Back In Shape Podcast

Back In Shape

This podcast is dedicated to providing you with the help you need to fix your lower back pain and sciatica. From specific diagnoses, myths and injuries to the low back, to strategies to recover, we're here to help get your Back In Shape. This podcast is an extension of the Back In Shape Program, an online back rehabilitation program that helps members from all over the world. Created by the founders of The Mayfair Clinic, a specialist back and neck pain clinic in central London and winner of the prestigious Queens Award For Enterprise Innovation In 2020.

  1. 2d ago

    Back Pain Is an Injury: Why Nobody Can Fix It but You (And How Rehab Actually Works)

    Back pain isn't something that gets done to you by a clinician — it's an injury, and like any other injury, nobody else can rehabilitate it for you. Most people describe a sprained ankle as an injury straight away, but talk about their back for months using only the word "pain" — and that one difference in language is what delays real recovery. This episode makes the case that your lower back pain, your sciatica and even your muscle spasm are all downstream of an actual injury to a disc, facet joint or ligament at L4/5 or L5/S1, and that no injection, adjustment, massage or quick fix can rehabilitate it without you doing the work. 🎓 Join the Back In Shape Program: https://backinshapeprogram.com We explain why judging your recovery by how you feel day to day is unreliable, and why your squat and hip hinge load is the only honest measure of progress. We cover how the spine holds itself together using ligaments rather than active control, why a dropped disc height permanently changes how a segment moves, why steroid injections and other passive treatments fail when the underlying strength work hasn't been done, and why conditions like retrolisthesis and cauda equina syndrome matter less for their severity label than for what you do next. We also bust the common myth that core strength "takes load off" the lower back — it doesn't, and understanding why changes how you should think about rehabilitation altogether. 🔑 Key Topics Covered 🦴 Back pain is an injury, not just pain: a sprained ankle gets treated as an injury immediately, but the same back problem gets talked about as "pain" for months, and that delay in understanding keeps people stuck. 📏 Why feelings are the wrong progress measure: your squat and hip hinge load, not your day-to-day symptoms, is the only reliable way to track how your injured segment is recovering. 🪢 How the spine really holds together: ligaments, not muscles, hold your vertebrae in their natural alignment, and an injured segment becomes a "wobbly" link that catches and flares whenever you move it carelessly. 💉 Why passive treatments alone don't work: injections, adjustments, massage and decompression can all have a place, but none of them rehabilitate the underlying injury — only progressive loading does. 🏋️ Muscles don't take load off your spine: building core and hip strength supports the spine as it bears load rather than bypassing it, which is why progressive squats and hip hinges, not Pilates or stretching, rebuild resilience. Chapters 00:00 Introduction: back pain is an injury, not "pain" 04:04 The ankle analogy — and easing daily tension without flexion 09:34 Why "how you feel" isn't a measure of progress 12:10 How the spine works: the flexible lamp and the flare-up cycle 15:16 Running and disc health: why consistency matters more than fear 18:55 Degenerative disc disease vs herniated disc: it doesn't change your rehab 19:55 Facet joints, disc height, and the real self-assessment question 22:25 Steroid injections and why expectations go wrong 24:22 Retrolisthesis: why the severity label doesn't matter 29:04 Surgical complications, and building toward deadlifts the right way 31:39 Contrast bathing and imaging: managing congestion and tracking your baseline 35:34 Cauda equina syndrome: a difficult grey area 37:05 The Core 6 exercises — and the most common mistake in each 41:48 How a bad hip (or bad knees) feeds into a bad back 44:30 Overtraining, undertraining, and why most people never train properly 50:45 Why the program's material often beats a clinical appointment 53:54 Real-world load checks: toddlers, cricket and honest self-assessment 1:00:19 Hypermobility and EDS: why strengthening matters even more 1:01:43 Why muscles never "take the load off" your lower back 1:06:21 Stop chasing symptoms — find your starting point instead 1:09:54 Judging any treatment by one question: does it help the injury? 1:11:18 Closing: schedule update and sign-off

  2. 4d ago

    Lower Back Muscle Spasms: Why Stretching Makes Them Worse (And What to Do Instead)

    Your lower back muscle spasm isn't the problem — it's your body's protective response to an injured segment underneath it, and bending and twisting to "loosen it up" is what keeps the cycle going. If you've been told your back pain is "just a muscle" and sent away with muscle relaxers or a stretching routine, this session explains why that's only ever part of the picture. The tightness, spasm and burning you feel in your lower back, buttocks or hamstrings is a symptom of an underlying injury — usually a disc, facet joint or ligament problem at L4/5 or L5/S1 — and reflexive muscle guarding protecting that segment, not a problem with the muscle itself. 🎓 Join the Back In Shape Program: https://backinshapeprogram.com We explain why knee hugs, rocking your knees, cat-cow, cat-camel, pigeon pose and sciatic nerve flossing give temporary relief but reinforce the instability causing the spasm in the first place, why hamstring stretching often fails or even flares symptoms without a stable neutral spine to stretch from, and why tools like a massage gun can genuinely help with symptomatic relief, as long as you don't mistake that relief for fixing the problem. We cover why the squat is the most reliable measure of your lower back's recovery, why building load-bearing capacity has to come before your symptoms fully settle rather than after, and why daily movements like getting up from a chair can load your spine by far more than the weights you're nervous about lifting in rehab. 🔑 Key Topics Covered 💢 Muscle spasm is a symptom, not the diagnosis: tightness, spasm and burning in the lower back, buttocks or hamstrings is usually reflexive muscle guarding protecting an injured disc, facet joint or ligament — treating the muscle alone never resolves it. 🔄 Why "bend and twist it more" backfires: knee hugs, cat-cow, cat-camel, pigeon pose and nerve flossing loosen the spasm temporarily but keep re-aggravating the unstable segment underneath it, trapping you in the same cycle. 🧘 Why hamstring stretching often doesn't work: without the strength to hold a neutral spine while you stretch, your lower back moves instead of your hamstring, making the stretch ineffective or even provoking symptoms. 🛠️ Symptomatic relief has its place: a massage gun can genuinely ease muscle tightness day to day — the mistake is treating that relief as rehabilitation rather than a tool alongside it. 🏋️ Why loading comes before feeling better, not after: your load-bearing capacity has to lead your symptom recovery, not wait for it, because you're already loading your spine every day regardless, often by far more than the weights you're hesitant to try. Chapters 00:00 Introduction: why muscle spasm isn't the diagnosis 01:00 Why back pain shows up as muscle symptoms first 02:00 "It's just a muscle": the misdiagnosis trap 08:00 Considering decompression surgery? Do the rehab first 13:00 Returning to running or sport after a disc injury 16:00 Sitting, standing and the 20–45% load figure 18:00 Telling DOMS apart from aggravation 21:00 Muscle spasm as protective guarding — and why a rigid spine heals faster 25:00 Don't wait for the MRI to start rehab 27:00 Early rehab is about technique, not sweat 30:00 Why "don't avoid bending" is the wrong advice for an injured disc 32:00 Foot drop after surgery: why the muscle takes time to recover 36:00 The squat as your real measure of recovery — not how you feel 42:00 Why sled pushes aren't a substitute for squats 44:00 Building a database of evidence through controlled rehab 51:00 Why hamstring stretching fails without a stable spine 54:00 Massage gun vs foam rolling for symptom relief 58:00 Bad knees and the squat/hip hinge split 1:02:00 What "aggravation-free" actually means 1:06:00 Why load-bearing capacity has to come before feeling better (and why cat-cow doesn't build it) #MuscleSpasm #LowerBackPain #BackInShape #Sciatica #HerniatedDisc #BackSpasms #BackPainRelief #SpinalRehab

  3. Oct 23

    Spinal Stenosis Isn’t a Diagnosis: Why Opening Up the Hole Keeps You Stuck

    Spinal stenosis isn't a diagnosis — it's a description of a narrowed space, and chasing the space instead of what's narrowing it is what keeps people stuck doing knee hugs and child's pose for years. If you've been told you have spinal stenosis at L4/5 or L5/S1, this episode explains why that's only half the picture. The real injury — a disc bulge or herniation pushing in from the front, facet joint hypertrophy or thickened ligaments pushing in from the back, or a spondylolisthesis shifting the vertebra out of line — is what the "stenosis" label is actually describing, and it's the injury that needs addressing, not the hole itself. 🎓 Join the Back In Shape Program: https://backinshapeprogram.com We explain why "opening up the hole" with knee hugs, child's pose, cat-cow and cat-camel gives short-term relief but reinforces the underlying instability and keeps people stuck in the same cycle for months or years, why spinal decompression on a table is a genuine relief tool but not rehabilitation, and why two people with the identical MRI report can have very different recoveries depending on how they look after the injury. We cover why the first couple of weeks of rehab show improvement through coordination and technique rather than strength, why flare-ups are a normal and expected part of recovery rather than a reason to stop, and why building real load-bearing capacity is what actually takes pressure off the injured segment — not making more space for the nerve. 🔑 Key Topics Covered 🕳️ Spinal stenosis is a description, not a diagnosis: the real problem is what's narrowing the space — a disc bulge or herniation at the front, facet joint hypertrophy or ligament thickening at the back, or a spondylolisthesis shifting the vertebra out of line — and that's what needs treating, not the hole itself. 🔄 Why "opening the hole" is a trap: knee hugs, child's pose, cat-cow and cat-camel provide short-term relief by temporarily enlarging the space, but repeating them stops the injured segment from ever restabilising and keeps you stuck in the same cycle. 🛌 Spinal decompression is relief, not rehab: towel and bed decompression at home can genuinely take pressure off the disc, but it's a relief-based practice, not a substitute for the strengthening work that rebuilds stability. 💪 What rehab actually takes: learning to control a neutral spine with the Core 6 — dead bug, marching bridge, squat, hip hinge, step up and single-leg hip hinge — is a skill that improves within days, with real strengthening following over weeks to months once technique is safe. 🧍 It's not just the injury, it's who's carrying it: two people with an identical stenosis report can have very different recoveries depending on their strength, flexibility and the demands of daily life around the injury.

  4. Oct 22

    Sciatica Isn’t a Diagnosis: Why Treating Your Leg Keeps You Stuck

    Sciatica isn't a diagnosis — it's a symptom description, and chasing the pain in your leg instead of the injury in your lower back is what keeps it coming back. If you've been told you have sciatica, a trapped nerve or a pinched nerve, this session explains why that description is incomplete. The pain running down your buttock, thigh, calf or foot is generated by an injury higher up — usually a herniated disc, a disc bulge or spondylolisthesis irritating the nerve roots where they leave the spine — so stretching, massaging or icing the leg itself never touches the actual problem. 🎓 Join the Back In Shape Program: https://backinshapeprogram.com We explain why thinking in terms of "sciatic-type pain" rather than one strict diagnosis helps you trace symptoms back to their real source, why piriformis syndrome is usually muscle guarding rather than the cause, and why relief from an injection, a nerve block or nerve flossing is never the same as healing. We cover why going by how you feel day to day keeps people stuck in the same loop, why sitting can put more strain through an injured lower back than a careful, controlled squat, and why exercises like elephant walks, nerve glides and generic mobility routines are not rehabilitation. The common thread throughout: build the capacity of the injured lower back itself, rather than chasing the symptoms it's sending down your leg. 🔑 Key Topics Covered 🦵 Sciatica is a symptom, not a diagnosis: pain in the buttock, thigh, calf or foot is generated by an injury in the lumbar spine — a disc bulge, herniation or spondylolisthesis irritating the nerve roots where they exit — so treating the leg itself never resolves it. 🎯 Why piriformis usually isn't the real problem: a tight piriformis is most often muscle guarding reacting to the underlying lower back injury, the same way a sprained ankle can leave the opposite hip tight. Treat the injury and the muscle symptoms settle on their own. 🧵 Why nerve flossing doesn't work: nerves aren't designed to stretch, and the relief people feel from flossing, nerve glides and elephant walks comes from briefly opening up the same bony space a knee hug or child's pose opens, not from fixing anything, while keeping the injury flexed and irritated. 📉 Stop going by how you feel: flare-ups happen to everyone recovering from a back injury, and judging progress day to day instead of tracking your rehabilitation keeps you stuck in the same cycle. 💪 What sciatica recovery actually takes: building load-bearing capacity through the Core 6 — dead bug, marching bridge, squat, hip hinge, step up and single-leg hip hinge — so the spine itself gets stronger, rather than chasing temporary relief. Chapters 00:00 Introduction: why sciatica isn't a complete diagnosis 01:10 Sciatica is a symptom, not the injury 04:05 "Sciatic-type pain": why chasing the leg keeps you stuck 08:15 Stop going by how you feel 11:05 Why piriformis usually isn't the real problem 13:05 Why pain relief isn't the same as healing 14:35 Neutral spine is for the injury, not forever 15:45 Why who's carrying the injury matters as much as the injury itself 18:50 "Nothing showed up on my scan" — what that actually means 21:20 Rest alone can heal the injury, but it won't build resilience 23:35 Why your hip hinge range of motion is limited (and why that's normal) 28:45 Why walking can't replace loaded, scalable exercise 30:05 Centralisation: why leg pain receding is a good sign 31:15 The truth about nerve flossing and nerve glides 44:50 Why "no heavy weights" isn't useful advice without a framework 51:10 Why doing nothing while you wait for an appointment isn't neutral 58:05 Why McGill and McKenzie-style routines aren't full rehabilitation 1:02:55 Why "random stuff" like elephant walks isn't rehab 1:07:55 Reading stiffness correctly 1:09:45 Closing: resilience is a lifelong habit, not a fix #Sciatica #SciaticaRelief #BackInShape #HerniatedDisc #SlippedDisc #SciaticPain #BackPainRelief #SpinalRehab

  5. Oct 16

    Walking Is Good for Your Back. It Just Isn’t Rehab.

    Your lower back rehabilitation works in three distinct stages, and the first one — protecting the injury — can start working within minutes, not months. Whether you're dealing with a slipped disc, a disc bulge, spondylolisthesis or sciatica, the exact term on your scan matters far less than you've been told. This session breaks down the three stages your rehabilitation has to go through to heal a lower back injury, using a real case from the comments to show why the same disc bulge can be a bigger problem for one person than another.   🎓 Join the Back In Shape Program: https://backinshapeprogram.com We explain why getting off the symptoms and onto the injury changes the whole conversation, why the scary-sounding terms on your MRI report usually describe one problem rather than several, and why no adjustment, injection or surgery alone fixes anything. Then we walk through the three stages in order: protecting a neutral spine, which can improve within a single session; building muscle to a genuinely challenging intensity over weeks; and loading the spine itself for months until the structure gets stronger.   🔑 Key Topics Covered 🧩 One injury, many labels: spondylolisthesis, a disc bulge, facet joint hypertrophy, stenosis and ligamentum flavum thickening usually describe the same injury, not separate problems to fix one by one. ⏱️ Stage one happens in minutes: holding a neutral spine with the Core 6 is a skill that improves within a single session. 🛑 Why "get it moving" backfires: windscreen wipers, pelvic tucks and nerve flossing treat your spine like a knee or shoulder, when you can't see or control how much it's actually moving. 💪 Stages two and three: muscles adapt in weeks at the right intensity, but the spine itself only gets stronger after months of consistently applied load. 🏠 Who's looking after the injury matters: a real example showing why the same disc bulge can be far harder to recover from depending on skills, time pressures and support.   Prefer to read it? We've turned this live into a full written article. Read it here: https://backinshapeprogram.com/2026/10/how-rehab-works-lower-back-injury/ Chapters 00:00 Why your treatment should be able to explain itself 01:55 Get off the symptoms, focus on the injury 04:35 A case in point: no guidance, no progress 07:10 One injury, many labels 08:55 Why you can't target one spinal segment 10:55 The leaky roof: why chasing symptoms fails 11:55 Stage one: the Core 6 and a neutral spine 17:35 Why "get it moving" is wrong for an injured spine 19:55 Adapting rehab around knee pain and hip tightness 24:05 Stage two: finding the right training intensity 29:40 How the stages compound into real progress 31:55 The best sitting position for a bad back 34:50 Why pelvic tucks don't help spondylolisthesis 36:55 Stage three: why the spine takes months to strengthen 37:20 The most dangerous "comfortable" sitting position 38:55 Why nerve flossing is a mistake 46:00 Breaking through a training plateau 54:05 Why most people don't do their prescribed exercises 1:01:00 It's not about your injury — it's about who's looking after it   #LowerBackPain #HerniatedDisc #BackInShape #Spondylolisthesis #Sciatica #DiscBulge #BackPainRelief #SpinalRehab

  6. Oct 14

    Is Walking Good for Lower Back Pain?

    Walking feels like exercise for your lower back, but if you're relying on it to rehabilitate a herniated disc or recover from surgery, it's doing far less than you think.   If you've been told to "keep walking" to help a slipped disc, a disc bulge, sciatica, or your recovery from a microdiscectomy, this session explains exactly what walking does and doesn't do.   🎓 Join the Back In Shape Program: https://backinshapeprogram.com   We explain why walking fails as a strengthening tool: too many uncontrollable variables (terrain, pace, posture, the surprises of daily life), no scalable way to increase the load, and no safe way to stop halfway round a walk the way you can stop mid-squat. We compare it directly to the squat and hip hinge, cover why hips that don't move through full range on a long walk end up loading the lower back more, not less, and explain walking's genuine job: a short, aggravation-free relief practice that helps clear congestion and circulate nutrients, nothing more. Along the way: preparing to control your spine before a microdiscectomy, why posture doesn't cause back pain but does change the load on it, how spine adaptation actually happens (weeks for muscle, months for the disc itself), and why an MRI taken lying down can underplay what's really going on.   🔑 Key Topics Covered 🚶 Why walking isn't rehab: terrain, pace and the surprises of daily life are variables you can't control, so you can never safely and progressively load an injured spine the way structured exercise does. The only lever walking gives you is duration, and that doesn't transfer to lifting a toddler or carrying shopping.   🛑 No safe bail-out: push a squat too far and you stop, reset, and learn from it. Push a long walk too far and you're stuck finishing it, aggravated, with nothing to learn except to avoid that route next time. 🦵 Your hips protect your spine: long walking durations barely move the hips through their range, so tight hips end up forcing the lower back to do more of the work. The hip hinge and squat build the strength and mobility that actually takes pressure off the spine.   🏋️ What actually builds a stronger spine: the Core 6 (dead bug, marching bridge, squat, hip hinge, step up and single-leg hip hinge), done with a neutral spine and progressively loaded once technique is safe. Muscles adapt in weeks; the spine itself takes months.   💧 The real role of walking: short, aggravation-free walks on the flat help clear congestion and circulate nutrients around an injured lower back. It's genuinely useful alongside rehab — it just isn't the rehab itself.   Chapters 00:00 Introduction: why "just walk it off" is misleading 02:03 Preparing for a microdiscectomy: the Core 6 and learning to control your spine first 07:52 Why a bad herniation can leave you stuck hunched over 14:16 Walking is not rehabilitation 15:51 The problem with walking: too many uncontrollable variables 17:24 Why walking doesn't scale the way rehab does 24:05 No safe bail-out halfway through a walk 26:09 Comparing walking to the squat 30:35 Ditch the cardio while you're flaring up 32:15 The real role of walking: a relief practice 34:40 Ditch the bike, walk on the flat, keep it short 35:50 Why long walks set your hips up to fail 41:47 Hip mobility comes after strength, not before 43:20 How spine adaptation actually works (and why daily hard workouts are overtraining) 51:44 Weak legs and bad knees feed back into back injuries 54:13 Measuring your lumbar curve: why a standing X-ray beats an MRI 56:51 Sciatica is a symptom, not the diagnosis 1:01:24 Decompression: a relief tool, not a fix 1:03:08 Why lying down — and your MRI position — can mislead you 1:06:10 Closing: rehab, not walking, gets you better   #HerniatedDisc #Sciatica #BackInShape #SlippedDisc #DiscBulge #BackPainRelief #SpinalRehab #HerniatedDiscRecovery

  7. Oct 9

    Why Does My Back Hurt at Night?

    Lower back pain at night from a disc bulge, herniated disc or stenosis often comes down to congestion building while you're still, which is why getting up and walking around can settle it.   If you're searching at 2am or 3am because your bad back (lower back pain) is waking you, perhaps with a slipped disc (a bulging or herniated disc), degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis or arthritic change in the facet joints, this session explains what's going on. The exception is unexplained night pain that doesn't change when you roll over or move, alongside feeling generally unwell or losing weight. That's extremely rare, but it's one to take to your GP rather than a live stream.   🎓 Join the Back In Shape Program: https://backinshapeprogram.com   We use a leaky sink and a bucket to explain how an irritated disc or segment fills up with inflammation and congestion when you stop moving, and why stenosis or a large disc bulge turns the bucket into an espresso cup. We cover why walking eases that congestion but isn't rehabilitation, why swimming is a relief tool rather than a way to strengthen the spine, and why belts and braces don't support the segments that are actually injured. We also explain why load comes before range of motion, why you can start learning to stabilise your spine even in a flare-up, and why most bulging and herniated discs get better without surgery.   🔑 Key Topics Covered 🌙 Why night pain happens: through the day you keep emptying the bucket, so small irritations of an injured disc don't register. Lie still for hours and the congestion builds. Getting up and walking around for 10 to 20 minutes can ease it enough to get back to sleep.   🚶 What walking and swimming can and can't do: both help ease congestion when they stay aggravation-free, but neither builds the spine's capacity to bear load. Swimming's benefit is mostly being in the water, and the journey there and back can undo it in the early days.   🏋️ Rehab, relief and education: rehab rebuilds the spine's capacity to bear load, relief work eases things temporarily, and education is how you move through everything else. One hour of rehab a day is seven hours of the 168 in a week, so the other hours matter just as much.   🧩 Why recovery takes weeks for some and years for others: the difference often isn't in the disc but in the person. Strength, stability, coordination, experience and the demands of your daily life shape the outcome more than the diagnosis on the page.   😴 Sleep, protein and the shortcut trap: sleep is probably the biggest thing to work on, alongside enough protein from real food. When a supplement is on offer, ask how it's meant to help your back recover, because it can't do the strengthening work for you.   Chapters 00:00 Introduction: back pain that wakes you at night 02:00 Which conditions flare at night, and the red flags 03:00 Two kinds of night pain, and the sprained ankle comparison 05:00 Why it's worse at night: the leaky sink and the bucket 10:00 What walking does, and why it isn't rehabilitation 15:00 Three parts of dealing with a bad back: rehab, relief and education 17:00 Education: using your rehab skills across the rest of the week 19:00 Is swimming rehabilitation? 26:00 Sitting on the couch, and do bulging discs need surgery? 27:00 How often to train once you're recovering 31:00 Structural changes, a stronger spine and mobile hips 34:00 Why flare-ups happen, and why load comes before range of motion 36:00 The Roman chair, back extension and the cost of failure 39:00 Why some people recover faster: the disc is in the person 42:00 Sleep, protein and supplements 49:00 Why pain-free days shouldn't be the goal 54:00 Do back belts and braces help with chores? 1:03:00 Can a nerve get "stuck"? 1:05:00 Why strengthening happens between sessions, not twice a day 1:08:00 How to stabilise your spine during a flare-up #BackPainAtNight #LowerBackPain #BackInShape #HerniatedDisc #DiscBulge #SpinalStenosis #Sciatica #SpinalRehab

  8. Oct 7

    Herniated Disc? Why You Shouldn't Just Stop Going to the Gym

    A herniated disc doesn't mean you have to stop going to the gym, and being told to stop is often what keeps people struggling for months or years. If you've got a slipped disc (a herniated disc), a disc bulge, degenerative disc disease, sciatica or spondylolisthesis from training, or you're getting back to the gym after lower back surgery, this session is for you. It's for people who've been cleared of emergency symptoms and want to rebuild properly, rather than rest, avoid and lose the strength that protects the lumbar spine. 🎓 Join the Back In Shape Program: https://backinshapeprogram.com We explain why most people with a back injury don't have much strength to lose (over 90% of adults in the UK do no significant strengthening work), and why the squat and hip hinge are the safest way to progressively load the lumbar spine. We cover the two technique errors that catch out experienced lifters, the butt wink at the bottom of the squat and driving through the top of the hip hinge, plus how to standardise your depth with a block, what "aggravation-free" really means when you still have some tingling, and why changing depth and load together leaves you unable to tell what went wrong. We also look at muscle memory outpacing the spine, hip mobility, back belts, massage guns, and why the piriformis label and the figure-four stretch so often miss a lower back problem. 🔑 Key Topics Covered 🏋️ Keep training without feeding the injury: a step back should lead to a step forward, not months off. Rehab already includes load, and much of it can be done in the gym, with the weights becoming more gym-like over time. 🦴 Fix the two habits that catch out lifters: tucking the pelvis at the bottom of the squat strains the L5-S1 segment first, and thrusting through the top of the hip hinge jams it for no gain. Touching a block between reps keeps your depth honest. 📏 Change one thing at a time: the lower you go, the more load passes through the spine, even with good technique. Add depth or weight, never both together, so a flare-up is traceable and the mental setback doesn't snowball. 💪 You can come back stronger: the muscles adapt faster than the spine, so progress needs pacing. And because most people have never trained consistently, many end up stronger after doing the rehab work than they were before the injury. Chapters 00:00 Who this live is for: back injuries and the gym 03:00 Why "stop training" is such damaging advice 05:00 A step back to go forwards: rehab can happen in the gym 08:00 The butt wink, L5-S1 and using a block for squat depth 12:00 Leg symptoms, tingling and the aggravation-free rule 16:00 Why your scan doesn't change the rehab 19:00 Stop trying to activate individual muscles 22:00 Night-time pain and the middle ground of recovery 31:00 Training frequency, towel decompression and hamstring stretches 40:00 The hip hinge is not bending forwards, and the lockout mistake 44:00 Change one variable at a time: depth, then load 47:00 Muscle memory, fatigued sets and letting the spine catch up 52:00 Hip mobility: strength first 54:00 Should you wear a back belt? 59:00 The piriformis label and the figure-four stretch 1:05:00 What a real rehabilitation program looks like 1:11:00 Injections, pelvic tilts and building load capacity 1:16:00 Why "just rest" keeps you weaker 1:20:00 The question to ask any clinician about your treatment 1:22:00 Can you end up stronger than before the injury? Learn more: Read the full article here: https://backinshapeprogram.com/2026/10/herniated-disc-why-you-shouldnt-just-stop-going-to-the-gym/ #HerniatedDisc #Sciatica #BackInShape #DiscBulge #SlippedDisc #LowerBackPain #SpinalRehab #HerniatedDiscRecovery

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About

This podcast is dedicated to providing you with the help you need to fix your lower back pain and sciatica. From specific diagnoses, myths and injuries to the low back, to strategies to recover, we're here to help get your Back In Shape. This podcast is an extension of the Back In Shape Program, an online back rehabilitation program that helps members from all over the world. Created by the founders of The Mayfair Clinic, a specialist back and neck pain clinic in central London and winner of the prestigious Queens Award For Enterprise Innovation In 2020.

Information

  • Creator
    Back In Shape
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    352
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Back In Shape
  • Show Website
    Back In Shape Podcast

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