Mission: Save Backs, Save Lives, Save Resources
Most people will experience back pain sometime in their lives. Ninety percent will recover without
any treatment or with conservative (exercise) treatment in four to six weeks. Five percent will
remain disabled longer than three months. Another five percent may seek surgery
(Source: Mayo Clinic).
In spite of these facts when back pain strikes, too many times people are offered surgery
as a solution to end their pain. This is especially true when they seek relief from orthopaedic
surgeons and clinics.
Without proper knowledge and driven by pain which is often severe, people agree to surgery and
many end up ruining the rest of their lives (Failed Back Syndrome). There have been 660,000 back surgeries
in 2009 in the US, and the numbers continue to rise. At $60,000 - $100,000 per surgery, that is $40 - $66 Billion
(Source: Businessweek). If this was the cost of good outcomes we could swallow hard and say that’s what it has
to be. In too many cases this represents the cost of only the first steps to a life declining in quality. More
surgery, pain, suffering and financial ruin will follow for far too many.
What many people and even practitioners don’t know is that the back has amazing recuperative
powers. Even in conditions where there are broken vertebrae and ruptured discs pressing on
nerves causing severe pain and numbness, the back has the ability to recover and restore itself
to a fully functional, pain-free condition. Without surgery, without drugs, without chiropractors, without
costly and time-consuming physical therapists. There is good evidence that fully one-half, or 330,000
surgeries could have been prevented just by using the PFB.
PFB: Self-Managed Back Exercise Program
The heart of the program is a set of thirty-eight exercises. Most are performed lying on a mat and
are very easy for almost everyone. They are done once a day in the person’s own home. Ten
repetitions of each exercise are done as shown. If the person’s initial condition makes it too difficult,
fewer reps can be done until condition improves. After two weeks or so, number of repetitions can be
cut back to five, and exercises can be done every other day. The body will signal its needs and its condition
as it goes. More pain--more exercise; less pain--slack off.
The goal of these exercises is to tone, balance, and adjust all of the muscle, tendon, and ligament
groups surrounding the spine and extending into all other areas of the body. Once that is achieved,
usually in a few weeks, all of the individual parts of the spine will find themselves supported and
in proper alignment. The person will feel changes in their lower back and some lifting of the pain
almost immediately. By a few weeks time all pain will usually be gone replaced with a feeling
of a strong and pain-resistant torso and back.
For chronic conditions which caused pain over many years the recovery may take longer, but the
lessening pain and increasing strength will provide promise and encouragement to continue.
Even if you start this program with skepticism and thoughts of surgery, those thoughts
will quickly change when you begin to feel relief from pain.
The exercises are designed to be safe for anyone to use and will not aggravate existing conditions.
If there is increased pain felt when doing a particular exercise, you may skip that exercise and come
back to it after your back improves.
After back pain disappears, most people will gradually stop doing the exercises. That is
human nature, and it’s ok. Once good conditioning has been achieved, very little maintenance will
be needed to keep it in optimum shape. If your back needs attention as result of physical activity
from gardening, moving furniture, or sitting at a desk for prolonged periods of time, the person will
be notified by starting to feel a little pain. Pulling out the exercise mat for a few days will end all pain
and good condition will be restored. This cycle can be repeated at any time on an as-needed basis.
People have been led to believe that to have a fix you must have drugs, devices, imaging,
and lots of M.D’s. Nothing short of a bloody, busy surgery performed by a team of perspiring doctors
will make them believe that something can be fixed, quietly, gently, and invisibly. Especially not
when their back is screaming with pain. Even more unbelievable: they can do it themselves!
That is exactly how PFB works. It doesn't treat the symptoms but focuses on the root causes of
back pain. Not the protruding herniated disc that is pressing on the nerves and causing pain,
and not the misaligned vertebrae causing the disc to herniate and protrude, but the complex
arrangement of muscles, tendons, and ligaments that hold all of the moving parts in perfect
relationships to each other and to the whole.
The most amazing part of it is how easily and with how little effort and time everything goes back
into order and pain vanishes. The PFB is a totally comprehensive product that will help you produce the
desired result, each time, every time. It has been used by thousands over more than thirty years and
outcomes have ranged from great to astonishing.
It can be prescribed as a complete product with confidence and knowing that results will be
produced, and expectations will be met, if not exceeded. It can be a powerful instrument, saving backs,
saving lives, and saving resources.
What To Do When Back Pain Strikes
You may have been familiar with the PFB before back pain strikes. Chances are you paid little or no
attention. No one does. Now that you are in serious pain there is urgency to find relief.
Remember, the clinic does NOT have to be your first stop! Step ONE should be the PFB.
You can immediately begin the program without having stepped into the doctor’s offices. If you happen
to see a doctor first, make sure that as part of their initial evaluation you discuss the PFB exercise
program as your first step toward recovery. Do not allow any diagnostic tests to be ordered before
you had a chance to try the PFB.
If that is later seen as not sufficient, other steps can follow.
There will always be time for that, even though the pain seems to be telling you otherwise.
Most backs can be made well and maintained in top shape using only the PFB. It is not only
the best option, it is really the ONLY option, when you understand that spine surgery really doesn't
fix anything. It may only alleviate the symptoms for a while, but the damage to your spine and body by any
surgical procedure will be permanent. Only in cases of severe trauma caused by injury or disease
should spine surgery ever be considered.
How do the exercises work?
The spine is made up many individual parts that fit together in very intricate ways. There are
vertebra made of bone with spacers of cartilage. The spacers act as shock absorbers. A large
thick bundle of nerves runs down from the brain to the bottom of the spine. The bundle runs
through a space in each vertebrae and exits along the way to various organs and extremities.
This collection of parts is held together by ligaments, tendons, and muscles which allow
movement and flexibility, and also restrict range of motion.
All of the muscles, tendons, and ligaments have to maintain perfect balance between sets and
pairs. These muscles lose condition and tone for the same reasons that our leg, arm, or
abdominal muscles get out of shape from inactivity. When there is a sudden demand made to lift,
push, pull, or twist, some of the weaker muscles or tendons can be injured, causing pain and
inflammation. If the muscles are too weak to keep the bones in proper alignment, some ligaments
may stretch and allow instability between joints.
Instability in the spine can cause some of the vertebrae to move in unintended ways and cause
injury to the discs, rupturing the outer coverings and squeezing the softer inside mass out, where
it can put pressure on the nerve bundle. This results in nerve damage and pain.
The PFB exercises work on all of the hundreds of muscles in very specific ways to condition and restore
balance. Toned muscles provide the support to the bones and take pressure off the ligaments,
allowing them to return to their intended length and restore stability. Pressure is also relieved on
the ruptured discs allowing them to retreat or at least to take the pressure off the nerves,
and stop the pain.
After forty years of continual use by hundreds of people, the evidence is in: surgery can be eliminated in
many if not most incidences of back pain, and backs can be maintained in good, pain-free condition, with the
PFB self-managed back exercise program.
THE EXERCISES
All you need is a clear space on the floor and an exercise mat or blanket and a 3 or 3 1/2 foot long wooden
dowel or pvc water pipe (1" - 1 3/8" diameter).
Begin by performing 10 repetitions of each movement. If pain is too great on any particular exercise, skip, and
do the next exercise. You can try again next time. Do as much as you can without too much strain. Inhale at the
beginning of each move and exhale while returning to your original position. Continue doing the exercises once
each day, even after all of the pain has gone, to maintain your back. But you can reduce repetitions to six.
LYING ON BACK WITH ARMS AT SIDES:
1. Breathe rhythmically. Relax.
2. Move hands and feet up and down.
3. Rotate hands and feet inside to outside.
4. Rub one leg with opposite foot from toes to over knee as far as possible. Alternate.
5. Swivel hips loosely on floor.
6. Swivel shoulders.
7. Lift knee toward chin while lifting head. Do not use hands. Alternate.
8. Stretch out with left leg and right arm in an “X” fashion. Alternate.
9. Rub butt on floor sideways and back and forth with knees up (should feel warm.)
10. Arch up your back keeping shoulders on floor.
11. Pull feet up to body and back with knees spread apart in “Frog Fashion.”
12. Lift one leg straight up, then the other. Do not bend knees.
13. Lift legs up alternately making large circles out and back in close to floor.
14. Lift one leg slightly, then the other. Spread apart, bring together, and down. Alternate.
15. Lift legs up together. Lower in scissors fashion.
16. Lift legs up together. Lower slowly.
17. Bicycle both legs forward. Reach as far out as possible. Bicycle backward.
18. Bring bent knees up towards chest. Extend arms out on floor. Swing knees to one side and
arms to the other, stretching gently. Alternate sides.
LYING ON RIGHT SIDE WITH RIGHT ARM UNDER HEAD:
1. Pull left knee toward chin and return. Keep back straight.
2. Lift both legs together off floor.
3. Pull left knee toward chin and return stretching left arm overhead.
LYING ON LEFT SIDE WITH LEFT ARM UNDER HEAD: REPEAT ABOVE 3 STEPS.
LYING ON STOMACH:
1. Lift both arms off floor. Keep elbows bent.
2. Lift straight legs alternately keeping hips on floor.
3. Pull knees up alternately along floor in frog fashion.
4. Reach hands and feet out. Stretch.
5. Lift both legs slightly, spread apart, bring together, and down.
6. Lift same side leg and arm keeping hips on floor. Alternate.
ON HANDS AND KNEES:
1. Reach out with right arm and left leg simultaneously. Alternate.
2. Pull one knee toward opposite side arm. Alternate.
3. Sit on heels, reach arms forward. Stretch.
STANDING HOLDING POLE:
1. Grasp pole with both hands (about 18" apart). Reach forward, up over your head,
down your back, up, forward to front, and down.
2. Still holding pole, swing gently to one side, then the other.
3. Hold pole with one hand. Twirl with wrist back and forth. Alternate.
STANDING:
1. With feet apart and hands on hips, shift weight to one slightly bent knee, then up and back to
the other leg in a rocking motion.
2. Walk around on heels, toes, outside edges of feet, inside edges of feet.
3. Walk around lifting knees toward chin as high as possible.
4. With feet apart, reach for the ceiling.
5. Hang on door (fold up a towel and drape over top of door to protect hands). Keep back straight,
head tucked into shoulders, knees on door. Relax your back and feel your spine decompress.
HOORAY! You are done.
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