Gray Cook told me that years ago during an SFMA course, but apparently, I needed a painful reminder.
I’ve been dealing with this nagging, chronic left-sided low back pain for a while now. Being the "Modern Manual Therapy" guy, I threw the absolute kitchen sink at it:
Dry Needling 📍
Shockwave Therapy ⚡
Specific loading & trunk rotation 🏋️♂️
General tissue work 💆♂️
Everything gave me transient relief—maybe a 1 to 4 out of 10 improvement—but nothing stuck.
Finally, I decided to stop overcomplicating it. I went back to basics. I checked my Repeated Extension in Standing (REIS).
The result? It was stiff. It was blocked. It was painful. But after 10-15 reps? The pain melted away.
I was so busy looking for the "fancy" fix that I missed the huge sagittal plane block right in front of me.
In this episode of Untold Physio Stories, Dr. Sean Wells and I break down why physical therapists make the worst patients. Sean shares his own recent battle with acute back pain where he had to put his ego aside, get on oral steroids, and let a colleague dry needle him to break the cycle.
The Takeaway: Pain is an emotional and sensory experience. You cannot be objective about your own body. Whether you are a new grad or have been practicing for 20 years—get an outside set of eyes.