Even Highly Trained Athletes Are Not Immune to Severe Back Pain & One of the Most Common Misdiagnoses - Leg Pain Vs. Back Pain.
Even the most physically fit among us are susceptible to debilitating back injuries and chronic pain. As a ten year competitor in triathlons, Cameron was what most would consider extremely fit. To put his level of fitness and training in perspective, one of the Iron Man races he would regularly participate in consisted of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and finally a 26.2 mile marathon-length run. A few years ago, seemingly out of the blue, his back "went out on him". He doesn't remember anything specific that caused it, but he suddenly went from competitive training to being bed ridden with back spasms and intense pain.
His doctor prescribed an MRI along with anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxant medications. Cameron was then referred to an orthopedic spine specialist who diagnosed him with a degenerative and herniated disc in the lumbar region of his lower back. It was recommended that he avoid strenuous activity, perform a few gentle stretches and exercises, and continue taking his medication while monitoring his back for improvement. After a couple weeks he felt as good as new and resumed his usual training, but several months later he experienced another debilitating setback that once again left him bed ridden and heavily medicated.
This cycle continued for several years, each time with the pain coming and then leaving again with medication and rest. The episodes were incredibly problematic not only due to the pain and inconvenience, but also due to their unpredictable nature.
In the fall of 2012 Cameron was training for an upcoming marathon when he began noticing some tension and pain in his lower left leg. He visited a sports medicine doctor who diagnosed him with a strained calf muscle and referred him to physical therapy. After several weeks of treatment for his calf muscle he began noticing that his back was becoming more and more painful. He thought it might just be another passing back episode so he started a regimen of the medication that he now kept on-hand for such occasions. But this time, instead of improving after a few days of medication and reduced activity, the pain in his back continued to escalate.
An updated MRI and visit to the spinal specialist confirmed his fears that his herniated disc was indeed getting worse. The protruding disc was pinching nerves near the base of the spine, specifically the sciatic nerve, which was actually the source of the cramping and discomfort in his calf. This is a fairly common misdiagnosis - a leg or hip injury that is actually a back injury. The spine serves as the central nervous system's highway to the brain, and any injury, imbalance, or dysfunction near the spine can cause radiating pain that reaches far out into distant regions of the extremities. The spinal specialist suggested that the radiating pain symptoms and MRI results made Cameron a good candidate for back surgery, but before electing to operate he encouraged Cameron to first exhaust all other treatment and therapy options.
It was at this point that Cameron was referred to Josh Tilleson's back pain book and home-based video treatment series titled The Defeating Back Pain System. Similar to Cameron, Josh had struggled for years with crippling lower back and sciatic leg pain. "I had tried every kind of therapy you can think of," said Josh, "I was so desperate... so tired of the pain." After spinal steroid injections, two back surgeries, and a decade of treatments failed to give him relief, he decided to take a new approach. " Previously, I had always been looking for someone else to just fix me. But after years of failing with that approach, I decided to take it upon myself to study and learn everything I could about back pain, what causes it, and what research has proven can help it."
As Josh poured over hundreds of articles and clinical studies, posture and muscular balance were the few constants that kept showing up in the successful treatment of back pain. He circled back and looked for self-treatment therapies that aligned with these principles. By experimenting on himself with just one therapy at a time, he was able to zero in on the properties that were specifically beneficial to treating back pain and eliminate everything that wasn't. Josh notes, "For example, yoga and Pilates are both known to help back pain, but they also have some techniques that either offer no back benefits or can even aggravate a back injury and increase pain. By focusing on only those techniques that are beneficial in eliminating back pain, you can narrow both practices down to a few fundamentals that can be applied in minutes, not hours." Josh continued experimenting like this, with a variety of self-treatments, until he had a concentrated routine that had completely eliminated his back pain. It was then he realized that if this super-therapy could relieve back pain as severe as his, it could also help others who were needlessly suffering.
A year later, The Defeating Back Pain System book and video series was born. "It is so rewarding to help others experience the same health and freedom from back pain that I now enjoy." says Josh. "I'll never get tired of hearing how people are using the system to recapture parts of their lives that they thought were lost forever."
As Cameron applied The Defeating Back Pain System, he was amazed to feel his pain steadily dissipate while his strength, functionality, awareness, and confidence all increased. "The author lays out great guidelines, techniques and strategies around stretching, exercise, posture and overall form that have become must have daily habits for me." Cameron went on to say "This program, book and video series have literally changed my life and the way I approach my daily activities. I’ve come to realize that solving my back issues is a journey that requires an overall lifestyle change. If you have back issues and you haven’t taken a look at the Defeating Back Pain program, you are doing yourself a disservice."
