Episode #105 ✌🏻 things to implement TODAY if you or your client has back pain

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Transcript

0:37

Hello, welcome back to the pod. This is my attempt to at recording this podcast, so hopefully this will be the one that hits today. I am covering back pain and how to coach with confidence when a client either shows up in or to their session and they're dealing with some back pain that day. Or if you work online, if you have a client who starts having back pain, I'm going to give you some tangible things that you can implement right now if this happens to you. If this hasn't happened to you yet, it will if you coach human beings. This is also going to be a relevant episode for those of you out there who deal with back pain. So maybe you're not a coach. Who coaches people with exercise or programming, but maybe you're a coach yourself who deals with back pain. A lot of coaches I speak to have back pain, so I know there are some of you out there. Okay. So we are just going to get right into it. Now, the first couple things I am talking about. This is relevant to somebody who's like either having a flare up or they have on and off back pain in their past. You can have this in your back pocket for if or when it shows up again. So the first thing that I do is take inventory of this person's recovery. All right? Recovery is an umbrella term that covers stress, diet, sleep. Okay. These things are very important, especially when it comes to pain. When we're talking about stress, I am talking about work stress, life stress, relationship stress, anything stress related that could potentially be relevant to your pain. Because what a lot of times when. The person is ourselves. We don't realize how much stress we actually are dealing with it because we're in it, right? So this is where your job as a coach can be really important to help this, to help your client really think critically. Like, okay, how has my stress been like it has worked, been more stressful, have I been more stressed at home? You know, different things like that. A lot of times stress, higher stress can trigger. A flare up when it comes to back pain. Okay, so that one's really important to cover with your client. The next one's gonna be diet. What's their nutrition like? Are they eating whole foods? Are they eating enough protein? Or are they treating their body like a trash can and not fueling themselves well? All right. And they're eating overly processed foods, not enough protein, things like that, that is going to also largely impact their body's ability to recover. The next one you're covering with your client is gonna be sleep. How has your sleep been? How much sleep are you getting? Have you gotten less sleep over the past week? How has the sleep quality been? You know, just really digging into if there is a potential issue there. Now you're gonna cover all these three things will be the recovery category, okay? So you can talk to your client about this in their, in their check-in with you, or if you're in a client session, in person, talk about this first. Like any time somebody is dealing with nagging pain, this is a conversation I'm having first. Okay? The next one is going to be Eggs versus eases. Does anything make your pain feel worse or feel better? Okay. Usually with back pain rounding the back is either going to be more problematic or arching. The back is either going to be more problematic. Usually one feels good, one feels bad. Okay? So we're gonna find out. Okay. Is there a position that we can put your back in that feels better than the other? How does it feel to move, like walk? How does it feel to, are you able to like, twist it all? Okay. We're basically wanting to find out what makes you feel good, what makes you feel. Bad. Okay? And that can help you come up with or know potential mobility exercise you could program for them to get them through this flare up. Okay? So those are really the top two things you can look into in the moment. Go apply right now with anybody who is dealing with back pain. And honestly, this applies to other pain too, so. You can go apply that, but next I want to talk through what else you need to think about. Especially if you are coaching a client like this, you need to think about what you're gonna do next, right? Like if they are in a flareup, obviously the priority becomes our getting them through the flareup. Okay? But when. The flareup is done. What are you going to do about it? Do you know what to do about it? Because let me tell you something about back pain, is that it doesn't just go away. It always comes back because there is usually an underlying issue of why the back is hurting in the first place. Okay, so I want to explain this visual to you really quick. Say you're watching somebody do a squat or do a deadlift. Okay? It's not just how they're doing the squat or the deadlift, okay? Think about what's underneath the person doing a squat and a deadlift, right? What is possible or what is required of the body for that person to be able to get in those positions to actually do the movement, right? So if we're looking under the hood. Thinking about layers like an onion. Okay. We have underlying strength balance, we have flexibility, we have mobility that is involved when we are doing these movements, we're having our clients do okay if there is a problem mobility wise or strength, balance wise. When the client is doing something like a squat or a deadlift. There's gonna be compensations happening, okay? You might not always be able to see them with your eyes, right? But underlying, there could be compensations happening if there are holes in the person's foundation, the foundation being flexibility, mobility, strength, balance, right? So I want you to think about that and I will share that in. Most of the back pain clients that I have worked with, there are plenty of lower body mobility issues. Things like the big toe, not having any range of motion. Therefore, the foot foundation is not able to work properly from the foundation. Right. Usually there is issues with their hamstrings not having the range of motion necessary. There's usually problems with their glutes being able to lengthen. And then I usually also see strength imbalances with having really weak inner thighs and having one side that is much stronger than the other. I'm talking like one leg being 75% stronger than the other leg. That's gonna cause some issues over time if they're not addressed. So these are just some examples. Of things that can be going on underneath the surface. When you have a client who deals with back pain and. This, it brings, brings me to my next point is this is why I am so passionate about teaching coaches how to assess your clients, because it's not just about the pain or issue the person is experiencing. It's about what's underneath that is. Causing the person to feel that way. And this is something that your certifications do not cover. So you're kind of clueless about this. But I'm trying to bring light to this situation because I want to help you because I will tell you, when you learn how to properly assess your client, your client gets so much better results because you're able to create a much better program for them targeted at those weak spots. So. This is one aspect for what's gonna be next for your client once they're through, through the flare up, right? Is like maybe you need to learn how to actually assess them. And then from there, I. It's adjusting their program, right? Like there is a way to learn specific assessments that are relevant to your client, and then learning how to adjust your programming that targets those issues you find in the assessment. What this does is it helps your. It helps your client fill in those gaps that they have in their movement. And what is going to happen is the client is going to start to feel better because they are attacking those weak parts. The weak parts of their body, the gaps in their movement, they're addressing them, so their body is going to feel a lot better. They're gonna start moving better and they're gonna be getting stronger, obviously. So. If you are a coach listening to this and you're like, oh my gosh, I need to learn more about these assessments. I need to learn how to be able to adjust my programming for a client dealing with back pain, I am running my three day. Mini program coaching clients through back pain, the playbook you never got certified in. I am running this next week, April 28th through the 30th. Get your in there if you are listening to this and you know you need to be there. This program is going to be run in an app called Telegram and you'll be able to listen to the trainings at any time you please. And I'm super stoked about it because there's a lot, a lot of information in here that all coaches need to hear. And like I said earlier, if you are a coach who is experiencing back pain yourself and you're somebody who wants to learn about it and learn how you can better adjust your training, things like that, this is also the spot for you to be in. Okay. I'm going to link up the info for this in the show notes. And if you have any questions, send me a dm. I would love to have you in there. I want you in there. I want all coaches to be in here if you coach human beings and don't know anything about back pain. All right, I will talk to you guys next week. If this was helpful, please subscribe to the show, share it with a friend, and I think that's it. All right. Chat with you guys in the next episode.