Get the best results when you work with Back Pain Clients.

If you're a Pilates or yoga professional and you want to get better results with your clients who have back pain, then you're not gonna want to miss this program!

What's it about?

The program will run over eight weeks.

We start Monday, March 4th 2021 for eight weeks online.

We will go through the major back pain conditions, what they actually are, and what that means in a language you can understand. So if you don't have a medical background, we're going to be explaining what the different back issues are, and what that means to how you choose to then exercise and move people.

This will set you apart from other exercise professionals as you will have a deeper understanding of what the different back pain condition are and how they can affect your choice of exercise.

Why choose this program?

80% of the population will have back pain at some time in their lives, and 80% of those will go on to have recurring back pain. That's 8 out of 10 in a class potentially with back issues of some sort - and most won't tell you about it until it's a problem.

People come is and say they have 'back pain'  - the thing is "back pain" isn't an all inclusive clause that we do the same thing with...

Back pain covers a multitude of sins.

If you have knee pain, it can be coming from your cartilage, your cruciate ligaments, your collateral ligaments,  your kneecap, malalignment, muscle imbalance, arthritis, swelling, there's a whole heap of things where people say, my knees hurt.

And you don't know what going on if someone says I have knee pain.

And you don't know whether twisting the knee is going to be good, whether bouncing on the knee is good, whether stairs are good for that knee.

The client just says I can't do stairs, so you don't do stairs.

Or the client says I can't kneel so you don't kneel,

The thing is you can, you can change things quickly for knees, there's a lot of things that we can alter, to accommodate needs.

So if people don't like stairs, and you just don't do squats, if you do squats, you might modify them. We take whatever gets them worse and then support it with appropriate modifications.

When people come in with back pain, they just say I've got back pain.

Now they might say, I've got a disc problem, or I've got a facet joint problem or, you know, is they're really a very self aware, they might say, Look, I've got ........ and  throw a whole heap of medical jargon at you as to what they've got.

Now, you're trying to build somebody core strength, improve how they move and their flexibility, which inevitably, that's what you're trying to do.

If you're trying to get them to move better, if you're trying to get them to bend, if you're trying to get them to lift things,  if you're trying to get them to work more to get stronger you have a bigger deal to work with because the back and the core are the centre of everything.

Back pain, and moving around back pain changes what's going on and is gonna have a massive impact on how you work and program..... it's not as simple as just modifying for a knee problem... the back and how they hold themselves impacts so much more than that.

Moving Clients in Pain

You need somebody who can move to be able to do what you want them to do, you need somebody that's able to control where their posture is to be able to do your exercises, well, you need somebody who is able to bend and move and function
around the spine to be able to do that exercise well.

And if they have a back problem that is stopping them from doing that for one reason or another, or they have a back problem that is potentially going to get worse, by doing certain movements, you need to know about it.

If you have a better understanding or a good understanding of what the different background conditions are, straightaway in your head, you're going to be able to know Okay, this might mean this.

So if somebody has a spondylolithesis,  it means that they've got a small section in their spine, that has slipped forward. So one of the vertebrae is sitting a bit forward or back on the verge for the load. And that means that there's certain exercises that they should not ever do.

So somebody with a spondylolithesis, never ever, ever, ever extend them.
Why?

Because this will make them worse -  Why is that a bad thing?

Because if it gets worse, - worst case scenario they may end up with a fractured

That's the worst case scenario is a bit dramatic. That's where it goes.

So if you are somebody who is banging me to extension, twice a week, every week, you're not really helping the problem. In fact, you're exacerbating the problem, because it's something that they should avoid.

They should know what to do if they've seen their Physio

Yes, they've probably been told by that physio that they shouldn't do it.

But if you tell them something different - they trust you and don't want to disappoint you... 

I have treated so many clients and told them do not extend, for example - it's going to be a problem for you here is why it's a problem for you.

And then they come back in and say, My back's sore, my back's really sore again,  And they'll say, and no I haven't done anything different. I've just started doing my regular training, or I've just been doing this at the gym, or I've got some exercises off the Internet, and this is what I'm doing.

And then we look at that exercise and it's causing their body to come into extension. That's why they're sore. It's an exercise they should avoid.

They said, No, I spoke to them about it and they said, It's fine. It's fine for me to do it as long as I pull my tummy in and support my back.

So with the best will in the world, you are causing problems for your clients, if you do not know what you're doing, or why you're doing it.

This is why I've been called to put this program out.

I've had too many clients coming in saying, I'm doing this in gym, I'm doing this in CrossFit, I'm doing this in Pilates, I'm doing this yoga, I'm doing this home based thing I've made my own exercises I've done, I'm doing this I found on you tube, and it just keeps hurting me.

This program will go through the basics you need to be aware of and help you understand why doing certain things with certain clients will NEVER get them and you the results they want.

It will teach you what modifications and exercise choices are most appropriate - but best of all - you'll understand WHY.

Learn how they can do it correctly, or how to modify what they want to do. So they can get better, or how they can still do what they want to do with a slight tweak.

And everyone's happy.

They're happy because they can move and can do what they want to do.

We're happy because we know they're not going to make them worse.

And at the end of the day we all want the same thing - great outcomes.

And if you've made the decision to exercise, you want to exercise and you want to trust and place your trust in somebody that knows what they're doing.

As an exercise and movement professional, you want to know that what you give clients to do, especially if they're in pain, is an educated calculated choice that you've made with the right knowledge behind you.

Yes, I know that they have a problem here. This is probably likely to make them worse. Or if they're doing something and they say, oh, that hurts. You can understand how that that would make sense. So you stopped doing that.

Or actually, that's okay. You know, I need to change it here.

The thing is, if you can offer and have that little bit better knowledge and background knowledge, you can work better and your clients are going to get better results.

Feel more confident in your exercise choices, because you've got that background knowledge you're dealing with.

Most people these days have pain.

Most people these days, though don't move enough and are aware of that so a lot don't think they are bad enough to seek medical or professional help.

And these are the people that slip through the net.

These are the people that go a bit niggly I've been told that I need to exercise to get strong.  They will avoid treatment and say I'm not bad enough that stops me  me doing anything. So I don't need help. I just need to get strong. 

They still need help. They just don't think they need help.

So they come to you to try and get stronger themselves. And this is where you guys are key in finding out and working out whether they are within your remit of care - or whether they need to seen and managed first by a medical or allied health professional as they are beyond your scope of care at this stage.

That's your that's your call when someone new comes to you.

Your call is to know, if what you are doing is just modifying exercises in a way that is in your scope of practice, or whether you are trying to manage and treat a problem, which is beyond your scope of practice.

There seems to be a very, very blurred grey line at the moment.

I know in my own studio that we have clients that come in, and they really shouldn't be in our fitness classes, but they trust our instructors. We've generally seen the clients and told them what they can and can't do and how to modify things in class - and also relayed that information to our instructors.

Our clients have the confidence because we have worked with them. And obviously, we've told our instructors, what their limitations are. Our clients obviously get the results they want and everybody's happy. They modify things the way they need to and they continue to improve.

If they haven't had that initial knowledge base to know what to modify the how, and they hadn't been through our clinical side initially  they'd end up worse and sit out half the class. And that's the worst thing for people. Because then they feel a bit more inadequate.

They feel  I still can't even do a this.

The aim with most people is they do want to get better and stronger and they want your help, expertise and guidance to do so.

They do want to improve, they do want to try and we really should encourage and support everybody that's trying to help themselves into a better state of health and fitness.

But it's also our duty of care to make sure it something is beyond our scope of practice, or it's something we feel they should get extra help in, that they do get extra help.

The way that we tackle it in our studio is if somebody comes in and they say I've got niggling back pain, I just wanted to do fitness.

The question I ask is:

Do you have back pain you're aware of but you can do what you want to do anyway and its settles quickly so its more of a niggle you're aware of?

or

Do you have back pain that causes you make a conscious effort to change what you do, to be able to do what you do, or you avoid doing certain things because of your pain as it stops you from moving well? 

The former is someone who could maybe get away with modifying things.

The latter is someone who really needs professional help and expert help until we can get them moving normally, and then you could go into strength. 

The purpose of our program is to give you that extra knowledge.

Knowing what the different back pain types are and what that means to how clients move and the best exercise choices for them.

Find out more here