Physical Freedom: Lower Back Exercises and the Physical Freedom Pyramid

The desire to PR a lift, to compete at an intense level (CrossFit Open, anyone?), and test your physical capacity is important. It builds resiliency and commitment to a goal leading to a character that transfers to other aspects of your life.  That takes physical freedom, especially if you have a history of low back issues.  When it comes to physical freedom from back pain, your lower back exercises might not be helping you.

A Track Down the Pyramid

As humans, we always start at the top of the pyramid, set out to conquer the world.

When injury strikes, things change. Those PR’s seem less important and the focus turns to rehab.

The Physical Freedom Pyramid, as described by Anders Varner, head coach over at The Low Back Fix, describes the stages of development to get you from pain to physical freedom.

At the top of the pyramid is physical freedom. This is where you start. Running, lifting, playing…until the pain starts. Below physical freedom is strength, conditioning and developing movement mechanics. You quickly realize for your strength to increase, you are going to have to work on your mobility and stability, the next level down. However, after all the foam rolling and lacrosse ball pain you’re still not there and you realize that you need to start training your nervous system and eliminating stress.  That’s the base layer of the pyramid.

The stress that is stored in the nervous system creates inflammation, impinges nerves, and tells the brain there is an injury, even if there is nothing physically wrong.

Our colleagues at The Low Back Fix break down the Physical Freedom Pyramid and how you can jumpstart your rehabilitation, eliminate, lower back pain, and get better, faster.

To read the full article, click here.

When done, give us a call to see how we can help.  We’ll let you know if the lower back exercises you’re using are helping or hindering you.