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Homer Simpson and back pain (How back pain makes you stupid)

You might not watch The Simpsons but you will know who Homer is.

Homer the loveable but pretty stupid dad. The thing is nobody wants to be Homer. 

Bart? Maybe. He’s the anarchic wee boy all wanted to be. 

Lisa? Maybe. Intelligent and cool. 

Marge? Again, maybe but definitely not Homer.

Homer is the one out of all the characters that you don’t really want to be even if you are shouting for him

The thing is back pain turns you into Homer.

Back pain does actually make you stupid. It does this in a variety of different ways. But let’s let’s define stupidity first.

Stupidity is the overlooking or dismissing conspicuously crucial information. Back pain does make you do this.

It does it both in your day to day life and also in how you view back pain itself.

Now, this definition isn’t mine, i found it in a really interesting blog post on Farnham Street called “How not to be stupid”.

The guy writing it talks about how there are 7 factors that go into making us stupid.

  1. Being outside your normal environment or there being changes to your routine. 
  2. Being in the presence of a group
  3. Being in the presence of an expert or if you, yourself are an expert.
  4. Doing any task that requires intense focus
  5. Information overload
  6. Physical or emotional stress, fatigue
  7. Being in a hurry.

Not all of these are required for there to be an effect. Any one of them on its own will have an effect. 

In the U.S., ad the U.K, all of these are present in hospitals but I just have the figures for the U.S. In the States there are 30,000 deaths a year from car accidents.  A big number. But there are between 210,000 and 440,000 deaths in hospitals from errors in treatment!

But what does this have to do with back pain and how does back pain make you stupid?

Back pain causes physical and emotional stress. 

It causes fatigue.

It will result in information overload as you seek answers for your back pain. (I appreciate I’m not helping you here).

You might well find yourself hurrying to finish tasks so you can sit down because of the pain.

The pain itself can mean you have to focus really hard to do simple tasks.

So you can see there are all sorts of ways for back pain to make you “stupid”. 

It comes into your life and wrecks havoc. 

Disrupting sleep.

Causing physical and emotional stress. 

Destroying focus and the list goes on,

If you would like to see what a path to being more intelligent would look like all you need to do is reply to this email and we can chat about it.

You can grab a copy of our FREE Back Pain Myths Busted eBook here >>> https://www.performancesportstherapy.net/back-pain-myths-busted-ebook

 

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Does intermittent fasting work? (Guest post by Alex Neilan “The Sport Dietitian)

I’m really pleased to be able to bring you some advice from Edinburgh’s top dietitian, Alex “The Sport Dietitian” Neilan. This will be the first of regular input from Alex. The goal is to bring you solid, evidence-based dietry advice to help you stay healthy and maximise your performance.

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you cycle between periods of eating and fasting. Intermittent fasting is not a diet, rather a dietary pattern, meaning it does not dictate which food should be eaten, rather when food should be eaten. Intermittent fasting is currently very popular among the health and fitness
community.

Continue reading “Does intermittent fasting work? (Guest post by Alex Neilan “The Sport Dietitian)”

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Back Pain Myths Busted

You love playing golf, going to boot camp classes or CrossFit, running or perhaps it’s BJJ or tennis that is your thing. Regardless it is regularly interrupted by back pain.

You can’t think why as there is no obvious cause.

But you’ve got sharp, achy, persistent back pain that doesn’t seem to be going, it’s easy to just accept it, carry on with your life thinking it’s something that just “happens with age”.

You might have the odd occasion when your back pain frees up, you think that’s it, it won’t come back…

…Days, hours or even minutes later the pain has returned, and it’s even worse than before.

All you can think is “why is this lasting so long?” “How long will it take before it gets right?”

“Why is this happening to me?”

We understand how frustrating this can be, affecting your mood, energy and the way you’re moving every day.

Let’s start by taking a look at some of the misinformation around back pain.

Continue reading “Back Pain Myths Busted”

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Running Repairs – a guide to successful running

One of the great things about running is that it doesn’t require any special equipment or gym membership. A bog standard pair of trainers, you really don’t need to be spending £100+ on shoes, shorts and a t-shirt and off you go. Unfortunately, running injuries are ridiculously common.

The big issue that is often forgotten about is, and let’s be honest, running is hard work.

Running at a moderate pace you are looking at 1200-1500 steps in a kilometre.

On an easy run, the forces that we absorb are around 3 times body weight on each foot strike. Or around 320,000kg, strictly speaking, it’s 320,00N but we’ll stick to a measurement we can all relate to.

Continue reading “Running Repairs – a guide to successful running”

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3 questions you should ask about exercise and back pain

What questions should you be asking about exercise and back pain if you’ve hurt your back? Of all the aches, pains and injuries we suffer from back pain is the one that is clouded in the most mystery. Spoken of like a death sentence in newspapers, magazines, on the news and social media nothing could further from the truth.

If you happen to have hurt your back what questions should you be asking about what to do? Continue reading “3 questions you should ask about exercise and back pain”

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Sleep tight, don’t let the bugs bite.

I think we can all agree sleep is pretty important. I have to say I’m not the best sleeper in the world. It’s not unusual for me to wake up several times during the night and to be awake for a while at some point.

It’s not been helped over, I was going to write the last few months but it’s actually been about a year with Andrew getting up during the night. Normally only the once but can be twice during the night followed by him coming through about 5 am. He doesn’t take any time to settle back down but it is a total pain when it happens. Continue reading “Sleep tight, don’t let the bugs bite.”

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Golf And Back Pain

Golf and back pain don’t quite go together like bread and jam but back pain in golfers is common. One of the biggest reasons for back pain in golfers is an inability to generate sufficient force into the ground. In fact, it’s not just the ability to create this force but to maintain it through the swing that is the big factor.

Golf is a sport of extremes in terms of movement. There isn’t really another sport that requires you to maximise your rotation in the manner golf does. Any kinks or flaws will reduce your ability to rotate. Continue reading “Golf And Back Pain”

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Osteoarthritis – The End Of The Road?

It is not unusual to see people who have been informed that they have changes in a joint related to osteoarthritis. Two cases I have come across recently were handled completely differently.

The first was informed that, yes there were signs of osteoarthritis but don’t worry you don’t need to stop running. The second was similarly told that there were signs of arthritis but that was about it. No other advice was given or suggestions made.

Not surprisingly their point of view about the pain they were suffering was a bit different Continue reading “Osteoarthritis – The End Of The Road?”