One of the most frustrating things to do when it comes to health and fitness is trying to fully rehabilitate an injury, especially a chronic injury. There are endless mistakes made in the process of restoring movements and injured joints back to normal and it it is usually a very bumpy journey for most people. This bumpy journey is a normal process and if you are not making mistakes then it is safe to say you are not going to change much either. Often the movement that sets off your pain is the same one you have to figure out how to change but there can be many things that get in the way of doing this. It sounds quite simple however, it is anything but simple and it may take several different exercises to even get to the point where you consider changing the dysfunctional movement responsible for your pain. During this process of trial and error and endless mistakes it is VITAL you know what to do when things go wrong. This is one of the first things I like to teach people when they come to see me for help for I am anticipating that we will most likely aggravate something along the way of trying to change things. This is where I like to find a "relief exercise" or "relief workout". In this article, I share with you some ideas of how to do this and also the most critical change you need to make when this happens.

I have covered the topic of back pain and in particular bulging disc injuries numerous times on my website as it is such a common injury that statistics show it is one of the most common injuries among people today. In 2009 1 in 7 Australians (13.6%) reported having serious back problems—that’s 3 million people! This injury can affect people of all ages and in recent times I have seen many teenagers suffering with this extremely painful and debilitating injury. The worst part about this is it can be prevented. If you are already suffering with this pain it can take considerable work to eliminate the pain for good and may require a multitude of exercises to find the right balance. Having said that for over 16 years of working with over a thousand different cases of bulging discs I have found I often resort to a few key exercises. The ones I use most can vary considerably from person to person in terms of which is more important and beneficial, but in most cases the following exercises I am about to explain in this article, are the ones that provide relief in the short term and get them out of chronic pain. There will be a stack of things to do as time goes on to eliminate the problem for good but these exercises provide the foundation to work upon without risk of more damage.

In one of my recent articles where I looked in detail the damaging effect diseases like Dementia and Alzheimer's are having on our society I shared several important statistics and facts about how serious and prevalent this disease is. I had many people tell me they were shocked at how common this problem is and how it is on a steady rise, yet it is barely given a mention in the media. This made me think about how many times I come across facts and statistics that are very similar to this in other areas relating to health and fitness. Often when I am writing these long and detailed articles for this newsletter about complex or controversial topics I spend lots of time researching books, medical journals, and relevant website sites to find facts that paint a picture of what is going on. Many times I am actually trying to find information that goes against my opinion to challenge my bias and see if there is a better way. During this process I come across some very interesting things that I never knew. Some are great trivia conversations but some are very important facts that if they were common knowledge they would make many people think more seriously about the damaging lifestyle habits they choose to do. This article I share with you some of the most interesting facts I uncovered over the years. I call this the "DID YOU KNOW" series! These facts are similar to the top 10 myths debunked article I wrote last year, except these are facts as opposed to beliefs or opinions. Enjoy.