Out of absolute necessity - this is why a desk warrior MUST prioritise his spine and core in his movement practice.

Yes, there are higher-order and more profound reasons to take your spine seriously, but necessity (out of safety) is the non-negotiable starting point.

Let me explain, or you risk the most undesirable fate - painful powerlessness.

Overview

In the hierarchy of movement layers, injury prevention comes first. Making sure that we CAN continue to move, before becoming concerned with HOW we continue to move.

The most dangerous threat to our physical freedom is physical injury, and back pain reigns supreme as our greatest nemesis of all possible injuries.

In simple terms, you are more likely to experience spinal injuries (including back pain) than every other injury, by far.

Even though you might not even be thirty yet, there is a good chance that you already know a bit about back pain from first-hand experience - which is crazy.

And, depending on how severe your experience with spinal injuries has been, you may or may not be aware of how depressingly debilitating they can be, the kind of disabling we must avoid at all costs.

Let’s look a bit deeper at what I’ve just said…

Spinal Injuries are Extremely Common (even if you think you don’t have one!)

"Low back pain is responsible for more global disability than any other condition." 2018 Global Burden of Disease Study [1]

"Low back pain is now the number one cause of disability globally." [2]

As I said, there is a good chance that you have already had your own back complaints. There is even a good chance that you have already been temporarily disabled by back pain.

And the craziest thing is, even if you haven’t had any back pain yet, there is a seven out of ten chance that you are walking straight towards an episode of back pain - almost everyone gets it. And these odds are only growing.

An Australian Burden of Disease Study reported that 70-90% of adults will experience lower back pain at some point in their lives, with 25% of them experiencing it in any given year 🤯 [3].

In another cross-sectional study of Brazilian adults, over any given one year period, 63.5% of the the adults would experience lower back pain, with an even higher prevalence among women [4].

So, how can we be so sure that you are almost certainly headed directly for back pain, even if you’ve never had it before?

Well, let’s focus on the most common spinal injury, the world's most common musculoskeletal problem, lower back pain, the leading cause of movement limitation and work absenteeism.

Back pain is sneaky, it’s probably right behind you

Most spinal injuries, including lower back pain, are progressively accumulative, they are the result of long-term cascades of repetitive damage, damage which builds up long before we know anything is happening.

Professor Stuart McGill, the world’s leading expert in the mechanical breakdown which causes lower back injury, has shown beyond any shadow of a doubt that lower back injuries are almost always the consequence of long-term repetitive insult, not the sudden event most people believe caused their back pain.

His research involved loading cadaveric spines with automated robotic machines, and computer simulations of spines under mechanical loading, to investigate the effects of repetitive loads on these structures.

He uses the analogy of a paper clip to explain what happens - how do you break a paper clip? You don’t try to snap it in one go, you bend it back and forth enough times until it suddenly and easily snaps! This turns out to be very similar to the process which causes most spinal breakdown.

So, if we acknowledge how common these injuries are, and that they are the result of long-term repetitive stresses, then, you have almost certainly already laid a solid foundation of wear and tear in the structures of your lower back. Simple mathematics, really.

The real sneaky factor is, most of the back-and-forth bending-induced deterioration which prepares our spine for injury, is very difficult to feel. The process of breakdown first unfolds in our spinal discs, which don’t have any nerves, but the moment they suddenly begin to snap (like the paperclip), then our muscles, bones, connective tissues, and spinal nerves get involved - then, we know all about it, and the pain suddenly becomes impossible to escape.

The cause is sitting and our extremely sedentary lives. It is that simple.

And no, sitting doesn’t directly cause pain or break our backs, it first destroys our motor patterns and weakens our structures, then, we break our own backs by moving harmfully, and with weakened spinal structures.

If you consider the research numbers on the prevalence of back pain, along with the extent of sitting in our lifestyles, it should paint a worrying picture.

And the last point I want to make, if you believe me when I say that sitting wrecks our movement quality and weakens certain structures, then think for a moment about what might happen if you engage in a lot of physical activity. Increased movement can become a huge risk factor because our basic functionality has been disturbed. Instead of healing you, your movement can become your poison.

In summary, you should now appreciate that lower back pain and spinal injuries, are almost certainly unavoidable unless you do something profound to avoid them. However, this is only half of the picture - it is not enough to know that you will almost certainly experience lower back injury, if you haven’t already.

No, you need to appreciate how depressing and debilitating back pain can be. It ranks right at the top, podium position, as one of the most undesirable injuries to live with. Let me paint this picture for you as best I can.

How bad is it really?

If you’ve never had back pain, those who have would argue that you haven’t experienced real pain yet - it is insanely intense, and it makes everything miserable - the central core of your physical being is crippled in discomfort - every single movement aggravates, and nothing seems to give much relief for very long.

To put it simply, nerve pain in the back is a monster.

In fact, I have worked with dozens, if not hundreds of clients, who initially proudly stated that they would NEVER subject their body to such debaucherous carpentry as a spinal surgery.

However, if we (they) did not make big enough changes (mainly to their sitting lifestyles), they would naturally deteriorate and start to feel like they have a constant migraine in their whole body.

Lying down hurt, standing up hurt, and transitioning between hurt even more, breathing hurt, and coughing and sneezing felt downright dangerous.

Painkillers stopped working. Nerve blockers didn’t last long. Every massage, needle, injection, and potion they could find, stopped touching sides.

They would be reduced to a state of such weakness that their identity would be shattered - weak, miserable, dependent, and maybe worst of all, hopeless.

THEN, these same people that swore to never consent to the harms of spinal carpentry, dropped to their knees and begged for it - anything that had even the slightest chance of taking the pain away, anything to get a semblance of their previous life back.

But wait, there’s more…

Regrettably, if this isn’t sad enough, the story often took a turn for the worst, because surgery doesn’t fix the root cause.

There is no stopping the law of cause and effect. If you do not stop the harmful actions, the harmful results must persist.

Remember, the real problem and root cause of back pain is dysfunctional movement on weak structures (both of which come from sitting).

Can surgery correct movement and restore structural integrity? No. In fact, surgery often makes them worse. So what happens?

When someone gets surgery—be it spinal fusion, discectomy (removal of part of a spinal disc), or laminectomy (removal of tissue and bone surrounding the nerve)—to alleviate pain or fuse a disc, research has shown that their back pain is most likely to worsen over time, or at the very least recur.

What is not sufficiently acknowledged is, the persistence of back pain is not because it is an unavoidably progressive condition, but rather because we do not sufficiently address the root cause, movement dysfunction.

Then, no matter what treatment is applied, if our movement dysfunction (the causes) remains un-revolutionised, then our results (the effects) will remain un-revolutionised.

As time goes on, the damage must progress.

If a laminectomy or discectomy is performed, it may progress to necessitating fusion.

If one disc is fused, the adjacent disc will likely deteriorate, and eventually also ‘need’ a fusion.

One fusion can lead to two, then three, and more, creating an ongoing escalation of pain and surgery.

Back pain seems infinite in its ability to worsen and intensify, with no end to the misery it can cause.

So what?

If this sounds morbid, it is - I want you to feel some of what I feel towards back pain, after working with hundreds of people who have suffered through it.

These have been people like you and I; desk warriors, gym bunnies, yogis, CrossFit fanatics, and every kind of go-getter. Not demons or devils, but well-intentioned people that never got the support they desperately needed, and couldn’t possibly know better.

It’s not pretty. And no one is immune.

However, as morbid as this sounds, there is an inverse possibility available. If our actions are the cause of such great suffering, then, we need nothing more than to change our own actions to lead us to massive positive change.

By taking responsibility, no need to pray or pay for anything beyond us, by acknowledging the power we have to harm ourselves, we access the power to heal ourselves. This is the power of taking responsibility.

We have a way out, a way which is well within our grasp - it is US, and OUR actions. And because of these facts, there is always hope.

But there is no shortcut. For things to change, well, things must change.

Don’t wait until your freedom is gone to realise how precious it is, and how much you ‘would’ do to keep it. Take responsibility right now.

Lower back injury is the epitome of powerlessness. It rips all of our life force, physically and mentally. No one escapes. From impact, to play, to sexuality, all your freedom can be stripped from you.

A Desk Warrior makes damn sure that this is not his fate. Everything he has to offer himself, his loved ones, and the world, will be throttled more than he ever would have guessed, by back pain. It is our duty, first and foremost, to make darn sure we take responsibility for our actions, and not let our ignorance and carelessness and avoidance of taking responsibility, lead us to this outcome.

The very first reason you and I prioritise developing our cores is to prevent this painfully debilitating future. We are on a mission to generate power, physically and psychologically. Back pain could be a synonym for powerlessness.

B.K.S. Iyengar, a renowned yoga teacher: "Healthy spine, healthy body. When you focus on proper alignment and spinal health, the rest of the body follows."

Sitting

Despite all this evidence, the link between sitting and lower back pain is still completely underrated in academic literature. The academic research tends to focus on direct, first-order causes and effects, leaving the indirect, yet profound impacts of chronic and excessive sitting largely overlooked. Indeed, the evidence directly linking sitting as a causative factor for back pain may appear weak, but the reality is that prolonged sitting first induces structural weakness and neuromotor deficiencies, which, in turn, are significant contributors to back pain and various other injuries.

The "sit less, move more" mantra is a simple yet effective strategy to mitigate these risks. But for many, this is easier said than done. With the majority of our work, transportation, and leisure activities requiring us to be seated, reversing the impact of sitting requires a concerted effort and a dedicated approach.

Between 70-90% of adults will experience lower back pain at some point in their lives, and sitting is the most prominent risk factor for this. For every moment that you sit, the strain on your lower back increases. The first question that comes to mind is: why are so many people dealing with this issue? The answer is that many are unaware of the risks, and those who are aware often don’t know what to do about it.

Sitting is a huge risk factor, especially given the increase in desk jobs and the rise of technology. It's a cumulative problem - the more time you spend sitting, the more your body's structures weaken and your movement patterns are disturbed. This isn't something that happens overnight, but rather, it's a long-term effect of constant, passive pressure on the lower back.

In my work as a clinical exercise therapist, I started to see remarkable results in my patients when I began implementing protocols specifically aimed at reversing sitting-induced structural weakness and neuromotor deficiencies. Prioritising the reversal of these sitting-induced issues yielded significant improvements in my patients' back pain.

This is where the Unsit Your Back (UYB) protocol comes in. Born from refined versions of these initial protocols, the UYB protocol is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide designed to reverse the effects of chronic sitting on the lower back. It incorporates effective strategies and exercises that I have developed and improved upon over years of experience in this field.

Someone who completes the UYB protocol will confidently pass the following tests.

Spine Safety Self-Check

The only person I would believe isn’t primed for a lower back explosion, is someone who:

1. hasn’t had any lower back pain symptom for at least two years,
2. has put a lot of energy into rewiring their entire torso motor patterns
3. has revolutionised their relationship with sitting - something Professor McGill, and now I, call spine hygiene
4. can lift heavy objects safely and confidently

You have a long way to go until you are in the clear, if you can’t answer yes to these four basic requirements:

To not feel back pain symptoms for a long period requires fully optimising how we use, and load our spines. It also means that we have fully recovered from all long term inflammation and irritation - this doesn’t happen overnight.

To completely rewire your spinal motor patterns towards safety, requires a focused and intelligent movement practice, which needs to be executed with a complete focus on quality, for long enough to rewire a life of bad habits.

To revolutise your relationship with sitting, to master spine hygiene, requires reducing how much you sit, and improving how you sit. There are many aspects to this, and it involves many of the activities we do all day every day. Think standing desks especially.

To lift a heavy object confidently, especially if you have had back pain before, requires making massive progress on the previous three steps, and is a direct benchmark of how much skill you have developed to use your spine for basic tasks.

By these metrics, most people do not impress me at all. I promise you, once you experience the difference, you will agree with me, but trust me for now.

Conclusion

If this information speaks to you, and you feel like you want to avoid back pain by revolutionising your spinal structures and movement, I created the UnSit Your Back (UYB) protocol for this precise reason. You can find more at craigvan.com - the entire UYB self-guided protocol is completely free at the moment.

Please dont make the universe beat you into submission before you learn the lesson of how precious your movement and physical freedom are. I have gone through almost a dozen episodes of different injuries, some completely disabling, to reach a state of deep respect for the consequences of my actions, and for the impact my movement choices have on me.

Ken Schramm — 'A smart person learns from his mistakes, but a truly wise person learns from the mistakes of others.'

The Tale of the Tortoise

Once, in an era of haste and fleeting triumphs, there was a vigorous hare and a deliberate tortoise. In this world dominated by quick fixes and immediate gratification, the hare was the darling of the realm. His lightning speed symbolized the allure of fast results, the comfort of temporary solutions.

One day, the hare, swollen with pride, challenged the tortoise to a race. Everyone laughed. The tortoise was slow, meticulous, a seemingly outdated embodiment of the past. In the face of instant remedies, what use was his steady perseverance?

The race began. The hare sprinted, leaving the tortoise far behind. Confident of his victory, he rested, surrendering himself to the bliss of temporary comfort. The tortoise, on the other hand, moved with the rhythm of nature itself, unwavering and purposeful.

The hare woke to find his race lost, his pride shattered. He had underestimated the quiet power of perseverance, the strength in consistency, and the virtue in patience.

In the face of life's most persistent ailments, like the back pain caused by our modern sedentary lives, it's not the hasty solutions that prevail. It's the deliberate, steady, and often slow journey of lifestyle adjustments, of mindful movements, of a consistent commitment to our well-being.

As the tortoise crosses the finish line, the moral of his tale echoes through time, offering wisdom in the face of our quick-fix culture: "Slow and steady wins the race."

References

[1] Hartvigsen, J., Hancock, M. J., Kongsted, A., Louw, Q., Ferreira, M. L., Genevay, S., ... & Koes, B. W. (2018). What low back pain is and why we need to pay attention. Lancet, 391(10137), 2356-2367.

[2] Maher, C., Underwood, M., & Buchbinder, R. (2017). Non-specific low back pain. Lancet, 389(10070), 736-747.

[3] Vos, T., Flaxman, A. D., Naghavi, M., Lozano, R., Michaud, C., Ezzati, M., ... & Abraham, J. (2012). Years lived with disability (YLDs) for 1160 sequelae of 289 diseases and injuries 1990-2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet, 380(9859), 2163-2196.

[4] Meucci, R. D., Fassa, A. G., & Faria, N. M. X. (2015). Prevalence of chronic low back pain: systematic review. Revista de Saúde Pública, 49, 1-10.