I have been dealing with back pain for over 20 years.

It started at high school - setting fire to a football match, everything was fine ... and then *snap *, my back caught. I had no idea what had happened. I only knew: it hurts, I could barely move and I was afraid.

This moment began throughout life in science about fitness, mobility, preventing injuries - as well as teaching how to do it cope When you realize that not everything is under your control.

I learned to train better. I ate a nutritious diet. Priority priority sleep and regularly keeped up with corrective exercises prescribed by my doctors and physiotherapists. But despite the fact that I was doing "everything well"-every 6–24 months, I was hit by a serious back explosion. Sometimes it would last for several days. Sometimes I have been struggling with it for years.

The last one was the worst.

I spent months twisted in the literal C. I could not get up straight. I couldn't move as I wanted. And more than physical pain, it was Mental spiral It gave me.

"Am I going to get stuck like this?"

"How long will this time last?"

"Who am I even if I can't move, teach or train like it used to be?"

It broke from my identity in a way that I was not fully aware at the beginning.

I am a trainer. Coach. A guy who teaches others how to move well. I am a dad who is fighting children on the floor. Who cares about physical work in our home.

Now I worked with Bed and questioned if I would feel "normal" again.

Finally, I got out of pain again (not everyone like this). And he taught me valuable lessons.

What I learned:

✅ Playing the hand you give away.

It turns out that I have innate narrowing of the spine (narrowing of the spinal canal). I didn't cause it. I can't "fix it". But I can build a plan around him. Physiotherapy and strength training are very similar! In the simplest form it is a version of "exhibition therapy". Emphasize your body enough and in the right way to get the desired answer. Not too much, not too little.

Over time, I learned movements that more often cause development. And I can organize a training to build a larger "buffer" strength and mobility in this area.

This is not what I would choose for myself. But this is the best way I know how to answer.

✅ Recovery is mental as physical.

Do not skip mental and emotional fees that the injuries take or a loved one. You can do all the "right things" and you still feel that you are not progressing if your brain is flooded with pain, fear, frustration or shame. You may not even recognize the influence it has on you! Often felt As if I was doing everything with everything. But my loved ones saw mental stress (not to mention physical pain).

I learned this expression from my mentor and still resonates with me to this day. "Start where you are. Do what you can. Use what you have." It is much easier to say than to do, but returning to this way of thinking helped me in some of my darkest moments.

✅ Movement is still worth fighting.

Even when it takes months. Even when he is slower than I would like. Even if the exercise does not look the same as before. It's still worth it.

Mental and physical benefits of movement, in everyone The form I can do it, they are too powerful to ignore them.

✅ The same solution does not work every time.

It was one of the most difficult to learn. There was no solution "One size for my pain.

• Sometimes heat helped. Sometimes not.
• Sometimes the exercise seemed great. Sometimes it was terrible.
• Sometimes anti -inflammatory oral steroids helped. Sometimes not.

This made me learn to approach every new flash, like an experiment. Take it every day as a small test of what I can do. And this is the same approach that we have learned to receive with our own clients - even those who do not deal with injuries or a chronic state. What worked for them in the past can give us tips, but it may not be the best current A solution to what they need.

First of all, it became a better trainer.

Now I understand ...Really Understand - as people with chronic pain or injuries feel.

Fear, doubts, regret consisting in losing some of what he creates You.

This perspective made me more empathic, more flexible and more helpful - and this is something that I tried to convey to our entire coaching staff here in Nerd Fitness.

If you are dealing with pain, failures or you feel as if it has been betraying you lately, I see you.

It can take longer than you want.

It may look different than it used to be.

But you can still build strength, confidence and rush.

And if you ever need help in determining how to do it in a way that suits your body, history and reality? I would like to help.

Just make me a message.

- Coach Matt