If you have low back pain, Restore Your Core® has solutions that may help you find relief. RYC® is a comprehensive movement program that teaches you to discover your body’s compensation patterns and reprogram your movement to be more effective. RYC® provides practical alignment and posture tips that you can take off the mat and into your everyday life. I have nearly 20 years of experience with clients who have low back pain, but more importantly, I have been there myself. I had severely herniated lower back discs when I was 24, so bad that I spent two months in bed, and the next six months with such terrible nerve damage that I could hardly walk. What helped me eliminate pain was core strength and muscle repatterning. After a year of core work and other techniques, I was pain free. The work I did to heal my back pain eventually grew into Restore Your Core. Learning how to optimize your muscle use is one way to start down the healing path.
In the photo above are some more small, simple changes you can make to how you move in your daily life. These minor changes have a big payoff! Note: don’t worry about it if you don’t *always* make these adjustments, it is less about being “perfect” 100 percent of the time and more about gaining awareness of your default movement patterns and which ones might not be totally serving you. Our bodies are adaptable and capable so cultivating awareness of how we move, our habits, and preferences can make really amazing shifts .
Most low back pain is treatable
Once you’ve eliminated medical causes of low back pain such as a ruptured or herniated disc, sciatica, arthritis, kidney infections, etc., attention to how you move can make a huge difference with low back pain. RYC® resolves back pain for many, many of my students. Part of the reason it works so well is that it encourages small, everyday changes that add up to big effects. In addition, it is a rehab focussed program, not a “get-thin-quick” or a “get a flat-belly” program. We spend ample time on movement patterns, breathing patterns, and learning to engage our core effectively.
How we use our bodies on a daily basis can affect the health of our joints, muscles, and bones. If you are suffering from back issues, core issues or even pelvic floor issues, taking care of your body’s alignment should be a part of your recipe for resolving your issues. There is usually not one thing that takes care of back issues; rather, it should be a multifaceted approach that includes alignment, exercises, and addressing movement blind spots and compensations.
Common Causes of Low Back Pain
Approximately 80% of American adults will experience low back pain at some point. It is extremely common. Short-term low back pain is the most common form — usually as a result of an injury. A fact sheet from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke notes that “About 20 percent of people affected by acute low back pain develop chronic low back pain with persistent symptoms at one year. In some cases, treatment successfully relieves chronic low back pain, but in other cases pain persists despite medical and surgical treatment.” In addition, the number of people suffering from low back pain has increased in recent decades.
There are a variety of causes for low back pain, including bulging or herniated discs, spinal stenosis, strain, structural issues, arthritis, osteoporosis, and (more rarely) spinal infection or cancer. Assuming there are no other factors present that would require medical intervention, movement is the best treatment for low back pain. If you’re suffering from low back pain, this symptom checker from the Mayo Clinic can help you decide on the best course of action.
Learn more about alignment at Lauren Ohayon’s Blog