"Before Back Pain Relief4Life I had back pain and I had in the Marine Corps, injured my back. I used to have spondylolisthesis so I had a clean breakaway across my back. That was back in 2006 and surgery. Had surgery in 2007, four titanium balls in the back and an L5/S1 fusion and since I've been trying to get back to the same level of fitness I had been in the past. I had been in a pretty rigorous workout regime, but I was getting to the point where I could only workout about 2 days, then I had to take about a week to 10 days off before I could try again and it just was not working for me. So, I thought I was going to have to suck it up and just keep dealing with it.

Then a good friend of mine, Bob Turner, told me about Relief4Life and I gave it a try and I've been doing it for about 2 weeks now and believe it or not, I am getting relief. Some of the examples of that, I am able to walk our dog now before when I was walking our dog, I’d come back and I’d be gimping my way back to the house after chasing after the dog. Now, I feel great walking back. And driving use to be – especially long distances was miserable for me. I’d usually have to stop, get out, shake it out a little bit and then make it back in the car. Well, just this week, drove to Atlanta in the morning, 5 hours in the car, had meetings and drove back that night. So all total 10 hours in the car and it felt great. I felt really good so I'm actually a true believer and didn’t I think I would be. I never thought I'd try something like this, I did, and it really is transforming me.

Absolutely! I’d recommend Back Pain Relief4Life, great program! So I’m probably going to have to run around and find people that have back problems and let them come here – so far I am the only one who has 1 people that I know that has a back problem. I'll find somebody; but yeah absolutely it’s great. I love it too because it’s no drugs there's nothing like that, it's just a great exercise program and I noticed a big difference in just 2 weeks doing it."

Just got this message from Chris, a friend of mine that I have know since as far back as I can remember. In only 2 sessions and he had dramatic relief! This is why we need to win the Fit or Flop challenge, so we can reach more people suffering from back pain http://fitorflop.com/contestants/ian_hart/

"In 2005 I broke my back (fractured Sacrum and displaced L-5) snowboarding. I rode about a quarter mile on my chin with the board hitting the back of my head. I spent weeks in a back brace on a healthy dose of pain killers, anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants. I say a healthy dose because it literally was enough to supplement a meal. After about 2 months I was able to start physical therapy. I did this for about a year until I started to feel somewhat normal again with the aid of my steady diet of pills. Eventually I did feel better and went to the gym often to build my lower back muscles. I was able to get off of the pills, but still needed them from time to time as my back was never truly healed. I actually went a few years with moderate pain here and there, but nothing terrible. I continued doing the exercises from my physical therapy throughout, which definitely helped, but never really cured my pain completely.

About two years ago, my pain came back with a vengeance. My L-5 was slipping all the time. You could literally watch it go in and out as I leaned forward and back up. People were amazed when I would show them. To have a disc literally grinding in and out every time you lean forward them back upright is extremely painful. I went back to the doctors and was given a nice healthy diet of even more delicious treats (totally sarcastic, I really hate pills!). I was recommended to physical therapy, but I had been down that road before, knew what they had to tell me and didn’t really have the time or money to spend at a therapist 3 days a week. I decided to try a chiropractor.

With the chiropractor, I did notice results. It took some time, but with the visits and recommended stretches and posture fixes, I was feeling much better. I truly do love my chiropractor as he has done a lot to fix my neck, shoulder, back and ankles. I was feeling much better as a result, but my back still was not strong and I hate the fear of throwing my back out while doing chores around the house. Sure enough, doing these chores, I have managed to throw my back out several times over the last few years. This is followed by many visits to the chiropractor, which work, but really haven’t provided much confidence in a permanent fix. That is until now! 2 weeks ago, I strained my back shoveling the driveway. My disc has been sliding out again and again and I went back to the Chiro. After a few adjustments, I felt a little better but I knew this was only a temporary fix and I still had substantial pain. It was time to try something different once again.

I have known Ian since we were little kids playing soccer together and have been fortunate to remain friends with him and his family over the years. He’s a great guy who I knew I could trust, so when he told me to give his program a try I listened. I normally would never just believe in some new program trying to make a name for itself as I am a very skeptical person. While this skepticism has served me well in the past, I knew I could trust Ian so I gave it a shot.

After my first session, the pain was still somewhat there, but I really felt much different. The pain was less and I just felt stronger, more agile and overall in a better mood and spirit as I just felt more empowered in general. I couldn’t do any activities for the previous two weeks, but I felt so good I went out and played 9 holes of golf without a cart! This morning I woke up sore (from the exercises), but not stiff, big difference! I did another session and once again, I just felt great all around. My pain is much less today and there is no stiffness. When I stood up from my last exercise, I literally felt taller. I used to be a bit over 6’4” but lost about an inch over the years since the back issues started. I am not sure if this is just a feeling of nostalgia, but I really do notice I am walking a bit taller. I really am looking forward to the weeks to come as I am curious as to how much more agile I will become? How much stronger I can get? If I will actually get back up to my usual height? If I will gain that confidence to go out and do that tree work I have been putting off? And, if I will continue to have this general feeling of being in good spirits?

I really didn’t notice how much my pain could influence my moods until now. Most people who know me can’t believe how many serious injuries I have sustained and how well I deal with the pain. I take pride in being able to take pain and just deal with it. I thought I was doing a good job of being myself regardless of how much pain I was in. I never complain to anyone and try to do whatever I can to not burden anyone. I grin and bear it, without actually grinning at people. I am noticing just now that I really wasn’t doing the best job of hiding it as I really am a more positive person. I just realized today that this pain really does take its toll on your overall attitude and persona. I feel happy today and ready to go out and just do good things. After years of pain, I kind of forgot how much more of a positive person I was. Thank you for everything Ian and Bojan!"

Hey! What's going on? It's Ian Hart here, back pain relief expert, Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and Co-Creator of Back Pain Relief4Life.

So today I am going to speak to you about posture and back pain. There is numerous different things I can speak about, but today I am going to speak about something in particular which has to do with the diaphragm. The diaphragm supported by intercostals in the ab muscles. When these muscles are weak, it can actually lead to shorter breaths and less oxygen uptake in the body. When you have these strengthened, then you are going to get more oxygen to the body and that is one benefit. But the other side of it is if they are weak, it's going to change your posture and then that is going to cause back pain or can lead to back pain; and I am going to explain a little bit later about what we see with the typical client with back pain many times. So just in general, better posture is going to lead to a better body function, correct muscular imbalances or take away muscular imbalances. So you are just going to feel better in general, but you are also going to breathe better.  

What we say a lot of times is people coming in their ribs are raised up because they have no integrity here, no core strength, their intercostals are weak, so nothing is pulling that down into this better posture, better position. As soon as the ribs are raised, instantly I feel more stress on my lower back. As soon as I drop my ribs and tighten my abs, stress is taken right off the back. So you can imagine if someone’s sitting down all day and their abs and intercostals are weak and those muscles over years become weaker and weaker and weaker and the ribs become more and more raised, more and more stresses on the lower back, the low muscles become weaker these is how the body posture changes over years and creates back pain.

So what we want to do is strengthen the intercostals and the abs together, which will again like I said get more oxygen to the body so you raises your VO2 Max. Oxygen is essential for living life, feeling better having more energy. So when you are breathing short, it is going to get less oxygen to your body; less oxygen to your pain area – which will prevent recovery, if you're trying to heal from something or you are trying to get rid of back pain, you need more oxygen in the body.  So better posture for better breathing especially when it deals with the diaphragm, increasing strength in the intercostals and the abs, better body function, you will have faster recovery and less stress on the spine.

So there are a few exercises that you can do for increasing strength in the intercostals and the abs. We are going to put that in a later video and actually I might post that link below this video. If you have back pain right now and you find that your ribs are raised, and you might be able to tell that your intercostals and abs are weak, what I would recommend is clicking the link below for Back Pain Relief4Life and see if that program would work for you and help you get rid of back pain and also, lower the ribs, increase core strength, get more oxygen and blood flow to your spine and just make you feel better overall and in general. So this is Ian Hart with Back Pain Relief4Life, if you have any comments or questions go ahead and leave it below and go ahead and click that link right now.