“I have a bad back.” 

Can you relate?

Today, back pain has reached epidemic levels, not just in the United States, but throughout the world.

It’s recently become the #1 cause of disability in the country.

Chronic back pain adversely impacts pretty much every aspect of life and derails your ability to participate in the activities that bring you joy.

It can lead to clinical levels of depression, anger, fear, anxiety and hopelessness.

This is why I was happy to find this week’s guest, Dr. Ryan Peebles.

He is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and makes a bold promise: You can become pain free for life in just 15 minutes a day.

He knows from back pain having suffered for years as a young person. The pain was so debilitating it drove his career choice to see if he could find a solution.

“Throughout all my experiences, everything has pointed towards one simple thing...In order to bring the body back into balance, you have to start with the core. And when I began taking this approach with my own body, it was pivotal in allowing me to finally climb out of what I call the "back pain spiral".

Modern healthcare is unable to successfully reverse chronic back pain because it is "treatment" focused.

Anytime you are being "treated" for your pain, changes are being made from the outside-in.

This might work if back pain was an isolated problem, but it's not.

Chronic back pain is the result of a much deeper problem in an interconnected system of your body and mind.

Aside from learning why conventional treatments—including physical therapy don’t work—Ryan explained why back pain is so common today.

Did you know that sit ups can cause back pain? The Army recently took sit ups out of military bootcamp training. Good enough for me to lay that to rest.

A word about physical therapy. Ryan said it’s not that it’s not effective. It can be but it doesn’t—in most cases—teach you how to take the corrective movements into your daily life.

With Dr. Peebles program, Core Balance Training, which I joined not long after our interview, you learn how to integrate this new relationship with your core into your daily activities.

I asked about stretching, good or bad? He said it can be good but when it’s done repeatedly you can weaken the muscles.

“Really stretching is not inherently bad. It's just should be combined with functional stuff in that lengthened position, that vulnerable position.”

These are the conditions people have had success with using his program

• Stenosis
• Degenerative Disc Disease
• Herniated/Bulging Discs
• Spondylolisthesis
• Anterior Pelvic Tilt
• Sciatica
• SI Joint Pain
• Scoliosis
• General Lower Back Pain
• Knee & Hip Pain

The Core Balance program and all of Dr. Peebles’ work is based on how infants and children learn to balance, push away from the floor and create perfect posture.

If you are heading for a back surgery or tired of living with back pain, I can personally recommend this program. And I’m not an affiliate. I bought the program for an SI joint that gives me problems and it’s not been bothering me at all after 3 weeks.

He has a 7-day free trial of the program which is enough to give you a sense of what it will be like and get you started on the exercises.

You can find Ryan on Instagram, and he has a ton of short videos on Youtube to help with specific back issues.