Back Surgery Recovery

Sitting in the car or on a plane for awhile can make it tough to get up and get going. This little activity helps to activate the glutes and get those hip flexors to stop pulling on your low back.

Get your butt(ocks) in gear Taking a different spin on waking up your spine and posterior chain muscles (backside). Can be done anywhere, anytime.

Spending hours and hours in therapy and $ isn't available to everyone. Some want to heal on their own and are motivated to take control of their healing.

That's who the Back Surgery Recovery Program is suited for.

We're changing lives by changing outcomes.

Do you know someone who is struggling to recover? Scared to get active again?

Tell them about our program!

How common is Reherniation after Microdiscectomy?

Reherniation is the most common complication after lumbar discectomy. In fact, 7-18 percent of discectomy patients experience recurrent disc herniation.

People who have never experienced a disc herniation will never understand how debilitating the pain can be.

"I'm broken"

"I can't do anything without pain"

"The pain in my leg is excruciating"

Get back to living your life. The Back Surgery Recovery Program is a guided program of rehabilitation. You can heal yourself without spending time and money with multiple appointments.
www.backsurgeryrecovery.com

Q: Should I wear a back brace after surgery?

A: It depends.

✅ If your disc herniation was quite large, it would be a good idea to use something to help stabilize the vertebrae while the disc heals. (see which type I recommend below)

✅ A back brace can be very helpful to teach you how to move properly. One of the reasons why a disc herniates in the first place is due to improper lumbar flexion under load repetitively. This means that you are bending forward in the low back segments when you bend forward instead of hinging properly at the hips.

✅ A brace can offer some support while traveling. Fatigue over long distances and travel time can be tough on the spine. A brace allows for the muscles to get some extra support.

✅ Used in rehabilitation, the brace can offer some psychological support too. Having a brace on can give you some 'kinesthetic' feedback that teaches your brain about your movements and allows you the safety to stay stable while moving about.

🆘 Don't use one and become dependent on it. A brace is an aid, and not to be used in place of the development of core strength. Life doesn't allow for rigid parameters when it comes to movement. You may not always have a brace on when it comes time to lift something or move quickly.

Which brace is best?

The one I recommend is the "M-Brace Lumbosacral lock"

This brace is comfortable and supports you in the right places. As the name implies, it locks your sacrum and lumbar vertebrae into a position that makes you have to hinge properly at the hips. One caveat though - it is possible to start hinging at the top part of the brace around the bottom of the rib cage if you aren't moving properly. Your body will let you know pretty quickly as you'll start to ache in this area.
https://www.orthomed.ca/m-brace-castor-lumbo-sacral-without-panels-13?gclid=Cj0KCQjwwLKFBhDPARIsAPzPi-JGsfQymdc8nBs02E6zr52TVzozDcq4PewlnHa-nDrrM1FfQpnW9DAaAt8MEALw_wcB

When should I start exercises like push-ups?

First things first, you want to get exceptionally good at engaging your multifidus muscles in the low back before doing any body weight-loaded exercises.

You want to learn how to stabilize your spine first before any and all exercises.

If you don't know how to, learn to perform kegel exercises and practice them always throughout the day whenever you sit, get out of the car, rise out of a chair, pick up something etc. You want it to become so automated that you stop consciously thinking about doing it.

f you are good to go with that, then anytime after 12 weeks should be ok provided you don't hold your breath and create a valsalva effect. This increases the the intra-thecal pressures inside the discs of your spine. By engaging your multifidus muscles, you will provide tremendous support and stability to the discs.

Performing a kegel:

✅ Squeeze your pelvic floor as if you are trying to not pass gas.

✅ Imagine lifting the pelvic floor like the space shuttle lifts off - slowly rising at first. Contract and hold for 5 seconds

✅ Draw your belly button in away from your waistband. Don't suck in your stomach - only use about 10-15% effort to draw in.

✅ Keep breathing!! Don't hold your breath. You should be able to perform these while maintaining a normal breathing pattern.

✅ Women - squeeze through the front and back side of the pelvic muscles.

✅ Men - imagine trying to stop your urine stream by contracting the muscles of the pelvis.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

Stop listening to anyone who tells you exercising with low back pain is a bad idea.

Spinal Stenosis

Do you experience a heavy feeling in the legs and hips with activities like walking or running?

Stenosis may be to blame. An x-ray can show a reduced space but an MRI is a better imaging tool.

There are a few ways that stenosis can occur. It comes on as a result of spinal degeneration. The ligamentum flavum resides inside the central canal of the spine. This ligament can thicken over time and create pressure on the spinal cord and associated blood vessels. This can cause a reduction in neurological signaling to the legs and lower body when stenosis occurs in the lumbar spine.

In other cases, the spinal vertebra actually thicken from bony growth changes as a result of arthritic changes. When a spinal vertebra is subject to abnormal forces, the body deposits more bone building elements and thickens itself.

Some other symptoms include:

🆘 Numbness or tingling in a foot or leg

🆘 Weakness in a foot or leg

🆘 Pain or cramping in one or both legs when you stand for long periods of time or when you walk, which usually eases when you bend forward or sit

🆘 Back pain

What can you do about it?

Conservative care includes gentle exercises designed to try and free the spinal nerves and cord from impingement.

These include:

✅ Laying on one's back and pulling one knee into the chest and then the other. Hold for 30 secs

✅ Pulling both knees into the chest. Hold for 30 secs

✅ Laying on the back with knees bent and gently letting knees roll to the left and then right like a windshield wiper. 8x/side

Chiropractic care - works to remove the abnormal forces applied to the spinal bones and decompress the nerves. Can be quite effective and helpful.

Medications - Drugs like gabapentin and anti-inflammatories can aid in reducing pain and inflammation. These are masking agents that do wonders to help you get some much needed sleep, work or play. But they don't address the cause.

Surgery - may be offered as a last ditch effort to 'decompress' the cord and nerves. The back part of the spinal vertebrae is removed. It can offer tremendous relief but it is major surgery and recovery can be painful.

My opinion - always explore and exhaust your conservative measures first. 🙌

Laying in a hospital bed 8 years ago, I never thought I'd ever walk again let alone be able to exercise, play hockey, golf or ski again.

healing is possible and your body is capable of more than anyone has ever given it credit for.

Don't lose hope.

There is help and there is hope.

Smoking has been implicated in the degradation of the vertebral discs. Quitting smoking is essential to recovery and the prevention of future herniations.

Men and women turn to surgery when no other solution exists.

They often feel broken, lack wholeness, weak, vulnerable, crippled, and may think their lives will forever be limited.

In turn, they become they lose their power, feel depressed, irritable, and lack reaching their fullest potential socially, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

They question their ability to ever be ok again. All they want to do is feel well enough again to function in their everyday lives.

They want to feel ’normal’ again.

Anxiety and frustration come on as they watch their friends and family continue to live active lives while they must watch from the sidelines.

They experience pain and discomfort and uncertainty as they try to recover.

There is help. There is hope.

The Back Surgery Recovery Program offers a detailed all encompassing solution to recovering from disc surgery or injury so that people can recover safely and optimally.

There are so many options and such a mountain of information that can leave an individual scattered and lost amidst it all.

This program will guide them with what works after I spent a full year researching, testing and trial and error to recover.

This solves the problem of trying to sift through all the information. Members enjoy a much higher quality of life after going through the program and in turn return to their families, work and lives with vitality.

www.backsurgeryrecovery.ca

Get out of the pain cave.

If you've spent any time on any of the numerous microdiscectomy facebook forums, you'll notice how many folks continue to have pain challenges long after they've had surgery. In fact, the number of folks who end up with a second MD or a fusion is quite high.

Some statistics show that only 13% of post md patients return to work within a year without the need for daily medications.

Those aren't good stats if you ask me.

Why is that?

When I was injured, I knew the stats going into surgery. I was scared to death to end up possibly debilitated, unable to work or worse - paralyzed. In fact, I recall waiting in the hallway outside the operating room wanting to jump off the gurney and run away....problem was I couldn't even stand.

I made the decision to trust the process and that I would do whatever it took to heal properly.

That's what I did. I spent the next year recovering and rebuilding myself.

Surgery ONLY takes care of the symptoms. You have to do the WORK to heal fully.

Pic for attention - this is me going full send off a 15 foot drop in the backcountry of British Columbia 8 years after my surgery.

Hey you!

If you're reading this you've got air in your lungs and the ability to change your situation in some way. The freedom to choose your path forward.

The path to healing isn't always a straight line. Some days you'll feel inspired and others you won't.

Know this - Success leaves clues and those that have travelled the path before you can help.

Will you seize the day? What actions do you need to take?
You've go this.

Inversion tables? Other options?

Some days, the lower spine feels quite tight. Maybe after working in the yard, or after a day of sitting at work. This is a simple LOW COST way of decompressing your lower spine safely.

Grab yourself a strength band 70-120lbs tension.
Give it a try!

Decompress your Lumbar Spine Is your low back feeling feeling tight and smoked after a tough workout or standing all day? Grab yourself a strength band do some gentle decompression. Co...

Why spend so much time and money with therapy appointments when you can do it at home?
www.backsurgeryrecovery.ca

Strengthening the low back.

“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”

Motor control of the lumbar spine musculature is quite complex. Our big muscles activate to support our body's weight when we bend in any direction. At the moment of rotation, our deep muscles have to engage to rotate the vertebrae while the larger muscles must 'quiet'. the whole process occurs in mere milliseconds.

Being purposeful when you strengthen the muscles of the spine requires slow movements to start and then scale it up properly.

When you do these, think about moving slowly and concentrate on segment by segment motion in a calculated manner.

Low back strengthening In this video, I'll show you a simple exercise to do to strengthen the muscles of the low back. If you have a disc herniation go easy on this one. Perhaps ...

People don’t understand what chronic pain is like. Unless you’ve lived with it, it can be debilitating in mind and body.

Learning strategies to manage the pain is one thing. Learning to manage the thoughts and feelings of “being broken” are another.

It’s important to find joy everyday. As mentioned in a previous post (last week), its
A good practice to reduce the charge that our emotions bring by asking yourself “what are the benefits of living with back pain?”

Things like - I’m more empathetic to others with pain. I’m thankful for being able to _______. I’m grateful to be able to enjoy __________ in spite of my pain.

Then you have to ask yourself, “If I didn’t have this pain, what are the drawbacks of not having it?”

Seems like an odd question, but they are there. Things like - “I’d spend more money golfing” or “I’d likely be asked to help people with physical activities that I hate doing”

Spend some time reviewing these and share below what you discovered.

You are NOT alone.

Low back pain and emotional stress.

Have you ever noticed the connection between your stress levels and the degree of back pain you experience?

In Caroline Myss' book 'Anatomy of the Spirit', she writes about the connection between low back pain and trying to support the people around you financially or emotionally for long periods of time.

One thing that I've discovered is that yes, there is a significant connection between our emotions and our pain levels. Sometimes, the stress of being in chronic pain brings on emotional stress:

❓ "Will i be able to support my family?"

❓ "Will I be able to walk again?"

❓ "Will I be able to be intimate with my partner again?"

Understanding and accepting this emotional connection to low back pain is key to healing fully in body and mind. Writing out the feelings and emotions is helpful to process them - anger, denial, frustration, guilt, resentment are all common when you've been in chronic pain.

In order to become objective about the injury, you must become objective about it.

List out the emotions above and when you feel them. Write out the complete opposite emotions happening simultaneously around you.

For me, I was angry somedays. I was angry with everyone around me. My anger consumed my every thought. My personality became my emotions.

My self talk was something like - "I feel so stupid. I can't do anything. I can't even lay down comfortably. I can't sit in a restaurant. I'm a terrible husband......and so on."

It wasn't until I started to do the work (like we do in the program) and processed the emotions fully that I was able to lift the heaviness of it all and realize that in the darkest moments, we forget that we experience both the good and the bad but we attenuate our senses to the bad when we are in pain. Learning to connect to less of the bad and focus on the good takes practice and patience.

An example - when you're feeling angry, look around you for the tranquility. You might find it in the kids, the wind, the peacefulness of a room, or wherever. You cannot only experience only one emotion without the other simultaneously happening around you.

In the program, we teach the Overview Method. It is a process of understanding how past traumas trigger our emotions and how we respond to challenges. Then we learn how we can heal all of them and ourselves through a self-discovery process of how to dissolve ANY stressful situation or event and turn it into something that is ON your way rather than IN your way.

Final thoughts - Know this....You are NOT useless. You are NOT your injury.

Question of the Day:
If you had to do it over again, would you have had your microdiscectomy surgery?

There are limitations to imaging.

If we took 100 people off the street and put them into an MRI, we would find that 50% have disc herniations. Of those 50%, 4/5 would have NO PAIN at all.

Shocking? 🤯

There are many reasons and causes for pain generation.

If you've had a microdiscectomy and are either still having pain, or have developed pain again after months of relief then there are a few things you should know.

✅ Scar tissue at the nerve root can develop around 5-6 weeks post surgery. There are many things you can do to minimize its formation - nerve flossing, walking, gentle hinging movements and more

✅ Adhesions of the nerve along the 'tunnels' in the body can cause problems. Think of your arm sliding through the sleeve of your shirt. It should happen easily. When the nerve impingement has been present for years or because of severe inflammation, there can be adhesions that reduce the slide and glide through the tunnels. Again, things like nerve flossing and walking are incredibly helpful.

✅ Improper motion in the lumbo-pelvic region can hamper movements and mimic sciatica/nerve pain.

✅ Fascial restrictions can create aberrant motion due to years or months of protective guarding. Using implements like massage balls, foam rollers, massage guns or professional hands can greatly help improve movement of these tissues

✅ Re-learn how to MOVE. Your body is designed to move. When we get injured, our bodies create compensatory movement patterns that hinder our recovery. We literally have to re-learn how we sit in a car, get off the couch, run, ski, - EVERYTHING.

My personal experience - I spent one year doing gymnastics after my microdiscectomy so that I could build core strength and teach myself how to move. I recorded all of it, would watch it and correct my technique....OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

That's why I created this page and this program - to help guide people through the 'ocean' of information and streamline their recovery!

One of the most critical things one needs to understand about healing from a disc herniation, regardless of surgery or not, is this:

🙅‍♂️ Surgery does NOT solve the reason WHY your disc has herniated in the first place. Surgery only resolves (or attempts to) the symptoms you are experiencing.

Read that again...

Structural shifts within the spine, repetitive stress and strain or excessive force to the intervertebral disc beyond its capacity to adapt to the force is WHY the disc herniates.

In fact, we know from Stu McGill's research (leading biomechanist in the field of spinal function) that repetitive lumbar flexion delaminates the annulus ring (that's the outer layers of the disc) causing the jelly or nucleus pulposus (looks like crab meat actually) to bulge out through the annulus.

So, following surgery you must re-learn how to move properly.
This includes:

✅ Proper hip hinging

✅ Core bracing and stabilization

✅ Improved mobility and strength in a full range of motion

✅ Proper neuromuscular movement patterning

The Back Surgery Recovery program teaches all of this and much more.

Launching our program on April 1st. Our introductory pricing for our Beta members is $995. This includes our 6 month module program that saves you time, money and guessing.

For more information, check out our site:
backsurgeryrecovery.ca

If you are at least 6-8 weeks post op or if you are trying to avoid surgery, this sequence of mobility can really help to ease the tension in the low back.

**Go slow! It shouldn't feel worse. If it does, then you likely need to back off and/or use a softer ball.

July 4th "FREEDOM" for your Low Back Pain Dr Craig Hazel - Synergy Chiropractic shows you a simple self-care tip for helping release tension from the low back using a yoga ball.

Learning how to decompress your spine is critical to helping to create length and strength in the spine.

The small muscles that support the spine become tough a fibrous after injury. This doesn't help matters when it comes to regaining proper movement in the disc.

You can also do this while laying on your back or seated in a plane or car.

Decompressing your spine Sitting is terrible for your spine. This is one of go-to exercises that I personally do all the time during and after prolonged drives, sitting or flights.