“The pain started about two years ago. Recently it has got to the point where it’s not just training — it’s interfering with my work… Until now I kept going to a local seitai clinic and somehow getting by, but this time the pain felt different. I wanted to fix it from the root.”
Mr A, a man in his 20s who works in the restaurant industry, had spent about ten years working in a physically demanding job while also keeping up weight training to stay healthy. For about two years, though, his lower back had been hurting.
The patient
- Age / sex: 20s, male
- Work: restaurant industry (about 10 years in a physically demanding workplace)
- Hobby: weight training
- Problem: dull pain across the pelvis and just above it (both sides of the lower back) for about two years; worst when arching the back and when lifting heavy objects
- History: played football (soccer) as a student
His symptoms and movement checks
His main symptom was a dull pain from the pelvis to just above it, across both sides of the lower back. It showed up most strongly in two movements: arching the back, and lifting something heavy. It was affecting not only daily life and work, but also the weight training he enjoyed — and his motivation was dropping with it.
Checking the fascia
Fascia loses its glide through past injuries, postural habits and movement quirks, and that can cause pain and poor movement. In Mr A’s case, with the influence of his student football years in the background, fascial stiffness was found not only in his lower back but also from his knees down to his calves — some distance from where the pain was.
The course of treatment
First session. After the stiff fascia was worked on, the pain eased to about half.
Second session. Some discomfort remained, but the pain in everyday movements was down to a level he barely noticed.
Third session. The symptoms had almost resolved, and he happily reported: “I’ve been able to start training again!” He still visits regularly for maintenance, to help prevent a recurrence.
In Mr A’s case, the pain appeared in the lower back, but that was not the whole story: it seems likely that the fascial stiffness reaching into his knees and calves was creating the load on his lower back.
Do any of these sound familiar?
- A lower back that somehow always feels heavy or painful
- No improvement from poultices or stretching
- Wanting to exercise, but not being able to
- Pain that stops you concentrating on work or your hobbies
These may be caused by fascial stiffness. Even chronic pain that has not improved anywhere else may show a way forward when approached through the fascia.
In summary
Looking back at Mr A’s case, the following factors seem to have built up into his fascial problem:
- The chronic load of restaurant work
- His sporting history since his student days
- Localized load from weight training
These accumulated over time and eventually appeared as pain. At this clinic, we place importance on searching the whole body for the fascia causing the problem — not only treating the place where the symptoms are — and working to improve it from there.
“This pain will never get better” — in not a few cases, pain you have given up on like that does change. Let’s take back your sport, your work, and your everyday life as it should be.
This clinic is not a medical institution. Individual results vary; this article describes one person’s course. If you have concerning symptoms, please consult a medical institution.