“I have had low back pain for years, and I know my back and abdominal muscles are weak. I tried to return to the gym and exercise, and I even hired a personal trainer, but the more I exercise, the more I hurt. What is happening?” The thought premise of needing to exercise is correct, but it is under the wrong assumption. You are assuming that your muscles are weak but you are moving normally, so exercising should help. Actually, you may have done something to “get your back out of whack”, and now you have dysfunctional movement to compensate for your back. Thus, even when you try to complete a simple movement or task, you are over-working and straining your back muscles. At JGPT, we will get to the root of what is dysfunctional and enable you to move normally again. Then we will retrain your muscles to support normal movement. After your dysfunction is fixed, head back to the gym and you can actually strengthen your muscles instead of overworking them and throwing your back out!
