me that there’s no hope to even handle the pain, I felt it was a waste of money. This was the biggest decision maker
3. I needed to drive to where the infra-red lamps were and lie down on a bed for it to work. I didn’t consider the Phillips Infra-red lamp because trying to think of how to have the little lamp cover my entire back wasn’t going to be easy. So going to the hospital was for the larger infrared lamp

With this in mind, I decided to look at other treatments and didn’t do the infra-red lamp treatments once my back pain reduced to manageable levels. At the time that I stop the treatment, here was my symptoms :

1. My back continued to have pain twinges at the spot where the herniation happened
2. My right leg was stiff from the tense pain but eventually, this went away although my legs were very stiff and prone to cramps
3. I had stiff legs (both legs) for a long long time until I had acupuncture
4. Exercise was painful because I couldn’t run or walk for long periods of time

That’s it when it came to infra-red treatment. So the next treatment in chronology order is the massage therapy by the physiotherapist who also taught me some corrective exercises.

Stay tune for more updates! Also, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to comment.

Everyone wants a quick fix to end back pain. Preferably without much effort and much cost. They want to get on with their lives as soon as possible and don’t have to live life like a disabled person.

There is a problem. There are too many options out there and which one to choose from. Which one would fix the back pain in the shortest possible amount of time with the least amount of cost (preferably free!) and not much time or effort invested in the solution. That is on the minds of everyone who has had severe back pain.

To help answer the question, here are some of the treatments that I’ve gone through or explored the option.

• Infra-red Heat Treatment
• Massage Therapy
• Acupunture
• Cupping
• Operation to remove the disc
• Chiropractic Treatment
• Treatment from a CHEK Practiciner

Over the next few days, I’ll share my experiences of each of these treatment. They are, by far, not extensively research but I did enough to fix my back pains that I was healed pretty fast.

So check back at this website in a few more days to find out more about each of the treatment mentioned above.

It’s in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped. – Anthony Robbins

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSYtQy9EqTA

Did you get a zing up your back reading that? I did. In 2009 after my second disc herniation, I made a monumentous decision to fix my back, no matter how long it took and no matter what I had to sacrifice, I was going to walk straight, have my movement back and not be immobilized for the rest of my life.

Enough was enough and it was time to get cracking. And truly, that impossible belief that I could fix my back pain and that I can find a way to get it fix. I knew people who got over their back pain and were healed.

I wanted that. I wanted to be that person. I wanted to be the one that achieve the impossible. I wanted to be the one for me to be strong for myself. That the final frontier was my mind against my reluctance to work hard, put in effort to be the person I was meant to be.

And that was my focus. The impossible dream of healing my back pain. That I would no longer have my back pain. That my body could miraculously heal itself. My focus for getting over the back was my shining light to getting well and that I will NEVER EVER let myself get into a mess with my back again.

Sure, there were alot of people who said that it cannot be done. That they kept saying over and over again that I’m a sad case and that the injury will never go away. That I would have to suffer through pain for the rest of my life. That I have to suffer through this excruciating pain that will come very often throughout my life.

You know what? That made me mad. That made me so mad to want to prove them wrong. That I was better. That I could do it. And that become my FOCUS. My FOCUS to ACHIEVE THE IMPOSSIBLE FOR OTHERS BUT THAT IT WAS POSSIBLE FOR ME.

The lesson that I learnt was that having a strong focus of an impossible goal works. I got better. I could do stuff. Not only the mental problems or emotional problems but literally physical barriers. I became so focus on fixing my back pain that it went away. Oh man, it went away! And I didn’t realized it went away until my coach asked about it and shaking around a bit, the back pain is no longer there.

I feel great. I feel VERY VERY GREAT.

• It’s about Being Great.
• It’s about Being Powerful beyond Measure
• It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
• It’s about how much you can take and keep moving forward.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD. FOCUS!

I got over my back pain. Now I am focusing on my next goal : RUNNING. Able to run without severe back pain. Without injuries. Without knee pains. Without joint pains.

That is my goal. And I will see you at that finishing line. Now how about you come alone with me for the ride. If I can do it, so can you. Sign-up for updates and get a free guide on how I use my focus to get over back pain.

One of the greatest fitness invention and rehab tool  is a foam roller. It’s great to use to relax the back and your legs as well through myofascial release. It definitely helps with back pain although you may need to check if this exercise is suitable for you. There is a reason I say this so read on.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar-qT9EGm1U

This is a video on how to use the foam roller to help with relaxing the spine and also to loosen up the leg muscles. When you’re on your back, you would need to have stronger core muscles before you can actually get on safely. That would mean doing a lot of corrective exercises that your therapist would have recommended for you to do in order to strengthen the back. I know that I didn’t get onto a foam roller until a year after the 2009 injury but gosh! I wish I had gone on it earlier. Unfortunately, I couldn’t but once I did, it was a relief to get on and try it.

For the legs, I started using a ball and didn’t get onto a foam roller until later. Why? Because it was painful all over my thighs! Well, it was painful because I didn’t go for any massage to try to relax it so it was pretty tight for 33 years. I started off with about 5 rolls daily before moving on to 10 rolls about a week later. I used to get out of breath because it wasn’t easy to balance myself up on the roller (my core muscles were completely whacked after a back injury). Eventually it got a lot easier to roll my legs and also my glutes.

Do I still pain when I use the foam roller? Only if it’s a new move where I haven’t touch that part of the body before. And that usually happens when I’m in a Body Rolling Class (currently every Tuesday 6.40 pm at http://www.fit4life.com.my in Kuching, Sarawak).

A word of caution : do not turn the roller and use it to go up and down the spine if you have a spine injury. It’s ok for upper back to stretch it but not for rolling up and down – you might injure yourself more. How does this look like? It would be like this video below – do not this exercise if you have a back injury. Not without professional supervision.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A3Ur1upjUw

That’s it for today. I hope that you enjoy this. Please do leave a comment below if you find it interesting or you want to have more information.

Did you know that not all Swiss Balls are created equal? Ok, so they aren’t so much as created as manufactured but you get the gist of it.

Swiss balls are use extensively to help to stretch the back and ease lower back pain. It’s also the most commonly used exercise gear to help with elevating back pain.

Here’s a video on what happens when an anti-burst swiss ball is pierced and when a cheaper version is punctured.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBllt-ywMgI

Not a pretty sight, isn’t it? But it does hit home that when one is doing exercises on any equipment, one has to take care of the back all the time. You wouldn’t want to make your back pain worst than it already is.

Now, note that squatting on the ball with weights is a very advance core exercise and is not recommended for people with back injury without professional advice. It is a good workout that engages all the muscles but it can be a difficult balancing act to do.

At the gym that I goto, there are 2 brands used :

1. AOK Health from Australia
2. Gymnic from Italy : The distributor in Asia is located in Malaysia and the company name is called The Gym and Care.

This isn’t quite the usual blogpost on back exercises but it’s important to know how to exercise safely, not only in technique but choosing the correct equipment for the job. You wouldn’t want to increase your back pain but to decrease it.

I hope that you find this information useful and please do leave a comment about it.

Say that you had back pain and even after all the treatments and exercises, you still couldn’t get your leg to relax to walk straight. You end up walking with a limp everywhere you go and yet, you no longer have sciatic pain rushing down your leg and your back pain had lessen over time.

So what’s the next step to try?

Nerve Flossing. What’s that? Read on!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqWxCzHekuA

I learnt that nerve flossing helps to relieve the tension in the sciatic nerve that runs down the outside side of the leg. According to Livestrong.com, flossing helps to loosen up the scar tissue on the sciatic nerve.

It took awhile but eventually, I got rid of my limp on my leg and can walk straight and tall. It took about 6 months of daily nerve flossing to loosen the tightness and I must admit, it was hard in the beginning. The nerve was so tense that I could only do it for a few times before breaking out into sweat.

Yet, even after one repetition, my legs felt more loose and not as tight. So I persisted on doing it daily and frequently. The persistance went off and I was a lot better.

I hope that you find this simple exercise useful. It doesn’t deal with the back pain directly but it does help with the after-effects of back pain i.e. tightness in the legs.

For more info, do sign up for our updates or come back to this site regularly.

Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Secret to Sleeping without Back Pain is actually a coconut.

Hang on! A coconut!?!? Why a coconut??

Well, it’s actually many many many coconuts. Or rather, the husk fibers. These fibers are compressed together, treated to be anti-mites and voila! A coir mattress is formed.

And that mattress is the secret to having a pain-free night from excruciating backpain.

I went from a spring-type mattress to an extremely hard coir (coconut fiber) mattress and that was back in 2009. The mattress was so hard that you absolutely cannot bounce on it! It also took me about 5 days to get used to the hard surface of the bed.

However, once I got used to sleeping on the bed, I definitely felt a lot better. You see, unless the bed was very hard, my back wouldn’t be straight but too curved up in a flexion. It puts a lot of strain on my back that my sleep were never restful.

Once switching to a coir mattress, it was a great to actually enjoy going to bed again. With the firm mattress, there was no pain in my back and this absence of pain helped to speed up the healing process.

So how do I cope when I travel? Well, then I would be sleeping on the floor as I can’t sleep on a spring-type mattress anymore. It’s a small sacrifice to pay for and one I’m willing to put up for a better back.

So if you want a good night’s, then change your mattress to a coir mattress. That’s the secret to a well-rested sleep even if you didn’t have back pain

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Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. - “The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams 

This post is in honour of Douglas Adam’s who wrote “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Today is Towel Day, an annual celebration to Douglas Adam and this is my contribution to that day.

Have towel, will travel. That’s what happened to me in 2009 when I went to attend a Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar at the Singapore Expo. Initially, I thought my coach was mad when she suggested that I just bring a towel and lie on the floor with my back pain. Why? Because 3 months earlier, I could barely walk from a reinjury of an L5/S1 disc herniation and I was scared that I was going to hurt myself. Plus, a towel to lie on the floor?  Will I survive 3 long days of intensive training? What I didn’t know was that the towel turned out to be more comforting than expected.

I flew to Singapore. I went to the seminar. I survived all 3 days. All with the aid of my towel. Here’s a video of how to use a towel to helped you get through a 3-day seminar.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOeCE4ChckI

A towel was so useful in many ways during the MMI seminar. Here is what it helped me to do :

1. A towel is versatile. Not only great for wiping sweat and all but I used it to lie on the ground. In front of 4000 people, I was lying down in the aisles, writing notes, listening to the speaker and doing groupwork there.
2. A towel is comfortable. It was more comfortable than I had thought. I could do all the back pain relieving exercises on it, just like a yoga mat and still not get dirty from the floor (I’m such a girl! Haha!). I was lying down flat. I was propped up on my elbows. I was doing my MacKenzie press-ups, butt stretches, etc.
3. A towel is a shield. It was a “shield” in my mind when I worried whether people were going to laugh at me for lying on the floor. I felt like an injured person and I was an injured person! How ironic… However, I felt protected lying on my towel.

I had a fun 3 days with that towel and by the 3rd day, people were coming up to me to say that I had the most comfortable spot in the room and thought what a great idea it was. I couldn’t sit for 10 min but I could certainly lie down and still listen to the seminar.

So if you feel that you cannot do attend a seminar, bring a towel. After all, a towel is a massively useful, like what’s mentioned in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.

“A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.” 
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

What’s so special about the Millionaire Mind Intensive (MMI) session? It’s an awesome seminar to learn how to get over mind freaks and money blueprint. More in another post soon!

In the mean time, check out these links for a MMI near you :

1. Rimini, Italy
2. Madrid, Spain
3. Singapore
4. Malaysia

That’s all for today. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about this post!

The other day, a friend commented that hanging upside down on an Inversion Table look pretty hard to do. Actually, it was pretty simple and to show you how simple it was, I’ve created a video to show you the entire process. What the Inversion Table does is that it helps to the spine to loosen up so that there is less compression on the spine. So click for the video!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVueDpBop_w

I used to go down slower when I had high blood pressure. But since I don’t anymore, I can be brought down faster but there is still about a 10-20 second period that I wait to let my blood circulation settle down before going all the down vertical. Then I’m down there for 5 min and when it’s come to get up, I also wait 10-20 second for the blood to settle back.

And that’s it! Please do let me know if any of the videos have been helpful. I’d love to hear from you and read your comments!