IGX

Was recommended this by a friend. Is he known? Thoughts?

http://gadibody.com

I just looked at the strain/counterstrain stuff, but not sure how you'd apply it to the lower back.

I got bit by a Concept2 a few months back. Never been the same.

Lawerence Jones is the originator of the strain/counterstrain technique. He wrote a book entitled Jones Strain Counterstrain. The guy you mention may be good at the method, I have no idea. s/cs can be very helpful when the pain is extreme/acute in my experience. That is how Jones figured out the technique. One of his patients was very uncomfortable and Jones put him in the only position where the guy's body was comfortable which caused the pain to go away. For self care I find "getting behind the stretch" useful. By that I mean to take a position right before the stretch/pain is engaged and wait. Often the body will drop the high resting muscle tension (guarding) and the point right before the stretch/pain will move. When the point before the stretch/pain shifts, one shifts the body position, taking up the slack. There is a little difference in approaching standing vs seated/laying positions due to the use of gravity. Approaching the body this way is much different than trying to stretch, it is a "non doing." As such the positions taken will often not look from the outside like "good stretches" or "good asanas" because the point before the stretch is so far away from the ideal stretch/asana. Anyway the idea is similar to the s/cs method. One is allowing the nervous system to come back to a homeostatic point and release unneeded muscle tension. I think Jones recommends 60-90 seconds in each position. In the method of self care I mentioned one can hold for extended periods of time, a few minutes up to 10 minutes or so. The body signals the end of the beneficial time by becoming uncomfortable. I should mention that some people can ride the point where the stretch engages instead of being behind it but can be difficult to do and keep in the spirit of "non-doing."

It has been a long time since I looked at the positions. I think one of the low back positions is to lie face down with one leg bent at the knee and the knee to the side of the body (kind of like a frog looking position on the one side).

Bedlam 0-0-0 wrote:For self care I find "getting behind the stretch" useful. By that I mean to take a position right before the stretch/pain is engaged and wait. Often the body will drop the high resting muscle tension (guarding) and the point right before the stretch/pain will move. When the point before the stretch/pain shifts, one shifts the body position, taking up the slack. There is a little difference in approaching standing vs seated/laying positions due to the use of gravity. Approaching the body this way is much different than trying to stretch, it is a "non doing." As such the positions taken will often not look from the outside like "good stretches" or "good asanas" because the point before the stretch is so far away from the ideal stretch/asana. Anyway the idea is similar to the s/cs method. One is allowing the nervous system to come back to a homeostatic point and release unneeded muscle tension. I think Jones recommends 60-90 seconds in each position. In the method of self care I mentioned one can hold for extended periods of time, a few minutes up to 10 minutes or so. The body signals the end of the beneficial time by becoming uncomfortable. I should mention that some people can ride the point where the stretch engages instead of being behind it but can be difficult to do and keep in the spirit of "non-doing."

I like the way you've described this a lot.

I had a chronic back issue for about 2 years where squatting at all was miserable. I did just about everything that I had every tried for relief and rehab during that time. Ice, heat, electro-stim, chiropractic, massage, meditation, etc. all helped a little, but finding things that were workable (stretches, exercises, movements), rather than pain-aggravating, was key. A lot of push-ups, pull-ups, presses, and lighter weight squat/dl variants kept me sane until I was able to get back to regular squatting again.