We’re Back!!! Welcome Back To The Back Pain Solutions Podcast In 2021!!

Welcome to the Back Pain Solutions Podcast – We’re Back!!! Welcome Back To The Back Pain Solutions Podcast In 2021!!

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Listen To The Episode Below

Episode Introduction

So, 2021 is here and for many of us we’re still experiencing some kind of lockdown! So, what does the New Year have in store for us? How will you respond to the current environment and how could it affect the management of your back health?

In this episode we discuss updates from our respective locations and how this could be affecting the management of back health. We talk about remaining positive and being patient when overcoming back pain as well as how to re-think the pain you’re experiencing. We discuss how pain doesn’t necessarily mean harm and how important it is to keep moving and focus on your own goal with respect to your back recovery so you can work towards getting back to the activities you love in 2021.

Some of the things you’ll discover…

The impact that isolation can have on your experiences with pain
Why its important to remain positive and have a goal for your recovery
How the lockdown environment is impacting mental health and that you’re not alone if you’re struggling
The importance of setting routine and have a purpose each day
How resilient your back is and that you can, and will, be pain free
Our visions for the podcast in 2021!

Episode Highlights

You’re not alone if you’re struggling with your back pain and the continued lockdown situations, we’re all facing. Don’t feel if you’re unable to seek out treatment for your back problems in a clinic environment, there is a lot you can do on your own to take ownership of your complaint and make progress towards recovery. Stay focused, stay inspired, and you will beat your back problems so you can get back to doing the things you love.

Episode Transcription

Intro 0:00
When we’re young, we move with freedom and confidence with a great resilience to injury. But somewhere along the line we develop poor habits and become more vulnerable to back pain, back pain solutions features evidence based and practical advice to help you take back control of your health and get back to the activities you love. This is your guide to better back health through movement. So join us as we demystify some of the commonly held beliefs about back pain and build your confidence to a stronger back the smart way.

Ben James 0:28
Welcome back to the back pain solutions podcast. Everybody is 2021. We are back and I’m with my co host, Jacob stay in this afternoon afternoon, Jacob.

Jacob Steyn 0:38
Afternoon, Ben.

Ben James 0:39
So my friend, here we are at a new year. And we’re back with a new episode of the podcast. Got some more guests lined up for the year ahead. Looking forward to getting back into our recording schedule, having had a break over the festive period. How is it for you?

Jacob Steyn 0:57
Well, yes, it’s great. I’m quite excited to get going again, after a little break and get my head on, on the things I like and starting to think about movement again and discuss it with you.

Ben James 1:12
And give us an update about how things are it’s January 2021. And you’re in a lockdown we’re in a lockdown here in the UK but used to be down there a little bit different in different countries now so a gyms closed where you are there certainly are where we are.

Jacob Steyn 1:27
Yeah, many things are closed over here we are in a strict lockdown. And we there’s a there’s a quite a big possibility that from Thursday onwards, we can’t leave our houses after eight o’clock in the evening. So things are getting a little bit stricter still. But, you know, nevertheless, I make the most of it. I get out I go sprinting twice a week I I do my training sometimes outside sometimes inside. We’re not allowed to work. So I have a lot of time with my family. And that’s something I I appreciate.

Ben James 2:08
how you stay motivated in that. With all that time is all that time too. Because sometimes you we’re all craving time but sometimes when we’ve got it we don’t we don’t do an awful lot with it. We’re not very effective. You just taking the opportunity to rest or are you trying to be you got some goals and some, some some things to focus on?

Jacob Steyn 2:28
Yes, I’m currently working with with a chiropractor who’s guiding me with some neurological rehabilitation. So I’ve got some exercises to improve neurological function. They keep you busy. I do them three times a day. And one of the exercises I have to do 10 times a day, that’s just for two weeks that I do this. Otherwise, goals. I think I’ve decided for myself not to you know, since I’m not working, I decided to actually take it easy and really make the most of spending time with my 14 month old and with my wife and take some pressure off her while she’s got a she’s still working from home. And you know, having a 14 month old at home and then having to work. I have to keep him busy. I have to keep him out of the way.

Ben James 3:22
Yeah, yeah. Got to keep him entertained.

Jacob Steyn 3:26
Yeah. So what about you, Ben? What, what’s your situation at the moment?

Ben James 3:30
Well, we’re we’re still open. And, you know, as we said before, we’ve got the ability as chiropractors in my opinion to be very, very effective with our infection control, we can limit the number of people coming through the door, we can, we can clean between patients where we were in aprons, we’re wearing gloves, we’re wearing masks, we’re wearing visors, so you know, our patients are constantly feeding back that they feel very safe and comfortable coming in, and we are frontline healthcare workers here in the UK, and we’ve been advised to stay open which is which is positive for us. It’s positive for our patients. Because, you know, as we’ve said, particularly during this lockdown, people need our help more than ever, a lot of back pain, a lot of neck pain, no doubt a result of working from home, as we’ve discussed before, and so things kind of remain open and remain fairly consistent for us whether that changes yet to be seen because you know, it’s a daily basis kind of looking at the news and seeing what the updates are. But I think it’s fair to say that despite best intentions or lockdowns, lock downs on achieving an awful lot, you know, so hopefully, you know, if if it needs to be this vaccination programme then so be it because I don’t see that they’ve got any other options and certainly, we’ve got no options to make those decisions for ourselves. And so let’s hope that they they progress forward with that so that people can get back to normal because I think a lot of people From a mental health point of view of suffering now, as a lot of people that I know that live, live and work at home on their own, and that’s a that’s a massive problem. And I think we’re gonna see a big fallout from that in months and years to come. Because it’s, it’s affecting a lot of people.

Jacob Steyn 5:19
Yes, I think that’s a good point. Mental health, you know, I consider myself very strong mentally, but the last last couple of weeks, because I’ve been at home now, nearly six weeks, I can really feel that, you know, it’s dawning on your little bit. It’s, it’s, it’s like a reality, slowly settling, and you got to deal with it. And in the beginning, you’re able to push it away. And, you know, give it some time and be keep yourself distracted from things. But at some point, I think some people that may have happened earlier, and for others, that happens later, it just depends if you’re able to keep on working, or whether you’re sitting home and you’re not able to do anything because of the type of job that you have.

Unknown Speaker 6:05
Yeah.

Jacob Steyn 6:06
But erm. Yeah, so but over here, I think we’re one of the few if not the only countries in the West, where chiropractors actually we have to be closed. And we we are, we have a very strong association. And the management of the association is they’re very busy with trying to get some information to through to the government where someone can actually take, take it to the level where they can make a decision and get us to work. Because we’re we’re not allowed to work and physiotherapists are and a lot of the other care workers, which they then consider as essential care are working. But it’s in many in the eyes of chiropractors not actually more essential than what we would be doing right now.

Ben James 7:00
Yeah, it’s a it’s a, it’s frustrating when, when some are open, and some are not. And actually, the differences are, yeah, as we’ve discussed on podcasts before, you know, depending on your approach, very similar anyway. And so it kind of, it doesn’t make, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But it’s interesting what you say about distraction. Because I think, when it comes to back health and pain, that’s a big problem. And I think that’s why we’re seeing more issues of back pain and neck pain, because people are, are more focused on it, because they’re at home potentially on their own. And so they, they focus more on it. And we talk a lot in the clinic with our patients around pain and how to manage pain and how important that element of it is, and that our backs are very strong, they’re very stable, they’re very resilient. And sometimes when we, when we get an episode of back pain, it’s not specifically a tissue injury, necessarily. It’s tissue sensitivity and discomfort, hurt doesn’t equal harm, is the message that we often convey and share with patients. So that it gives them that reassurance. But a lot of that comes from not being focused on it and being a being able to be distracted by, by normal life by meeting with friends by doing those things that they enjoy, and give them fulfilment and and mean that not just focused on that one than one negative. And so I think this is this is going to become such a big problem, not just from a musculoskeletal skeletal health point of view. But mentally and, and and far, far wider reaching, I think.

Jacob Steyn 8:40
Yes, and I definitely add to that, I mean, the mental health aspect, contributing to physical health and what you just mentioned, when we experienced pain, it’s so much influenced by how we feel mentally. And that distraction, I noticed myself, you know, if I get out, I’m distracted, I feel good, I feel great. Let’s go for a walk, or let’s go for a cycle. And, you know, we’re being told that we should do less of that. And I think a lot of other people are doing a lot less of that. And so they are more vulnerable to these physiological changes brought on by any mental mental change, or perceived threat or anxiety. So yeah, it’s gonna be very interesting to see how this thing pans out over the next few months and maybe next few years.

Ben James 9:32
Well, yeah, exactly. How long will it last? And, and I think that’s the thing that, you know, they’ll come a point, I think, where people previously it was a novelty and people thought, yeah, you know, I’m just gonna take this time and relax and be a bit, dare we say complacent. And actually now it’s kind of, well, this could be the new norm. So should I better get get myself together and get get active, you know? Because who knows how long this lasts, whether whether it’s short term, long term or cycles of lockdowns. And is that the new is that the new norm for us? You know, who knows, at this point? I mean, we’re seeing now, these different strains that that are becoming a bit of concern, the most recent one being Brazil that is resilient to potentially vaccinations and then there’s the winning stuff. And then there’s the UK. So, you know, if that’s the case, and we do see different strains that are more resistant to the vaccinations, then what’s the answer? You know.

Jacob Steyn 10:34
Exactly. What’s the answer? And we did this, we did touch that at some point, I think, you know, that we don’t want to go too much into depth about it. But I think it’s valuable to say that it’s our health, you know, the answer to many of these things is simply our health. And if you take care of your health, you make sure that you become more resilient to a stronger type of flu, then you you, you can have more certainty that you will be resilient, and you will then get it and make some antibodies, and we can hopefully get rid of that anxiety and fear. But, Ben, what is what is our plan for this year?

Ben James 11:21
Well, I mean, good question. It’s, it’s exciting to be back, it’s been good to have a bit of a break and a bit of reflection on the year from a personal point of view, professional point of view. And but we’ve been getting some positive feedback over the last year with the with the podcast, and we’ve been consistent with putting them out every week. And for us now, I think we agree, we’re looking forward to getting more guests on the show. Now we’ve kind of set the intention, as it were, and set the consistency. And I think this is, you know, a big message that that I’ll mention a moment in in a moment for people that are listening with back pain, you know, just just kind of proven to ourselves that we can be consistent with it. And, and now kind of taking it to that next level and improving the content that we put out there. That, you know, you’ve got to start from somewhere. And, you know, we, we often look at social media, and it’s one of those devils, I think, where people, people look at the experiences and the life that others are leading and think that, that they’re missing out, or they’ve they’ve missed something, you know, whereas everybody on social media, you know, got their own story, but started from somewhere. And some of those stories aren’t necessarily real, it’s about taking action, it’s about setting an intention, and it’s about being consistent. And it’s only by doing that, that you get any success. And, you know, we we started this off with with the intention to help more people and to give them more advice around back health, because we saw that some of the experiences that people were getting, when they did come and see us were, were were poor and disappointing. And we’re all about empowering people to take ownership of their back health and be empowered to, to move and be confident in movement and confident that movement will be beneficial in their recovery and will help them to overcome their their back issues, and not be reliant on, on seeing a practitioner necessarily not that that’s a bad thing from the main maintenance, preventative point of view. But we want people to be confident that they can control things themselves. So if you are listening, if you’re in lockdown, be patient don’t feel like you need to necessarily see someone straightaway. Take some of the advice from the content that we’re putting out there some of the videos and take action and try some of the exercises to on a daily basis to help support your recovery. They’ll always be something they’ll always be some exercise, some movement that you can do that will be comfortable, that will be relieving that will help and benefit your back. So yes, when you’re sensitive and got got a significant issue of acute pain, we want to avoid those activities that that are particularly painful. But don’t be fearful. The back is very resilient. And that’s the message that we want to bring home and share more content that will support back health and in recovery. So it’s great to be getting the messages through via email. It’s great to be getting the reviews and the likes and shares that we’re getting. And we look forward to sharing more content with the listeners with the audience and we appreciate your ears and your time. And yeah, looking forward to looking forward to continuing the project as it were moving forward this year, as well as of course, the course around back health that we’re we’re continuing to progress and work through and looking forward to sharing that in a few months time hopefully.

Jacob Steyn 14:49
Exactly. So that’s, that’s the next step for us is to actually get that programme out there. Where we can really help people from the first stage of of recovery to becoming really resilient and understanding their back and being functionally back into doing the things that they really like to do so.

Ben James 15:11
Exactly, exactly. That’s the aim. You know, people, invariably, when they’ve got back issues and back pain, they, they stop doing the things they level, they’re prevented from doing the things they love, whether that’s playing with their children, or whether that’s playing golf. Ultimately, it’s about the pain points that that there are affecting their their, like the back pain is affecting their lives, you know, it’s not about necessarily the pain itself. It’s about what that’s preventing you from doing. And it’s holding on to that. Holding on to that goal, having that goal in the first place, and believing that you can get back to it, because invariably, you can. And there’s a lot of messaging out there, around back health, that is all, you know, very fear, avoidant kind of communication, that maybe there’s there’s good intention. But actually, we’re seeing now more and more evidence, research suggests that the way we talk and the way we communicate, has an impact on on patient’s beliefs and on their recovery. And sometimes, you know, as practitioners, we’ve got to self reflect and see that we’ve got to be careful in the way that we talk, you know, we talk a lot about instability, it’s maybe instability in a moment in time that we want to build more stability. But in and of itself, sometimes that word instability isn’t necessarily helpful, because people think, well, I’ve got an unstable back, the back is very resilient. And it might be that it needs some help from muscles to support it. But the point and the key take home message is, the back recovers very well with the right approach and the right guidance, and you can get back to doing those things that you want to do. It may take time, it may take a few months. Year, if it’s really, you know, if you’ve if you’ve really been suffering from problems for a significant length of time, but, you know, we’ve seen time and time again, with the right approach, with a patient approach. And taking advice and taking action, taking ownership, and doing some work yourself. You know, a collaborative approach serves patients very, very well, and gets them back to doing what they love. And that’s the aim. That’s the ultimate aim. And we we talk about that in our intro of the podcast that was very clear from the outset of, of what we have, what we wanted to achieve with this was that we wanted to get patients back to doing the things they love, because when we speak to patients in the clinic, and you all have experienced this, Jacob, you know, the the frustrations come from when we really dig deep into what you can’t do, what’s it preventing you from doing and it’s that emotional side of things that it is the big is the big elephant in the room. And that is the big frustration and the big fear for people because, you know, we only get one life, when we want to do the things we we love along the way. And if we’re prevented from doing those because of back pain, then that’s very sad, especially when you’re not getting the right advice, not getting the right support. And therefore you’re not recovering as, as you can. And that’s my message for people you know, and that’s, that’s always my message is to try and reassure, inspire, and educate and build confidence. Because if we can do those things, then we’re gonna have a lot of success. And clearly in clinic, I’m, I’m seeing that, and now it’s spreading the net wider for, for a more global audience to to share those successes, because, as I say, an active exercise based approach is is certainly very, very important. And and we can do that without necessarily having to put our hands on patients all of the time. That’s not to say that some passive care isn’t beneficial, for sure. It’s not always absolutely necessary. So watch out for the programme. And we’ll we’ll continue to keep everyone up to date, we’re going to be more active as well. On our Instagram page, we’ve we’ve been sharing some sharing the podcasts on there. And now we’re just looking to add in a little bit more content in terms of exercises and things that we’re doing as well Jacob in the gym that that we find beneficial just to share that content, to inspire and to to educate more and more.

Jacob Steyn 19:15
That’s great, Ben, thanks for the explanation. And I hope we can deliver that pretty soon. And we can get people going on that programme and help them start helping them understanding what’s going on with them and help them through the process of really getting better.

Ben James 19:33
Absolutely. And you know, watch out guys for the for the guest episodes. We’ve got a good one coming up. Hopefully just waiting for confirmation on on Friday’s scheduled meeting, but very much around postpartum back health and you know just how much it’s overlooked in terms of management and Jacob you’ll know yourself from from your wife’s experience and myself as well, that the management in the care of women’s health throughout pregnancy is pretty phenomenal, certainly, you know, in Holland in the UK. But as soon as, as soon as that baby safely arrived off, you got to get on with it is kind of the approach. You know, I think that’s what can be done in terms of in terms of advice from an exercise, phased exercise based approach to really ensure that women rebuild that, that pelvic floor health and there’s a focus on that, which will support backhaul. So watch out for that episode is going to be a good one. Looking forward to that, looking forward to sharing that that one should be coming out a week on Thursday. So we’re recording this episode The 19th of January. So this will be coming out a week, tomorrow. So look out for that one. Sharon, and, yeah, well, we shall continue to record we’ll continue to hopefully inspire and hopefully if you’re listening, give us a rating give us a review, and, and help share the content with a wider audience as we continue to help inspire you to better back health. And hold on to that. Hold on to that inspiration that you will get back to doing the things you love may take some time. It may take some effort, and it will certainly take some patience in some cases, but you can get back to doing what you love. So thanks as always for listening goes thanks, Jacob, and quick session to introduce 2021 and we’ll be back with more episodes throughout the year. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai