February 08, 2023

Fix your own back pain with Dr. Stuart McGill

1 hour 38 minutes

If you've ever suffered from specific or non-specific back pain, you’ll know how debilitating it can be. While you might avoid lifting heavy loads because of the risk of putting your back out, cyclists often have sore lower backs from the hours spent on the bike. Today's guest, Dr. Stuart M. McGill, is a distinguished professor emeritus, University of Waterloo in Toronto, Canada where he was a professor for 30 years. Stuart has authored several books (links in the show notes) and his advice is often sought by governments, corporations, legal experts, medical groups, elite athletes, and teams from around the world.

If you want to learn how to fix your own back pain and enhance both injury resilience and performance you’ll find this conversation very interesting!

We cover these topics and more:

Why do folks suffer from a bad back?

What are the most common causes for active folks and athletes?

What percentage of chronic back pain sufferers can take their own steps to improving the situation?

What steps would he recommend, how often and for how long?

He outlines the core, which muscle groups are involved and how they impact spinal health

What are the biggest myths that he observes regarding core training?

He explains what his "big 3" core exercises are, and why they're so important

Which common core exercises does he feel have real benefit and which does he advise we avoid?

If you’d like to find out more about Dr. McGill please visit his website at www.Backfitpro.com where you'll find links to his books and courses, all blogs and past podcasts, and also links to clinicians who they have trained. You can also find him on Instagram - @backfitpro

Stuart recommended several books:

Stuart McGill books

His book Back Mechanic was written for people with back pain.

Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance is for people interested in training to manage a history of back pain but still train to high levels of performance.

His other books are for strength athletes (Gift of Injury, co-authored with Brian Carroll) and clinicians (Low Back Disorders).

Recommended Books

Supertraining Mel Siff & Yuri Verkoshansky

Power of positive thinking - Norman Vincent Peale - written with the sole objective of helping the reader achieve a happy, satisfying, and worthwhile life

The quick and the dead - Pavel Tsatsouline - Total training for the advanced minimalist

There are many videos of the Big 3 online. This is one that Dr. McGill referenced in the call: Brian Carroll: The Big 3 full breakdown

Dr. McGill also mentioned training the fascia. If you're interested in this topic you might like this: Fascia Training Academy

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By Simon Ward

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