As a fellow back sufferer I can relate. When my back went out the last time, just standing in the kitchen trying to fix a bowl of cereal had me squalling like a baby from the "shark hook" in the back pain, I was desperate for relief.
I went the DRX 5000 route with an actually honest chiropractor. He said 15% of his patients had drastic relief from the treatments, 25% had some relief and 60% had no relief.
The treatments were enjoyable, especially having the pretty young gal give me a back rub with electric stimulation after I got off the machine. Did it work, no, the treatments did make me aware of just how much of my flexibility I had lost over the years.
After spending $1800 on treatments I decided to aggressively take on the issue by myself. I researched L5S1 rehabilitation and made up my own set of stretching and strengthening exercises. For the first 6 months of my self induced rehab I couldn't tell much difference, then things started to change. I found my back and neck had become very fluid in in movement. Twisting my trunk had been painful in the past and was now easy and pain free.
My back never goes out like it did before. Now I feel a little click when I do something stupid with the same pain as a mild head ache which brings me to the rest of my story. I discovered the "Roman Chair" piece of exercise equipment. I read in my research that some back pain suffers got relief from using a Roman Chair, I thought "what the heck is that". I found pictures on the internet and realized my gym had one of these contraptions.
My back had taken an excursion from normal and I got on the Roman Chair at the gym, dipped down and heard a "click" from my back. After doing 10 reps I got off the machine and noticed I was pain free. The dang thing popped my back into place. Since my initial introduction to this miracle machine I have popped my back into place at least a dozen times over the last 10 years with it, even bought one for my home when I couldn't make it to the gym.
My routine consists of M-W-F at the gym with the focus normal he-man stuff plus belly and back workouts including several sets on the Roman Chair, total time for my routine, 45 minutes of actual weight training and another hour or so of drinking coffee and watching all the 20 something flat belly gals going through their various exercise programs. Tuesday and Thursday I do what I call my floor exercises, L5S1 rehab exercises at home that takes me about 20 minutes.
This sounds like a lot of stuff to do but I have been doing it for the last 26 years and it is part of my life now, my PAIN FREE life.
