A surprising common thread that I have observed with those who suffer with some type of musculoskeletal pain is that many of these folks regularly exercise. They are committed to a consistent exercise regimen multiple times throughout the week. The question that is asked by these folks is this: “Why is it that I am inflicted with a surprising incident of lower back pain even though I work out regularly? The quick answer to this question is, “It depends.”

It depends on various things. For example:

What type of exercise are you are currently doing?

Do you have any significant past physical history, i.e., surgeries, physical injuries, occupational demands, other traumatic events, etc.?

One thing we all can all agree on is the human body is a complex entity. Every part of the body has impact on its other parts. No single part works in isolation from the other parts. This principle not only applies to the musculoskeletal system relative to movement but to all the other connective tissues, internal organs, down to the cellular level. A simple way to view the body’s organization is through the interdependent relationship between the mind, body, and environment. Your body is constantly responding to what you think, your interactions with colleagues, family members, i.e., what’s going on within your mind. It also responds to your changing environment, i.e., your work, home, leisure, and recreational environments. It adapts to the many forms of stress that you encounter throughout your life, i.e., physical, emotional, chemical, and environmental.

If one of your physical conditioning goals is to prevent the insidious onset of a painful musculoskeletal injury, then I would suggest rethinking your current physical conditioning program. One suggestion I will make is to slow it down. Slow your tempo down. For example, if you are doing push-ups or bench press, move very slow. Take 4-5 seconds to “push” the resistance to the full up position and hold for a couple of seconds, and then take 5 seconds to lower back down to the start position. Pause for a second or two and repeat. The goal here is to find a resistance that you can execute 5-6 times over 3-6 sets. It must be a resistance (weight) that challenges without compromise to your body form and structural integrity. This idea of slowing things down can be applied to any form of physical conditioning/movement you are currently doing.

Finding variations of a given movement shape such as a push-up, squat, lunge; and different ways of transitioning between two movement shapes is another suggestion to try during your next physical conditioning session. The purpose of bringing more variety into your movement practice and selection is to:

• provide a novel stimulus to your brain and nervous system. Doing so helps your brain and nervous system to re-wire making it relatively more “plastic.” This means your brain forms and re-organizes neurological connections, especially in response to learning or experience or following injury.

• notice what is happening at various parts of your body while transitioning between different movement shapes and positions. This eventually takes conscious movement and evolves it to instinctive movement. This is an outcome to learning a NEW movement skill or phrase.

• Variations also create better transference into your daily movement activities. It does this by preparing your body to adapt to unforeseen obstacles with greater effectiveness.

• encourage exploration of different movements by modifying angles of different joints while performing different movement shapes such as push-ups, squats, lunges, etc. This process helps to unveil blind spots within given movements and articulations of the body.

Try the following exercise to experience the benefit(s) of adding variations to a given exercise. In this case let’s use the push-up movement shape. If you are unable to perform a regular full push-up than fine a regression that is appropriate for your current skill level. The easiest version of a push-up is a standing wall push-up. Face a wall with your hands at shoulder level and shoulder width a part and your legs both straight. Move your feet a few feet away from the wall so that you’re leaning on to your hands.

• Start by doing a push-up using this set-up.

• If this is easy then move your hands wider to just beyond shoulder width a part.

• Try placing your hands off set to one another, i.e., one hand just above shoulder width another just below and perform a push-up.

• If you feel comfortable, try performing a push-up by slowly pushing from one hand through the upper back and into the other hand and back again creating an arc between one hand and the other via the middle back.

The point of the exercise is to get playful with your movements. Explore different options and possibilities. Doing this will help your body change/modify its current movement behavior(s) to adapt with relatively improved efficiency, minimizing potential injury/dysfunctional risks. For those of you who work out regularly take one of your current exercises and create your own variation of it by changing body part positions, or your movement/exercise tempo.

A little exploration and curiosity can go a long ways in improving your movement habits and behaviors and gaining more transference into your daily activities. Discover some helpful insights within the SITTING DYNAMICALLY program.

I invite you to share your experience utilizing this movement exploration approach.