Lower back pain is more common than most people think. Around 80 percent of adults will experience it at least once in their lifetime, and about 20 percent of those cases become chronic, lasting longer than three months. It’s even recognised as the leading cause of disability worldwide by the WHO.
One athlete I worked with knew this reality all too well. Years of high-impact training that involved jumping, twisting, and landing left him with recurring sciatica and chronic lower back pain. His scans showed disc and vertebrae degeneration, mild scoliosis, a herniated L5/S1 disc pressing on the right L5 nerve root, and several bulging discs in the lumbar spine. He had seen doctors and physiotherapists before, but the pain always came back.
When I assessed him, what stood out most was not just the spinal findings, but the surprising weaknesses in key muscles: the glutes, hamstrings, adductors, hip flexors, and core. His walking mechanics and movement control were poor, while the quads and TFL were doing too much of the work. Add to that a flat-back posture, and some days his pain was so intense he could hardly move.
We shifted the focus to what his body truly needed. Step by step, we worked on activating the weak muscles to restore neuromuscular control, releasing tight and overused tissues, and building a foundation of stability and better movement patterns. The change came quickly. After only nine focused sessions, he was moving without pain. His journey is still ongoing, but this early transformation is a powerful reminder of what precise, body-aware training can achieve. For me, it’s always a joy to guide athletes through this process and witness how quickly their bodies respond when given the right approach.
Mulberry Whale by Joyymer 