If you have low-back pain due to a lumbar disc problem, then this video is for you.
The disc is this shock-absorbing cushion between two vertebras. If you have a disease of the disc,
it will hurt when you bend forward like this, because you are compressing the disc.
In this video, I’ll show you 3 resting positions to alleviate your pain, 2 exercises that you can
for pain relief, and 3 position that you should avoid. This is what I call the 3,2,3 method,
and the goal is to alleviate your symptoms while your body does the process of healing.
You should continue with your usual activities like walking and working.
This process may take 4 to 6 weeks until your acute low-back pain resolves.
Today we will talk about the 3,2,3 method to treat Lumbar Disc Disease
A few years ago, I had this problem, and I know how bad this pain can be. In my case,
I was brushing my teeth in the morning, then, I sneezed
inwards, you know when you sneeze inside? I felt a sudden twitch on my lower back.
Immediately I felt like a ball of fire in the middle of my lumbar spine.
This lasted for about 4 weeks. The pain was much aggravated when I bended forward or sit.
After about 4 weeks, the pain started getting better, and by 6 weeks I had no more pain.
This was about 10 years ago. I did not need to see my doctor. I only saw
a fantastic physiotherapist that worked with me, Ruth Vallis. She saw me for one single session,
she examined me and told me what to do. I did not need any X-ray, CT scan or MRI.
I know that these imaging tests will show a lot of abnormalities even in
people without any symptoms of back pain. For example, among 50-year-old people,
80% will show disc degeneration, 60% will show disc bulge, and 35% will show disc protrusion.
So, if the majority of asymptomatic people have these disc abnormalities in CT-scans and MRIs,
I would probably have them too. So, what is the point of doing these images?
Well, for me, it was important to see the physiotherapist, because Ruth examined
me and she ruled out any serious condition after she asked about my symptoms and she examined me.
First, let me explain what this disc problem is. The disc is a cushion of water between two
vertebraes. Its function is to act like a shock absorber. But this disc can degenerate and break
up, and the material that is supposed to stay inside the disc then gets out.
With aging > the disc starts losing the water content, the same that
happens with our skin and we start getting wrinkles. We call this “disc degeneration”.
The disc can become thin, or the disc can break up and let the content inside leak to the outside.
The first stage is what we call disc bulging like this.
If these extruded content compresses a nerve that is going to the leg,
then we call this herniation > and the symptoms of pain going to the leg is known as sciatica.
The pain from sciatica will be different from jus the pain from the degenerated disc,
and this 3,2,3 technique that I’ll show you in this video will not work for sciatica pain.
Sciatica pain is constant pain that radiates to one leg.
I will do another video of positions and exercises for sciatica pain.
The exercises in this video will also not work if you have low back pain that is aggravated by
bending backwards. We call this facet joint pain. I will do another video to explain the positions
of comfort, the position to avoid, and the exercises to relieve a back extension pain.
And this video will also not help you if you have a low back pain that is caused by muscle pain,
deconditioning or muscle weakness. I already have another video of exercises
for myofascial low-back pain, you may check here. So, let’s get started with the 3,2,3 method today.
Remember, this 3,2,3 method is aimed only to alleviate your pain while your body heals
the disc problem, so you will need to do this for about 4 to 6 weeks after the pain started.
First, I’ll show you the 3 relieving positions: So this is the first position of comfort. it's
called the zed-lie position. you're going to lie flat on the floor, put a pillow or cushion under
your head. get a chair and you're going to put your knees here, and then you will bring the chair
until your knees are above your abdomen, so when you reach this position
just relax. relax the back muscles, and stay there, and if this surface is too hard for you,
you can put a mat underneath, or you can do this on the carpet,
but try to stay there for at least five minutes, but if you can stay more
10, 15, 20 minutes, that's excellent, because that will relieve the pressure
on your lumbar disc. For this position you're going to lie down on the floor or on a mat,
and what you're going to do is lying on your stomach, and you're going to start raising slowly
on your elbows. see if you can keep your elbows 90 degrees, and you're going to stay on this position
for about five minutes, if you can 10, 20, 20 minutes if you can hold you can be doing
something, you can be watching some videos, you can be reading a book, this is important
because if your pain is aggravated when you bend forward by doing this you're bending backwards,
and you are opening the space for your disk to go back in that space between the two vertebras.
This position is similar to the z-lie position. but this is if you are getting better and you
don't need to do the z-lie position anymore, so you lie down with a pillow under your head,
one pillow under your knees, if doing this does not give you comfort or pain relief you can get
another one. put under your knees a second one, and then when you do this try to relax your legs,
and see if the pain goes away. if the pain doesn't go away you can try a third one,
and try to feel if all of the bones of your lumbar spine are touching the floor or the mat, and once
you find the position of comfort, just stay there, and you can be there five minutes, 10 or 20.
These are the three positions that help to alleviate the pressure on the lumbar discs,
you should continue walking, swimming, dancing, working, and changing position as much as you can.
Now i'll show you the two exercises that you can start to alleviate your pain, so this is the first
exercise that you can start doing to improve your pain. So you're going to lie down on your stomach,
put your hands in front of you. This is called the sloppy push-ups. you're going to do this,
and you can do eight times, you see you are extending, bending forward the lumbar spine
four, five, it's important that you keep your hands in front of you
six, do eight times, and then if you can,
the next day you can increase to 12 times, and if that's easy you can increase to 20 times,
and do this once a day until your pain is resolved, which is about four to six weeks.
So this is exercise standing back extensions, so you're going to do the same thing that we
did on the mat, but now we can do this standing up, which is very good, because you can do this
exercise anywhere, when you are at home, or if you are outside, or if you are at work,
so you can do this exercise many times during the day,
it's the same thing, so put your hands on your lower back, and you're going to do hyperextension,
look at the ceiling, if your neck is okay, and come back. If you have neck pain, then
you don't need to look at the ceiling, just move your lower back and come back, so, three, four,
five,
six, seven, and eight, and again you can repeat to 12 repetitions,
and if this gets easy you can repeat 20 times, you can do once a day, or more than once a day,
until your pain is resolved which is about four to six week.
Now i'll show you the three positions that you need to avoid.
So you need to be careful how you get up from the chair from the sitting position, because remember,
this pain is aggravated when you bend forward, so if you're sitting in a chair or in a couch,
and you do this to get up it's going to hurt every time you do this,
so there is the correct way of getting up, without putting all of the forces in your lumbar spine,
which is using your quadriceps, and your hips, so what you do is: when you get up, you come close
to the edge of the chair, or the couch, and now you're going to use your quadriceps. so look at
my lumbar spine, it's not going to bend forward, what i'm going to do is using my quadriceps.
This is important if you are doing the dishes, or ironing, or doing anything that you have to
do with standing up, because when you are doing the dishes if you are like this you are bending
your trunk all the time. so you are ironing all the time like this, what we tell the patients
to do is get a box, or a little stool, put on the floor and one of your feet will be
on the on the top of the box, so when you do this you always, you're keeping your
lumbar spine straigh,t and it's hard for you to be bending, so then you remember that by keeping this
the foot on the stool, you have to be ironing or doing the dishes without bending forward,
so the higher this the better, but if you don't have anything higher than this, a box,
a shoe box, or two shoe boxes, should be okay. And the other important thing is to use some
sort of lumber support, if you're sitting, if you work with a computer, get something that you can
put to support, to support your lumbar spine. I got this for my car, so i use this in my car,
i bought this 10 years ago when i had my episode of acute low back pain, and i still love it,
i use in the car so, this is how it works, you put in the in there, and then it creates this
support, here for the lumbar spine, if you don't have one of those you can get a towel,
make a roll of a towel, or you can just get a piece of foam, but you see it creates this nice
curvature that supports the lumbar spine, and then you can relax,
so you can use this, especially for people who spend many hours in the car, it's really important
that they have a support for the lumber spine, if they have disc pain, lumbar disc pain, and
and they can use this also for computer work, for desk work, or even when they are watching tv,
it's always nice to have a lumbar support that will give this curvature of the lumbar spine,
and the depth of the lumbar spine, really depends on your size,
how much curvature you have, so you really need to try a couple of different
sizes, and depends on your body size, but for me this one, i really like to use this in the car,
and i'll put a link for this for you to find in the description of this video below,
Now that you know what to do in the first 4 to 6 weeks after the pain started, we call
this the “acute phase”, I’ll tell you what you need to do if your pain lingers beyond 3 months.
This 3,2,3 method may not work so well beyond 3 months. In most cases of chronic low-back pain,
I find that muscle pain is a very important factor that perpetuates the pain.
Well, what happens is that during the acute phase, the muscles were all tense
and tight to protect the lumbar discs. So, after 3 months, the disc problem
is probably healed. Yes, the disc is still degenerated, but the acute inflammation is gone,
and your body healed that acute disc problem. However, what may still be aching are the muscles.
We call this myofascial pain syndrome and I have a video for that.
I also find that in most cases of chronic low-back pain, not only the muscles get tense,
but our mind gets worried and preoccupied. If we do not relax our mind and focus too
much on our pain problem, it has a tendency to become worse. That is why I have a video about
mind-body therapies. Please check here. I would like to leave a big thanks to
Ruth Vallis.. She is retired now, but I spoke to her this week. She is about
to release a book, called “Love is Blind”. Ruth is a blind person since age of 3 and
she has been a leader in the integration of the blind in Canada. Her website is ruthvallis.com.
And I feel so blessed for having had the opportunity to work daily with Ruth
and for being one of her patients. In the comments box below write down if
you have this lumbar disc pain and which positions and exercises from this video worked best for you.
Also, in the description of this video below you may find a summary of these 3,2,3 method
including the positions and exercises that you can download and print to do at home.
Also, there is a link to all products that I mentioned in
this video if you want to purchase them. Please, don’t forget that this video is
for educational purpose only. If you have a condition that needs medical advice,
please talk to your doctor. And if there is an emergency,
go to the nearest emergency department. If you like this video, give a thumbs up here,
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Thank you for watching. Good bye.