digest
Introduction
Hello everyone. I know some of you might be thinking, why is this video so long if it's only a 90 second treatment? But it works very well, and it's a fair question to ask. We have to teach you how to do it and demonstrate it, so it's going to take like five minutes or so, maybe four, three. Okay, whatever. You'll find out it's going to work well.
Strain/Counterstrain or Positional release
This simple technique has been around since the 1950s from the Jones Institute, and it is known as strain counterstrain, or it's also known as a positional release. That's right. This low back technique is very simple, but you must follow the sequence appropriately as we show it, so pay attention carefully.
All right, again, so you're experiencing low back pain. Here it may be left side dominant, or right side dominant, or all the way across. The treatment is the same. You're going to lie down on a bed. If it's a firm bed, it's more preferable. Actually, down on a carpeted floor, assuming you can get down carefully without irritating your back and symptoms. Even on a bed, you're going to watch me get down slowly. Lift up one leg, keeping my back in a comfortable neutral position, and I'm going to get down in a prone position, as you can see, lying on your stomach. Once you get here, you monitor your back pain.
If for some reason your back is uncomfortable lying flat, you may have to put a pillow underneath your abdominal or hip area to elevate, and oftentimes that will let the pain come down. Just relax here for a bit, hopefully a while, and then go to this position. At that point, if the pillow is uncomfortable, keep it there and then proceed as we're going to show you. If I started at a 5 out of 10, 10 being the worst and zero being no pain, and I get to this position and it's down to about a three, that's good.
Positioning
All right, so if you're feeling good and your pain is going down, like Brad said, what you want to start doing is get your lower back muscles, say it's his left side, on slack. That means you're going to go into extension, like I am right now. Brad is going to grab a pillow and hug it. If this position is comfortable, some people might be further towards the mat, some people might be up more. What this is doing is putting his back muscles here on slack, giving him some release from the tension.
Moving into extension
Now, if he wants to put more slack on his left side, he can either bring his left leg forward into a roadkill position. We like to call this putting more slack on these muscles. He could also try shifting his hips more to the right, and this will also put his left lower back on more slack. The whole idea is to get in this position and try to hold it for at least seconds, just getting it to be nice and relaxed.
Roadkill position
I do want to mention, once you get to this position and you get your pillow here, and you say the pain is already at zero, then there's no need to start shifting around. The idea is, that's why it's called positional release. You want to find the position of most comfort, and it may be here already. Do some shifting if it's not.
Duration
And then, like Mike said, it's absolutely critical you go for 90 seconds. You literally have to time it and just lay there completely relaxed for 90 up to 120 seconds.
Getting up
When you're done with that time, the whole goal is to get up from that position slowly. There's nothing to be rushed about. You want to take your time, get out of bed or off the floor, trying to keep your back relaxed and straight in that neutral position. Then you do not go into any activities. It's going to feel better, but you're going to take it easy for the next couple of hours. In other words, you're not going to go for a jog, go do some gardening. You're going to relax, eat some supper, or whatever it may be.
If you have success, success, success, thank you, Mike. Do this two to three times a day, and you'll find that you'll be doing it less and less, and things will fall right into place. It is absolutely a delightful treatment because it's so simple and it works.
The Bs and Outro
So that was more than 90 seconds, obviously, but we hope you enjoyed the video. And what else are they supposed to do, Brad? Well, you can do a little self-massage like this, which feels good, but other than that, I want you to be pain-free, be healthy, be relaxed. I combined two words there: be gone. Okay, bye.