The Importance Of Spare Capacity – Why Your Spine Needs A Safety Margin
What if your back pain isn’t just from one bad movement — but from constantly living on the edge of your spine’s limits? This is where the concept of spare capacity comes in. Spare capacity refers to your spine’s ability to tolerate daily stress and physical demand without tipping into pain or injury. When this […]
Building a Spine-Sparing Movement Toolbox: How to Move Without Back Pain
One of the most overlooked causes of persistent low back pain is how we move during everyday tasks. Simple activities like bending, sitting, getting out of a car, or lifting objects can place harmful loads on your spine — especially if you have poor movement habits. A key principle to understand is this:It’s not just the load that matters, but how the load […]
Why Most Low Back Pain Isn’t a ‘Mystery’—It’s a Mechanical Problem
If you’ve been told your back pain is “non-specific” or has “no clear cause,” you’re not alone. Up to 85% of people with low back pain are handed a vague diagnosis without a clear path forward. But according to world-renowned spine researcher Professor Stuart McGill, the truth is much more hopeful: most low back pain […]
Shear Instability: The Hidden Cause of Chronic Low Back Pain
If you’ve been battling persistent low back pain without clear answers, shear instability could be the missing piece of your puzzle. While disc bulges, muscle strains, and degenerative changes often receive the spotlight, shear instability — subtle, uncontrolled movement between spinal segments — is a major, yet frequently overlooked, driver of chronic pain, as described […]
Stop Stretching Your Low Back
Why Mobility Isn’t Always the Answer When low back pain strikes, the first instinct for many people is to stretch. It feels intuitive: if your back feels tight, stretching must be the solution, right? Wrong — and in many cases, dangerously wrong. According to spine biomechanics expert Professor Stuart McGill, stretching an already sensitised or […]
What Is A Disc Bulge?
So… WHAT IS IT? A disc bulge is a common spinal condition that occurs when the outer layer of the intervertebral disc, known as the annulus fibrosus, weakens and starts to protrude outward. This is often the result of stress-strain reversals, which occur when repetitive bending forward and back up places alternating compression and tension […]
Low Back Pain: A Movement Disease?
Unseen Struggles – The Impact of Movement Dysfunction on Low Back Pain: There are no ‘fun-runs’ or coloured ribbons for low back pain, nor are there fundraisers or charities – yet, approximately 80% of people will experience a debilitating episode of Low Back Pain during their lifetime. Low back pain (LBP) is a significant health […]
Sciatica
This blog post explains what sciatica actually is, what causes it and how to treat it
Achilles Tendinopathy
Achilles tendinopathy is a condition that affects the Achilles tendon, which is the tendon connecting the calf muscle to the heel bone. The Achilles tendon is the strongest and biggest tendon in our body and has the ability to resist large tensile forces. It originates from a distal joining of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscle […]
Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy
Proximal hamstring tendinopathy (previously called hamstring tendinitis) is a condition that affects the tendons that attach the hamstring muscles to the pelvis.