My Back Pain Journey: what every runner should know

And how, hopefully, I'm on the road to recovery - and heading back to the mountains

In November last year, I paid £300 to have an MRI scan of my back. It had been a long time coming - fifteen years of on and off suffering from lower back pain, which, recently, became more 'on’ than ‘off’.

I hadn’t exactly ignored it, but lived in hope it would go away. Ten years ago, aged 40, I went to my GP to ask if anything could be done. He raised one eyebrow, shrugged, and said, “Men of your age, it’s to be expected.” So, I continued as usual, consoling myself that I was reasonably fit for my age.

Then, after hiking the Tour of Monte Rosa last summer, entropy took its course. What was previously an inconvenience became debilitating. I was in constant pain, whether sitting or standing. And for the first time, it interfered with my job as an environmental consultant. When doing site audits, the only way I could bend down to inspect something was to kneel on the floor. I had to ask clients to lift the lid of the skips. When writing reports back at home, my head spun, either from pain or painkillers. I started making mistakes.

Things were no better outside of work. I’d kneel on the floor to unstack the dishwasher and keep my back ramrod straight when standing up. I dreaded going around to friends ’ houses in case I had to sit on a sofa with no back support. Chairs in pubs were agony. Standing still for any length of time, like looking at a painting in an art gallery, was impossible. I couldn’t bend over to hug my mum. And when my wife and I were on holiday, I’d often sleep on my camping mat on the floor because the mattress on the bed was too soft, leaving me without sleep. Worst of all, I started contemplating never going backpacking again.

So, in desperation, I searched the internet for help. I had the impression that private healthcare was all about millionaires swanning around health farms in Switzerland, paying thousands of pounds for rehab or a facelift. But reality turned out to be more prosaic. One Monday afternoon, I drove 15 minutes to our local retail park and hobbled across the car park to a jumble of porta-cabins signed ‘TESLA’ (fortunately, nothing to do with Elon). A friendly receptionist ran me through a questionnaire to check I wasn’t housing any internal metal parts that would be ripped out of my body by the magnets, before handing me over to a radiologist in the next room. Less than an hour later, the scan was complete. The radiologist was surprised that I fell asleep inside the scanner.

That same evening, I received an email with my results: “Throughout the lumbar spine, there is mild disc and facet degeneration, with moderate degeneration and disk desiccation at L5-S1 level with a small herniation”.

It sounded bad, but not disastrous. Hopefully not life-changing, but then my life had already changed. And for the worse.

My scan report helpfully recommended NEXT STEPS, which, in short, were:

1. Physiotherapy (most important step)

2. Activity and posture management

3. Pain management (if needed)

4. Consider a pain specialist or spinal specialist if your pain severely limits daily activity

5. Lifestyle / long-term strategies such as pilates, weight management, if relevant, ergonomic improvement at home, and regular low-impact exercise.

After a couple of weeks of moping about and prevarication, I made an appointment with a physiotherapist, called Mo Motion. Seriously. I nervously waited in reception, fingering my scan results, wondering if she would be able help, or just write me off in the same way the doctor did ten years ago.

After reviewing my results, examining my back, having me perform several different movements, and asking questions, she told me something totally unexpected and revelatory: “You hardly have any muscles in your back!” She didn’t phrase it in exactly that way, but the information was clear - I’d been compensating for my bad back for so long I’d effectively ceased to use it. Every time I needed to bend over, I either did a squat or knelt down. Great leg muscles, but if I ever did use my back, it was like trying to run a marathon with no training. What’s more surprising is that I had no idea I even had muscles in my back, let alone how to strengthen them. Earlier, when she asked me to bend over, I countered, saying, “Aren’t you supposed to bend your knees, not your back? That’s what I was taught in Health and Safety training.”

The implication was clear, and it was relatively good news. If I did back-strengthening exercises daily, my muscles would improve, taking the strain off my degraded spine. But, that was a BIG if for a runner who hates gyms, warming up or exercising indoors. My wife calls me ‘her greyhound’.

But knowing I had so much to lose, I did what I was told, and I’ve stuck to those exercises nearly every day for the last three months. It helped having all the facts in the form of the MRI scan results. This left no doubt in my mind: the cause had been diagnosed, and the effort would be worth it. Perhaps most importantly, I knew the exercises wouldn’t make any hidden problem worse.

Since then, the improvement in my back has been almost miraculous. I can stand, sit and lie down pain-free, except for occasional mild sciatica. The other day, I had to sit on a stool for two hours at work while interviewing someone, and I could feel those new muscles in my back doing their job, supporting my spine. There have been countless small changes: I now deliberately bend my back when emptying the dishwasher; I no longer feel the need to wear an uncomfortable back brace, something Mo Motion was vehemently against; and I’m totally off the painkillers. What’s more, I’ve started making concrete plans for my next backpacking trip this summer: walking from Newcastle to Glasgow. Hooray! And thanks to Mo and Tesla Radiology Solutions for your help.

I wrote this blog to offer hope to anyone in the same position I was in. After receiving appropriate medical advice and discounting anything more serious, it really is worth sticking to the physiotherapy exercises, as they can change your life. I’m planning to continue with them indefinitely. For me, they look like this:

My routine takes between 15-30 minutes per day, depending on how much time I have, and I play upbeat music loudly to counteract the boredom:

1. General warm-up - dancing

2. Standing up - bend over - touch your toes x10

3. Standing up - rotate body to left and right with hand out x10

4. Lie on back - press lower spine into the floor x10 (possibly the most important exercise here)

5. Lie on back - slowly raise bum into the air and hold x10

6. Lie on back - cycle feet in air x10

7. On hands and knees - cat cow stretch x10 (very gently, not raising neck)

8. On hands and knees - what I call superman, stretch out alternate arm and leg and hold x10

9. Squats x5 - I focus on the ‘down’ part of the squat, holding for some time

10. Stand against wall, with back to wall, knees bent and hold (gradually increase time)

I’ve also started doing gentle dumbbell exercises for my arms, something I’ve never done before, using light, 3kg weights. This will help with lifting my backpack.

Good luck!