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Will Losing Weight Help Your Back Pain?
Earlier this week, I was speaking to a gentleman on the phone who called me with questions about his neuropathy and his ability to improve his balance.
As we were talking, he mentioned that he enjoyed gardening, but he could only be on his feet for about 10 minutes because of pain in his lower back.
When I asked him what he was planning to do about his back pain, this is what he told me: “My doctor says that if I lose 35# it should take care of 90% of my back pain.”
This statement brings up a few interesting questions:
Does losing weight really help with back pain? Can it eliminate 90% of the pain?
Is your weight the ROOT CAUSE of your back pain?
The simple answer to these questions is: No, absolutely not. There’s no chance that losing 35# is going to help this gentleman eliminate 90% of his back pain.
The full answer is a bit more detailed in terms of weight loss, its effect on pain reduction, finding the ROOT CAUSE of the pain, etc. And I’ll explain everything in today’s video.
But there’s one more interesting topic I bring up at the end of the video, which is this: the methods used to lose weight can have a significant impact on pain relief.
Check out the video to find out what I mean!
Good Pain vs Bad Pain (How do you know?)
It’s not very common in my opinion, and in general pain should be something you want to avoid.
After all, pain is your body’s way of saying “stop it, something is wrong here!”
You may even recall an earlier blog post of mine where I discussed how the “No pain, no gain” mentality was getting so many people into trouble…
So again, in general, pain is something you want to avoid in life. And if you’ve been struggling with pain for an extended period, you definitely want to figure out the root cause of your pain so that you can eliminate it.
But like I said, once in a while, pain is actually a good thing.
The tricky part is this: trying to figure out the difference between “good pain” and “bad pain”.
There are 3 key points that will help you differentiate good pain from bad pain, which I’m going to discuss in today’s video.
“Do I Need an MRI?”
This is one of the most common questions the therapists and I get at clinic on a weekly basis, second only to “What’s going on, and can you fix it?” And while the answer varies depending on the situation, I’m going to do my best to answer the MRI question for you today.
Here’s the simple answer: No, you don’t necessarily need an MRI.
Now let me explain: Let’s say you’ve been having shoulder pain for several months, and you suspect that you have a rotator cuff (RC) tear. It might make sense to get an MRI to see if you do in fact have a tear, especially if you think you might need surgery.
But before you opt for the MRI, stop and consider a few things…
Achieve Your Goals Organically
Have you tried you reach your goals with conventional advice?
It always sounds really good when you read about it, and usually goes something like this:
Select 2-3 goals that would have the biggest impact on your life (or business, etc.)
Make these goals as specific as possible
Identify the key activities that will help you achieve your goals
Set a timeline for achieving the goals
Work backwards from there to set milestones and key actions
Make sure to hold yourself accountable!
When you achieve your goals, celebrate!
Again, the advice sounds really solid and reasonable, and for some people it works.
The problem is this: for most people it just doesn’t work!
I’m not really sure why this is the case, although I’ll offer my thoughts on it in the video.
So, if you’ve tried to follow conventional wisdom with your goal setting and goal attainment efforts, and you’ve been left feeling frustrated, I’d like to offer a different approach today.
I consider this approach to be more natural, or “organic” if you will, and I think it can work very well for many people.
But you’ll have to be the judge and let me know!
The 4 Pillars of Weight Loss
Welcome to 2018! For many people, it’s resolution time!
And what better resolution to start with than trying to lose some unwanted pounds this year?
Yes, there’s a lot of advice out there when it comes to losing weight, but let me give you my 2 cents before you watch this video and consider giving the “4 pillars” a shot.
Free advice #1: Think long-term. It may sound silly, but you’re much more likely to be successful with any of your New Year’s goals if you think of them as long-term improvements on your way of life. If you’re looking for a quick fix, this video won’t help a whole lot.
Free advice #2: Put the “compound effect” to work! Simply stated, when you make some small, positive changes and then keep them in play for an extended period of time, you’ll see results! It might take 6 months, 12 months or even 18 months, but it will work.
Okay, now that we having those words of wisdom out of the way, here’s all the info about the 4 pillars of weight loss.
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