Old Forum Pilates and Yoga after after McGill

[Pnigro]

McGill doesn't believe that chronic back pain in many cases can be entirely psychosomatic.

Mine was.

It went completely away after reading just one book about Sarno. No therapy, no exercises, no surgery, no medication, no change in posture.

The mechanics behind it don't matter. The only thing that matters is that it worked.

I don't see any faulty logic.

 

[Pnigro]

By the way, I apologize for the derailing of this thread.

It was never my intention. I'm just not afraid to question things.

I can already predict people will say that there is always an underlying physical issue behind chronic back pain, and I'm really not in the mood to try to convince anyone of the contrary.

There will be no further comments on my part.

 

[JamesO]

My wife is on a banner hanging in some local studios modeling this magnificent Wheel.  She is hyper flexible.  When she does shoulder dislocates, her arms are almost perfectly parallel to each other through the entire range or motion.  Mine are not.  My range of motion is generally more limited.  Our yoga teacher guides us both where we are.  I have a Bridge pose in my nightly routine, she has Wheel.  It's a journey of millimeters.  Frankly, my spine has the flexibility to get into Wheel, but I lack it in my shoulders and wrists.

My take away, though, is that a good teacher will work with you where you are* (and teach you to use tension to balance out that load).
*The series in Bikram is set.  I'm not sure how they guide you into the back bends as you progress into Wheel.

 

[GreenSoup]

RyanH, thanks for the article.  I had been reading about some dangers of spinal flexion at the same time as this thread and that guy's pages about avoiding yoga and anything related to the spine (or unrelated to the bench press, squat and row).  I was curious as to what the rebuttal would be in regard to spinal health.  The Brett Contreras article was excellent counterpoint, as was Steve F's comment (thanks) on McGill and lumbar flexion loading.

 

[phil]

Pnigro,

To be clear, all pain is psychosomatic, if by that you mean produced by the brain. There absolutely does not need to be any underlying physical issue to produce pain. If McGill doesn't recognize this, he's wrong, but I doubt that as I'd like to think he's more than somewhat aware of current pain science. I would really recommend you look into Lorimer Moseley's work, he's really brilliant at explaining current pain science. Look him up on youtube, some really entertaining videos.

 

 

 

[Steve Freides]

Pnigro, there can be no disputing that Dr. Sarno's book has helped many people.

However, he addresses only the tip of the iceberg, IMHO.  I read his book but it was a while ago - my memory is that he advocates something quite simple and, for many people, very effective, namely to realize that your back pain is psychological in nature and to use that awareness to break the connection.  (Feel free to clarify if you feel that's not an accurate one-sentence representation.)

What he misses, IMHO:  Everyone needs to exist in balance, and many people in our modern society lack a "soft" side to their lives and their practice.  Finding a restorative practice is important for everyone.  For some, it will be meditation; for others, perhaps yoga, perhaps tai chi, or perhaps even something as non-touchy-feely as adding stretching to their physical training.

In other words, we shouldn't stop at just realizing the psychological nature of our back pain; rather, we should make ourselves healthier people, psychologically, and eliminate the tension that caused the back pain in the first place.

JMO, YMMV.

-S-

 

[Pnigro]

@phil: I will look into Lorimer Moseley! Sarno is revolutionary in the sense that he was the first to start addressing chronic back pain by treating people psychologically. But he could be totally wrong about the specifics, such as pain being "repressed anger" and such. I never really cared that much for those explanations. The turning point for me was knowing that my pain was being triggered psychologically and that my back was just fine. 5 years of pain were miraculously gone.

@steve: I totally agree. I'm all for restorative practices, corrective exercises, having good technique, and just being overall careful and smart. Not just physically but also mentally. Personally I have very tight hip flexors and hamstrings and I know this could create problems in the future. Adding some Relax into Stretch after S&S seems wise to me.

 

[Matts]

this thread seems to mix to completely different back issues.   The back, especially lower back, can be the "target" of suppressed emotions, etc. and a long time ago, a masseuse explained to me that around 90% of lower back tightness, sprains, etc. were the result of ignored or suppressed negative emotions.  Cured mine right away!

 

Dr. McGill, from what I've read on-line, seems brilliant, but seems to specialize in prevention and rehab of structural back issues, and seems to know what he's talking about.  I pay attention to his writings so as not to mess up my back.

Learning to move/lift properly is as important as learning how to "feel" your feelings in real time and use them positively.  Very different life skills, though.   I liked how Pavel T. put the various life skills in context on last blog post- Work Capacity Part 2.  Don't mess up your back through either flexion under load or hating your boss (or whomever)!!