Low back surgery is the last resort everyone hopes to avoid for chronic low back pain. It’s invasive, expensive, and shockingly ineffective. Yet Over 1.2 million low back surgeries are performed yearly in the U.S, costing patients and the healthcare system $12+ billion annually. The kicker? Only 60% of spinal fusion patients reported improvement, while 1 in 4 see no change, or even worse pain resulting in more surgeries.
- Spinal fusions average $115,000, yet 45% of patients are dissatisfied
- Discectomies average $35,000, yet 35% see no lasting relief
This isn’t about blaming surgeons, it’s a wake up call. The real solution? Evidence based conservative care. Not just chiropractic adjustments, but a science backed blend of manual therapy, exercise, passive therapies, and cognitive behavioral strategies. Here’s how it outperforms surgery and how I help patients heal without the scalpel.
Phase 1: Low Back Pain Relief. Calm the Alarm & Rebuild Confidence
Pain isn’t just a physical sensation. It hijacks your mood, relationships, and even your worldview. And here’s the critical truth. Pain doesn’t equal tissue damage. You can have a normal MRI (no herniated discs, no arthritis) and still be in agony, or have a spine that looks trashed on the imaging yet feel zero pain. This is why so many back surgeries fail. They’re fixing the wrong problem.
Step one? Reduce pain to break the cycle. This builds trust, opens doors to other treatments, and most importantly gives hope. But relief isn’t one size fits all. For some, bending triggers pain yet for others, it’s arching backwards. This is where my job comes in to crack (chiro pun) your unique code.
- Is bending painful because your spine can’t move enough?
- Or because it’s moving too much?
My Top Pain
- Spinal Manipulations: Like oiling a rusty hinge to restore smooth movement
- Electrical Stimulation: Hitting the mute button for pain signals
- Spinal Decompression: Gently creates space between vertebrae to relieve pressure
- Ergonomics: Simple tweaks to stop daily reinjury (chair height, desk setup, etc…)
- CBT Techniques: Proving your not broken by highlighting wins and progress
This phase takes 1-2 weeks, with 1-3 visits weekly. The goal is less pain and more control. Now let’s move to Phase 2
Phase 2: Building Low Back Pain Tissue Tolerance: Rewiring Your Pain System
After injury, your body stays on high alert, similar to a smoke detector that won’t stop after burning something in the oven. Structurally you’ve healed, but:
- Normal movements still trigger pain (false alarms)
- Avoidance of normal movements leads to stiffness, which then leads to more pain, and then more avoidance. This is a vicious cycle that must be broken
- This explains why chronic back pain often comes with “normal” MRI’s
In Phase 2, we gradually retrain your brain to recognize safe movement using:
- Spinal Manipulations: releases tension on joints stuck in protection mode
- Dry Needling: Shuts down hyperactive muscle trigger points (think pulling the plug on your internet router)
- Instrument Assisted Myofascial Release: cupping/scraping to desensitize tissue at a tolerable pressure (no pain, no gain is horse sh*t)
This phase isn’t about pushing through the pain, it’s about strategic and graded exposure.
- We start with non-painful challenges
- Increase demand only when your body says “yes
- Celebrate when previously painful movements become easy
The timeline for this phase overlaps with Phase 1 a lot, lowering pain and lowering sensitivity go hand in hand. Pain does clear up a little bit quicker than sensitivity in most cases, so Phase 2 is 1-4 weeks (overlaps with Phase 1) and 1-3 visits per week. We want to make life feel normal again as we enter into Phase 3 to build resilience.
Phase 3: Building Low Back Pain Resilience & Where Real Freedom Begins
Now that you’re out of pain and your nervous system isn’t overreacting, we forge a back that can handle life’s demands. This is the phase that gets you off the pain rollercoaster for good. Here’s why:
- Stronger Tissues: higher pain threshold, science shows strength cuts injury recurrence risk by 60%
- Progressive Overload: this isn’t just for bodybuilding, it’s also how your discs, tendons, and ligaments adapt
- Velocity Training: it’s not just for athletes, most rehab misses it, and it matters as much as how much you lift
The Anti-Fragile Back Protocol
- Strength That Actually Transfers
- Not just core work, but the pattern you use daily (lifting kids, twisting in your car, etc…)
- Velocity Training (The Game-Changer)
- Slow lifts build strength, but speed work (e.g., swings, drops, catches) teaches your spine to handle real world forces.
- Endurance for the Long Haul
- Marathon, not a sprint. We build capacity so you don’t fall apart after one busy weekend.
Phase 3 sounds great but often fails without phases 1 & 2. Strengthening an irritated nervous system is a recipe for flaring pain. Strengthening requires hitting the “Goldilocks Zone,” where you are overloading enough to produce change while not overloading too much to cause problems. Irritated tissues make this zone very small and easy to miss. Loading unstable movement patterns may just reinforce compensations, continuing the problem. This is why “just go lift” advice doesn’t work for chronic pain patients. This final phase takes the longest at 4-8 weeks, and usually consists of appointments once every two weeks alongside a home program.
The Low Back Pain Struggle: Client Success Story
One of my patients, a 60 year old school teacher, was at his breaking point. Despite multiple injections and months of physical therapy, his low back pain made standing longer than 20 minutes unbearable. Even simple tasks, like mowing the yard and gardening, left him agony. The next option was a spinal fusion, but he was skeptical. The emotional toll was weighing as well, as he was feeling very helpless that this was never going to end and this was his new life.
Most of the providers focused on his spine and his degenerated and arthritic lumbar spine, but my evaluation revealed some different culprits.
- Severely restricted left hip rotation
- Hyper-irritated trigger points in his glute (which re-created sciatic pain down his leg)
- Compensatory patterns from years of guarding
The Turnaround: Phase 1
- Dry needling to calm down the trigger points
- Myofascial release to restore hip motion
- Spinal manipulation to alleviate the low back pain
- After two weeks he had 50% improvement in his pain and was able to get through work with less pain meds
Phase 2
- Added in bridging and hinging exercises for glutes and hamstring
- Added in some self myofascial release exercises for at work and home
- No traditional “core” exercises (he already did most them prior to seeing me)
- By one month following treatment he was working like normal and able to do most of his yard work and gardening (with some restrictions and breaks)
Phase 3
- Progressed the exercises to more advanced variations (including swings, etc..)
- Gradually reintroduced him to physical fitness (gardening, lawn care, etc…)
- By eight weeks after starting with me, he was able to work and do his normal activities with no restrictions or avoiding activities.
The takeaway? This patient’s case wasn’t about a degenerated back, it was about finding the right functional limitations. By working on his hip mobility and strength, I was able to get him off the pain rollercoaster for good
Conclusion: Low Back Pain Doesn’t Have to Be a Life Sentence
The date doesn’t lie. 1.2 million back surgeries happen yearly in the U.S., yet 40% of patients see little to no improvements. My patient’s story proves there’s another way. His failed treatments didn’t work because they focused on what his body looked liked and not what it could or couldn’t do. Here’s the truth most providers miss:
- MRI’s are often red herrings (bulging discs ≠ pain)
- Surgery doesn’t fix sensitivity or poor movement.
- Real relief requires a system
If you’re tired of:
- Being told “just live with it”
- Throwing money at treatments that don’t last
- Worrying surgery is your only option
Let’s talk. Book a consultation to discover how we can get you back to living without going under the knife. https://redbirdwellness.org/contact/