How I Noticed Early Lower Back Symptoms and What I Did to Recover Quickly

This will close off the series of lower back injury posts from me. I didn’t expect that I would need to write this one, but after some time battling a palm tree in the garden resulted in a good fortnight’s worth of lower back pain leading up to the 12 Days of Christmas workout, I hope that this will provide some insight into how “we” the coaches also experience pain/injuries from time to time and how we go about managing it. I knew that I’d irritated my lower back the moment I got out of bed the next morning. How? Because it was damn painful to sit up, I felt pretty stiff when I walked around and putting shoes on made me feel like an old man.

Below is the summary of my actions in the two weeks leading up to the 12 Days Workout.

What Actions did I take (or not take)

● I increased my walking (the stiffness eased off after a few mins and became the most comfortable position to be in)

● I made an appointment to see Dr Aysom for treatment (everyone has their go-to person who works wonders on them and I simply want to encourage you to find and not delay contacting yours). For me this has always accelerated my healing times.

● I discovered which movements exacerbated my symptoms and which movements felt good. I then avoided the painful ones for a week before re-testing.

● I didn’t do any stretching. Not for the lower back, not for the hamstrings and not for the glutes outside of when I had to demonstrate for a client. I instantly regretted doing that because it flared my symptoms for the day. This is one of the hardest ones to stay true to because I was certainly experiencing what you would call stiffness. However after a lower back injury (let’s call mine a niggle rather than a serious injury), your nervous system will always try to protect itself by increasing neutral tension (think of this as protective tension). We usually accept this as stiffness and try to stretch the protective tension away. Please know this doesn’t work- certainly not in the long run.

● I didn’t lay on the couch

What did my training look like?

The assault bike was my friend. It was the only machine that I could use pain free to help with blood flow.

I held off squats and deadlifts and replaced them with Coach May’s favourite movement- Bulgarians Split Squats. A week out from the 12 Days workout I re-introduced single leg kickstance Romanian Deadlifts. If these movements hadn’t been tolerated well, I would’ve made the decision then to probably give up my spot (if there was a waiting list) or if no waiting list- commit to the modified workout. I had no intention of turning up on the day “hoping” to be ok.

For those that haven’t seen this movement before it looks like this- https://youtube.com/shorts/bms_jHj20dw?si=UCUNqOzi6vi0FpIZ

** Please know that you also need to have a straight leg raise of close to 90 degrees to perform this and reap the desired benefits. If your straight leg raise is still closer to 45-60 degrees, hinging at the hips won’t feel comfortable.

Finally and outside of Dr Aysom’s treatment, what I felt moved the needle the most was the core / abdominal wall circuit that I performed:

3 Rounds:

● 10 Bird Dog Rows/side https://youtu.be/Vjyua44QMOQ?si=msK3XXzMYQyaKoDs

● Strict Side Plank (30-60 seconds/side)

● Hanging Band Offset Walk (20 m/side with a 12kg kb hanging off a thin red band-20kg barbell) ** the thinner the band the greater the oscillation- which makes it harder

** This one I feel is simply magic. I don’t want to go into the weeds on all the science behind what it does / what it activates, but take it from me that when you pick the right kettlebell to hang off the barbell and then go for a walk down the gym, everything in your core / abdominal wall fires. The outcome after this (at least for me and almost every lower back client I’ve ever used this on) is reduced perception of lower back/glute/hip tension.

https://youtu.be/fBcgt_hs9Bg?si=uGK0v56xJHnLIGlb

If any of the above strategies resonate with a member or if anyone does want me to go into more detail with a particular aspect, please reach out.

Here’s to starting 2026 feeling good!

Coach Nick

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