Building Resilience: The Back and Beyond

This chapter explores a comprehensive training routine focused on developing a strong back while emphasizing core stability and injury prevention. It combines personal experiences and historical fitness practices to highlight effective techniques for enhancing athletic performance, particularly neck strength. The chapter also discusses the balance between endurance and resistance training, as well as the impact of genetics on physical abilities, culminating in a tribute to the importance of public fitness education.

Transcript

chevron_right

Play full episode

chevron_right

Transcript

Episode notes

In this episode, my guest is Dr. Stuart McGill, Ph.D., a distinguished professor emeritus of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo and a world expert on spine anatomy and physiology, back pain, and rehabilitation. We discuss the most common sources of back pain, how back pain can be assessed (including self-assessment techniques), and how to design a personalized recovery plan to reduce back pain.

We discuss how to train for lifelong fitness, reduce injury risk, and protect your back and joints based on your age and personal goals. We also discuss how to prevent back pain, build core stability, and explain how “McGill’s Big 3” exercises protect and strengthen the back. Dr. McGill, who is exceptionally fit in his late 60s, describes his low-time investment, personal training routine, and the specific exercises he uses for mobility, strength, and cardiovascular fitness.

We also discuss controversial issues in the back pain and rehabilitation field, including how pain originates, the biopsychosocial model of pain, and treatments such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP). This episode provides clear, actionable tools to strengthen, prevent, and remedy back pain and injury so you can be pain-free while enjoying sports, exercise, and daily activities at any age.

Access the full show notes for this episode at hubermanlab.com.

Watch the clip on back pain relief and spine anatomy that accompanies this episode.

Demonstration of The McGill Method