The #1 Cause Of Chronic Pain

It's important to treat the cause of chronic pain rather than just the symptoms because treating the symptoms without addressing the root causes will result in limited relief at best.

This explains why you can experience a decrease in pain for a while, but once you return to an active lifestyle (running, biking, golf, tennis, working out, etc.) the pain eventually returns.

The reason the pain returns is because you merely treated the symptoms of your pain and not the actual cause.

For example, say you go running or play sports on the weekends.

At the end of the activity or the next morning you feel your lower back aching and you can't move comfortably.

In this case wouldn't you most likely put some ice or a heat pack on your lower back to numb the pain or get the muscles loose?

After all, this seems the logical solution...

...But, let's take a closer look at the issue.

In this example, the lower back is merely a symptom of pain. Typically, the lower back becomes over stressed when it performs too much work during activity.

This usually happens when you have weak hips and abdominal muscles that force the lower back to overcompensate.

This is only one example of many different scenarios that can happen.

I'll talk more about these muscle compensations in another post.

But, for now it's important to realize that ignoring or failing to treat the causes of pain can lead to other problems such as:

• poor posture resulting in chronic pain and/or injury
• faulty movement that create more stress on the body
• decreased sports performance (running, golf, tennis, basketball, etc...)
• stronger muscles that compensate for weaker muscles resulting in repetitive stress

One way to begin addressing causes of pain is to begin strengthening 3 areas of your body.

I have identified these 3 areas as the main reasons for chronic pain when weakness exists in one or more of these ares.

The 3 areas are: the upper/mid-back, the abdominals, the hips

Some exercises to get you started are:

1. rows
2. pull downs
3. squats
4. lunges
5. presses

Try to incorporate these 5 movements and you'll be headed in the right direction to a stronger, healthier and pain free body.

Do The Most Common Pain Management Techniques Really Work?

There are many methods used to treat pain.

Early in my career I worked as a physical therapy aide under some of the very best therapists around. It was during these years where I discovered some very interesting things about pain management techniques.

I noticed that many of the most commonly used pain management techniques like heat, ice, ultrasound, TENS (electronic muscle stimulation), massage, medications, were only providing patients temporary pain relief at best.

But, as soon as they tried to return to their active lifestyles it wasn't long before the same pain came roaring back.

And, most of those who tried to 'just deal with it' or push through it began to notice a growing list of increasing injuries.

After constantly researching the how's and why's about these pain management techniques I finally uncovered the answer as to why they weren't more effective.

When a patient goes to the doctor's office or therapy clinic the doctor or physical therapist will attempt to treat the area of the body that is in pain.

For example, a patient with shoulder pain will be treated at the shoulder. A patient with knee pain will have their knee treated.

But, I realized that in almost every case the area of pain is only a symptom and not the actual cause of the pain.

For example, you can have lower back pain as a symptom but the actual cause of your lower back pain may not actually be your lower back as I'll explain in just a minute.

I realized that I was really on to something.

But, when I presented what I had discovered to some of the therapists I was horrified at what they told me.

Because of legal issues patients had to be treated for the symptoms they were referred to the clinic for regardless of whether or not the symptoms were the primary cause of pain.

In other words, if a patient had shoulder pain that was primarily caused by weakness in their upper back, we still had to treat the shoulder and not the upper back.

This became a great source of frustration for me because our patients were depending on us to help them find a permanent solution to end their pain.

And, they were being charged an arm and a leg in co-payments and medications without getting the treatment that could have made the biggest difference in living a life free of pain.

I started to think about how many people are going through needless surgeries that could have been prevented by treating the causes of pain not just the symptoms.

Another thing that bothered me about the pain management methods was some of the exercises these patients were being taught to perform.

Most of the exercises were either completely wrong because they were merely treating the symptoms rather than the causes of pain or the patients were not taught how to properly perform the exercises.

I have seen post knee surgery patients being told to perform leg extensions which is one of the worst exercises to do for knee pain because of the shear stress created across the knee joint. I've also witnessed patients being told to do lunges with their toes pressed into the floor which also creates tremendous knee joint stress.

I've also witnessed similar issues for people with shoulder, lower back and hip pain.

The Actual Causes Of Chronic Pain

The actual causes of chronic pain often are muscle imbalances that create a host of painful symptoms. For example, you can have lower back pain as a symptom but the actual cause of your lower back pain isn't necessarily your lower back.

It can be due to muscle imbalances that cause your thigh muscles and hip flexors to overcompensate and because your hip flexors attatch to each vertebrae in your lumbar spine you can get lower back pain. Interesting isn't it?

And, it's like this for many other types of chronic pain and injuries.

It is therefore, vital to get a thorough assessment to determine the actual causes of your pain so you can begin a proper exercise program designed to address your causes so you can eliminate or at least greatly reduce your physical pain.

A properly designed exercise program is (at least in my opinion) the best defense against pain and injuries.

When done the right way, exercise can eliminate injuries, strengthen muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones, maintain joint health, enhance flexibility and so much more.

Core Strengthening Exercise For Hip And Knee Pain

Hip and knee pain are often the result of weakness in the abdominal and glute muscles.

Your abdominals (a.k.a "core") work to keep your upper body stable while your arms and legs move and your glutes extend your hip by bringing your leg back like when you walk or run.

But, when your abs and glute muscles are weak other muscles must compensate. This happens when your quadriceps (thigh muscles) and your hip flexors try to perform the work your abs and glutes are supposed to be doing.

The result is often one or more of the following:

-lower back pain
-hip pain
-knee pain
-foot and ankle pain

I use many different types of core strengthening exercises to eliminate hip and knee pain quickly.

Using exercises to strengthen your core muscles help to strengthen weaker muscles to reduce painful symptoms.

In the video below I'll show you a simple, yet really effective core strength exercise to strengthen your abdominal muscles immediately and reduce hip and knee pain.

Try it out and leave me a comment here and tell me how it worked for you.

Medicine Ball Exercise Workout To Take Your Fitness Program To The Next Level

Medicine ball exercise is an important tool for developing sport-specific power and reducing injuries. They can be used as part of a circuit training workout, plyometrics program and for core conditioning. In fact, strength and conditioning programs are limited without their use.

Medicine ball training is also great change of pace in your workouts. The variety they add can take you to the next level when you are trying to improve sports-specific performance, prevent or rehabilitate injuries, build muscle and burn fat.

Medicine ball exercises consist of movements that require balance, stability, strength and coordination of the entire body similar to everyday and/or sports related movements and speeds.

Medicine ball exercises are a great multi-purpose training option that can be used alone or with a partner.

Try this medicine ball workout:

Warm-Up: Perform the exercises listed in a circuit

Push-Up Hold x 30 seconds- Place your hands on the ground and one foot at a time on the medicine ball. Keep your back straight and you'll feel your abs working hard to keep your body stable. This is a simple yet highly effective core strength and stabilization exercise.



Seated Rotations x 20 total repetitions (10 to each side)- Keep the ball and your arms in front of your chest at all times. Do not allow your elbows to bend. The idea is to move your entire upper body not just your arms.

This is an excellent exercise for developing trunk rotation mobility that is specific to many movements such as running, swinging a golf club, tennis racket or baseball bat, getting in and out of a car, picking up groceries or a laundry basket and putting it on a table at your side. These are only some examples.

Workout: Perform all exercises in order moving from one medicine ball exercise to the next in a circuit

Squat Press x 10 repetitions- Stay on your heels at all times and keep your trunk up 'tall'. Squat down and then explode up using your hips while simultaneously pressing the ball overhead. The key is to use your hips to create momentum (power) that pushes the ball overhead. You do not want to simply use your arms to push the medicine ball.

This exercise helps to develop total body explosive power.

Toe Touch Lunges x 20 total repetitions (10 to each side)- Alternate legs each repetition. This is a great medicine ball exercise for developing speed and quickness, balance and lower body coordination, cardiovascular conditioning and burns lots of calories.



Toe Touch Crunch x 20 total repetitions (10 to each side)- Get your trunk off the ground as much as possible on this. This movement develops core strength during upper and lower body movements. It also mobilizes the trunk in flexion and extension based movements that are part of our everyday life.

Complete 3-5 Circuits

Workouts like these are why I include medicine ball exercise in many workouts I design for my own clients on a regular basis. It is a highly unique training tool that provides an almost unlimited number of options you can use to achieve any fitness goal.

Medicine ball workouts are not just for athletes but for everyone.

Leave a reply below and let me know what you think about this workout.

5 Low Back Pain Exercises To Get Your Active Lifestyle Back

Low back pain exercises are one of the best ways to eliminate back pain. However, over the years I've seen some exercises that are thought to relieve pain, but actually will make it worse.

These exercises include crunches, sit-ups, ab machines, lower back extensions and torso twisting machines. The really scary thing is that some doctors have recommended these exercises to people suffering from lower back pain.

Now, I'm certainly not a doctor and I'm not trying to bad mouth any doctors out there. I just happen to have worked with many back pain sufferers for nearly 10 years and I've seen the devastating effects these 'back pain exercises' can have.

Trust me, it's not pretty.

But, I'm going to share 5 of my best exercises for low back pain so you can get rid of that nagging pain and get your active lifestyle back.

Lower back pain is often due to muscle imbalances that result from weak abdominals and hips that force the lower back extensor muscles (and even the hip flexors in some cases) to overcompensate.

This causes chronic muscle tightness and increased stress to the spine. Stretching is a common pain relief method that may help relieve lower back pain but the relief is often temporary at best.

The key to eliminating back pain is by strengthening the abdominal and hip muscles. I have used the lower back pain exercise circuit below on some of my own clients and they have been able to completely eliminate or greatly reduce their lower back pain.

You'll notice I don't list crunches or sit-ups. The reason for this is because they have the tendency to reinforce poor posture. Another reason is because you need to train your abdominal muscles to stabilize your body while you are standing straight.

Crunches and sit-ups are performed by rounding or hunching the upper and mid-back which has nothing to do with standing upright. If you perform too many exercises like crunches and sit-ups your natural tendency will be to flex or round your spine slightly when trying to stabilize your body during certain movements.

This puts your spine in a weak position and can lead to increased stress to your spine, increased lower back pain and injury. Below are some of the best exercises for low back pain. Perform them one set at a time in the order listed. This is called a 'circuit'.

Perform up to 3 circuits 3 days per week (preferably on non-consecutive days). Begin using your own body weight and work up to using a light weight medicine ball as you are able.

Low Back Pain Exercises For Maximum Pain Relief

1. Ball Raise March Combo-This lower back pain exercise trains the abdominals to properly stabilize your trunk during movement. Keep your lower back pressed into the floor at all time during this exercise. Hold your arms and both legs up in the air. Slowly with control lower your arms and one leg toward the floor together. Try to tap the heel to the floor without resting your leg and bring both arms and the leg back up together.

You should feel your deep abdominal muscles working but not your lower back. If you are unable to perform this without your lower back lifting off the ground or without feeling your lower back then modify by lowering the arms and leg only half way.

Alternate legs on each repetition. Perform 5-10 reps each leg.

2. Prone Push-Pull-A great exercise for back pain because it trains the abs, glutes and mid-back muscles that tend to be weak and lead to pain.

Keep your knees straight and toes into the floor. Try to keep your chest off the floor if you can and don't let your upper body move up and down while you perform this exercise.

Push your arms straight out in front of you keeping them off the floor. Pull your arms back as if trying to pull your elbows in your back pockets.

Make sure you are not feeling pain in your lower back on this one. Perform 10 repetitions.

3.Squat- Read my post or watch my video to learn how to squat the right way. Most people do not perform squats properly which is why they get back and knee pain. If you squat the way I teach in the video you will be able to keep yourself pain free.

Once you master these movements you can try the following advanced low back pain exercises using a stability ball:

1. Prone Jacknife-Begin prone (facing the floor) with the ball under your thighs. Pull the ball up toward your chest while trying to keep your upper back as straight as you can. This is a great back pain exercise for the abdominals but it should not be performed until you master the 4 exercises listed above. Perform 10 repetitions.

2. Ball Supported Arm Raise-Begin lying with just your head and upper back on the ball. Keep your feet straight, heels planted into the floor and hips up. You should be able to draw an imaginary straight line through your shoulders, hips and knees in this position.

Perform 10 repetitions. Use a light weight medicine ball to challenge yourself.

Slowly lower your arms overhead toward the floor without your hips or upper body moving at all. You should feel your abs and glutes working but not your lower back. Perform 10 repetitions.

Take your time and be consistent in performing these back pain exercises and you'll eliminate or greatly reduce pain quickly.

In the video below you'll see why you should avoid crunches and sit-ups at all costs and I'll explain much more about how muscle imbalances affect your back and what to do to correct them:



And, when you get all these exercises down well, go check out my advanced level low back pain exercises routine.

How To Increase Bench Press Strength Without Wrecking Your Shoulders

I'm often surprised at how most people trying to increase bench press strength go about it the wrong way.

You'll often read about the need to do more shoulder, triceps and chest strengthening exercises to get stronger benching. But, focusing solely on these types of exercises often leads to overuse of the shoulders which causes stress and ultimately pain or injury.

Below are 3 tips that will increase bench pressing strength and you'll never read about them in the fitness magazines.

How To Increase Bench Press Strength

#1. Strengthen your core muscles-The core muscles help provide a solid, stable base while lying on the bench. Without proper core stabilization your body will not be properly supported on the bench causing you to lose bench press strength.

Use exercises that train the transverse abdominis (TVA) which is your main stabilizer. You can do this using the exercises below:


Ball Raise-Keep your lower back firmly planted into the ground while slowly moving the ball back toward the ground then raise it just over your chest. You should feel your lower stomach muscles working and not your lower back.


Marches- Keep your lower back firmly planted into the ground at all times while slowly moving one straight leg toward the ground. Tap the heel without resting your leg and bring back up. Repeat with the other leg. Alternate legs each repetition. You should feel your lower stomach working and not your lower back.

*Note: if you can't get your heel to the ground without your lower back lifting then lower the leg halfway to the ground instead until you develop proper core strength.


#2. Strengthen you upper and mid-back muscles-Bench pressing has the tendency to cause muscle imbalances between the anterior (front) upper body muscles and the posterior (back) upper body muscle.

This is commonly demonstrated by forward rounded shoulders and a sunken chest or rounded upper back. Over time this muscle imbalance can result in shoulder pain and/or injuries.

Strengthening the muscles of your upper and mid-back results in restored muscle balance, better posture, decreased stress to the shoulders and increased bench press strength.

Use exercises like seated rows, bent over rows, pull-ups and pulldowns

#3. Strengthen your hips- Your hips are important if you want to increase bench press strength because they need to be stable much like your core muscles stabilize your trunk.

Use exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges and step-ups

And, there you have it. 3 tips to quickly increase bench pressing strength without wrecking your shoulders.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post.

Golf Shoulder Exercises To Prevent Golf Swing Shoulder Pain

Proper golf shoulder exercises can usually correct poor golf swing mechanics. I have identified 4 common reasons that contribute to golf shoulder pain:

1. Poor posture-Having forward rounded shoulders and a slouched upper back limits shoulder motion and proper shoulder turn during your golf swing. As a result, shoulder turn during your golf swing is decreased and increased stress occurs to your rotator cuff.

2. Limited trunk rotation-Proper rotation must happen at your hips and trunk to allow proper shoulder turn and a balanced golf swing. When trunk rotation is limited it prevents proper hip and shoulder turn which can force the rotator cuff muscles in the shoulders to overcompensate resulting in pain.

Large deficits in trunk rotation results in lateral body movement which displaces your center of gravity and throws your golf swing way off balance.

Lateral deviation of your body during the backswing or downswing often results in:

-loss of balance
-reduced power
-poor accuracy
-over-slicing the ball
-topping off the ball


3. Poor shoulder flexibility-This is frequently caused by tightness in the pectoralis major/minor muscles of the chest. When these muscles are tight they limit the amount of external rotation at the shoulder which results in poor golf swing mechanics and increased stress to the shoulder.

4. Weakness in the upper and mid-back muscles-The muscles that make up your upper and mid-back are very important for healthy shoulders and a proper golf swing.

I won't get to scientific here but basically each rotator cuff is comprised of 4 muscles that attach to your shoulder. The rotator cuff's primary function is to stabilize your shoulder during movement. But, your shoulder isn't the only
attachment site of your rotator cuff. Your rotator cuff muscles originate from your shoulder blades.

And, your shoulder blades are controlled primarily by the muscles in your upper and mid-back. When properly conditioned, your upper and mid-back muscles help to allow proper shoulder motion and swing mechanics. When these muscles become weak and deconditioned the deltoid muscles in your shoulder and even your neck muscles can start to overcompensate which leads to shoulder and/or neck pain.

In the video below I show 3 key golf shoulder exercises I've used for my golfing clients with great success:

--Wall Rows

--Diagonal Shoulder Patterns

--Trunk Rotations

--plus my 3-way doorway stretch

These can help correct golf swing mechanics and prevent golf swing shoulder pain.

Post a comment below and let me know what you thought of this post and the video.