How can the Back Pain Program help you? A Case Study

Central Performance’s Back pain program has already begun helping dozens of clients overcome their battle with chronic back pain, or back pain following spinal surgery. Below is a case study of one of our clients who has already progressed amazingly throughout each level of the program. Her story may be similar to yours, or that of someone you know:

Grace’s story

Grace had severe pain as well as difficulty walking and an inability to complete most normal daily tasks. Extremely worried, she sought the opinion of one of Sydney’s top Neurosurgeon spinal specialists. Grace was advised to try a conservative recovery approach, specifically through exercise, before surgery should be considered. She began physio treatment to relieve her pain and was then transferred into the Back Pain Program.

Grace* is a 30-year-old IT worker, who for years has had chronic lower back pain following a L4/5 discectomy over 10 years ago, interspersed with three incidences of severe pain. Grace has been a client of Central Performance for other injuries previously but decided to join our back pain program after her most recent severe flare-up. This was diagnosed as a recurrence of her L4/5 disc extrusion and unfortunately involved significant nerve root compression on her L5/S1 region.

Exercise Can Be Daunting For Back Pain Clients

Due to her long history with back pain and quite severe recent flare up, Grace was extremely hesitant to move and was fear avoidant of many things, including lifting things off the floor or bending over to tie her shoes. During her initial appointment in the program, she made it clear how anxious she was about her back pain returning, however was determined to try anything in order to stop a recurrence. Grace reported that her general stress levels were high and that her sleep was poor. Both of these issues are common in people with chronic lower back pain, so it was clear that Grace’s anxiety needed to be addressed as a part of her program.

Physically, Grace’s presentation was fairly typical of someone who had recently experienced a severe flare- up of pain: she was limited in her spinal range of motion and was only able to lift 4kg from the floor to waist height. Grace’s goals for the program were fairly simple: be able to lift 12kg from the floor without hesitating and be able to exercise in the gym consistently without having to worry about her back.

Beginning at level 1 of the program, Grace started with some simple breathing work, aimed at relaxing her and allowing her to move her body a little more freely. This was paired with some simple movement pattern work: hip hinging and squat to bench exercises were introduced. Grace was given these as take-home exercises and by her next session, felt confident to start to move on. Slowly making her way through the different levels of the Back pain program, Grace was able to add load to her exercise routine and progressed the difficulty of her core- strength exercises.

After a month in the Back pain program, Grace had graduated to the upper levels and found herself lifting 16kg off the floor in a deadlift – 4kg heavier than her original goal. She was exercising in the clinic twice a week, completing circuit- based strength sessions that were targeted at whole- body strength and conditioning – not just her back pain. She reported her pain levels were near a 0 out of 10, was sleeping fantastically and was far less anxious about her back than she had been in years.

Not only was Grace feeling good about her back – she was loving exercising again. She reported that she was incorporating more movement into her day-to-day life and had been able to actively take part in moving apartments – something she previously would not have dared to do. She was bending, reaching up for things and moving without a moment’s hesitation. She was feeling confident about her upcoming overseas holiday and was excited to be active on her trip.

Grace has returned from her trip now and has resumed exercising here in the clinic, with her final goal of the program to join our group fitness program and take part in our HERo women’s only strength and conditioning classes. We’re confident that Grace will be leading these classes in no time at all!

*name has been changed