Tackling Postpartum Back Pain Using Neuro-Logic Training
My experience with the Exercise Design Lab in Bar Harbor, ME
Stock photography courtesy of Unsplash
Before I got pregnant my back would hurt periodically and for pretty obvious and identifiable reasons. For example—in the fall after spending days raking leaves. In the winter after shoveling some pretty heavy snowfall. The spring I spent 2 weeks painting my entire house. But now, postpartum, my back hurts allll the time. And it’s because of the everyday things I find myself doing. Lifting my baby to and fro from his bassinet to the bed for night-feedings. Picking him up off the changing table. Trying to hold him one handed so I can get things done with my free hand. Repeatedly I find myself pushing my hips forward to balance him against my chest. Or lifting him improperly at lots of odd angles.
So what do I do to deal with the pain? Well, massage helps a lot, temporarily. Especially when I’m in too much pain to sleep. Or if I need to just get through the day or the next moment. But ultimately, for long-term relief, I know I need to adjust the ergonomics of the tasks I’m performing. And I need to strengthen and support the muscles that I’m using to perform these tasks — muscles that are weakened or maladapted from my pregnancy, or just muscles not used to moving or lifting this kind of weight ALL THE TIME.
So I took myself to see Jacques at the Exercise Design Lab. The Exercise Design Lab specializes in Neuro-Logic Training, a “potent, evidence-based approach to exercise.” They “…leverage advances in neuroscience and exercise science to empower you to physically and mentally excel.” Their client base is everyone from athletes to laypersons, because they are known for being able to design their exercise programs for each individual and their unique goals.
But before I talk up my experiences there, I want to first cover some background on neuroscience and how it relates to muscles, massage and fitness.
Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system and brain—from structure to function, development to degeneration, in health and in disease.
In massage, you may see the term neuromuscular therapy, which refers to a type of massage that aims to alleviate chronic muscle and nervous system disorders and problems. It is mainly used to address trigger points, circulation, nerve compression, postural problems and repetitive movement injuries by targeting the areas where the nerves enervate the muscles.
I think of neuromuscular as a term that refers to how our brains talk to our muscles. What messages it sends, how it recruits muscle groups to perform functions, and what kind of feedback it gets as far as movement, range of motion (ROM) and pain/pleasure signals.
Understanding the nervous system and muscle relationship is so important—not just in massage—but in fitness as well! And when it comes to fitness, neuro-logic training is where it’s at! This style of training is about addressing the “software” programs our brains have written — the programs that recruit our muscle groups to take action and perform certain tasks. For various reasons it’s possible to end up with “bad programming.” Things like injuries, poor form in repeated motions, health conditions, and in my case—pregnancy—can cause our bodies to write movement programs that don’t serve our bodies in the long term.
Ergonomics - the study of people in their working environment. An ergonomist (pronounced like economist) designs or modifies the work to fit the worker, not the other way around. The goal is to eliminate discomfort and risk of injury due to work.
Why does this “bad programming” get written in the first place? Sometimes, our bodies adapt to these movement patterns to avoid pain from an injury, to compensate for an awkward lift or motion, or to adapt to changes in our health and fitness. They can be learned and written any time we perform the same motion over and over, which is why things like lifting properly, ergonomics, and exercising with proper form are so important and stressed so often.
Sometimes, even when we’ve recovered or moved past these conditions, our bodies don’t always reset to once again recruiting the correct muscle groups to best perform the actions needed. The body is still running the old, outdated programming.
So you need someone like Jacques at the Exercise Design Lab to reprogram your body for optimal performance. Jacques H. Newell Taylor is the founder of The Exercise Design Lab and developer of Neuro-Logic Training (N-LT). He has over 25 years of experience and education in the fields of applied neuroscience and exercise science. This makes him a specialist in designing exercises aimed at getting you feeling better and producing faster, more satisfying and lasting results. Using his Neuro-Logic Training method, he focuses on the relationship between exercise and the nervous system to create client-specific solutions. His neurocentric approach is incredible at facilitating changes in muscular recruitment patterns—the “programming” I was referring to earlier.
I first visited the Exercise Design Lab years ago and worked with Jacques initially to rehab a stubborn hip injury I’d been suffering with for a long time. Before visiting the Exercise Design Lab I had seen chiropractors, osteopaths, massage therapists, physiotherapists, physical therapists, athletic trainers, yoga instructors. You name it. I’d been x-rayed, interviewed and assessed. And while I did experience some relief after seeing certain practitioners, the pain would always return and the function issues I was experiencing with my hip would always resurface. For a time, I felt like this injury was incurable, and that I would be forced to spend the rest of my life dealing with this chronic pain and my resulting movement limitations. And then I found the Exercise Design Lab. I was incredibly impressed with the advanced assessment resources Jacques used to help understand my injury, my body, it’s limitations and the way it was performing. With his help, I experienced such amazing improvement. An injury I thought I’d be dealing with for the rest of my life is now no longer a factor in my day-to-day. Based on this experience, the Exercise Design Lab has became my top referral when I see massage clients who I think might benefit as well.
Fast-Forward to 2023: A whole new season in my life & body
Maternity Photography by Breezy Photography at Sand Beach in Acadia National Park
During my pregnancy, I had a growing baby belly throwing off my balance, changing my proprioception (my understanding of where my body was in space), and changing the elasticity of my muscles and joints. (In preparation for childbirth, a pregnant body produces the hormone relaxin. It’s purpose is to relax the ligaments in the pelvis and soften and widen the cervix in preparation for birth). And as my baby and my belly grew, my abdominal and core muscles stretched, adapted, and in my case, weakened and disengaged, making them harder to recruit and use when I needed them. Especially when trying to lift things, but even performing other movements I didn’t realize were so core-focused. I distinctly remember a day where I was trying to cut pizza with a pizza cutter and didn’t feel like I had the core stability and strength to do it!
So I used the Exercise Design Lab again to help me re-engage my core muscles—which pregnancy had somehow “turned off” — so I could continuing working and functioning optimally up until delivery.
Now, 10 weeks postpartum, I’ve gone back to see Jacques. I’d been medically cleared to resume exercising at 6 weeks, and I’d been suffering through increasingly worsening and persistent back pain for several weeks. Especially at night when the acts of feeding, diapering and putting my baby down were resulting in a lot of “awkward carries.”
Jacques was fantastic, as always, at working with me to find the perfect exercises, activations, and motions to engage, target, and strengthen the correct muscles to help improve my movement functions. He even let me bring my baby so we could troubleshoot some of the specific lifts and motions that I’ve been struggling with. This allowed me to use the exact weight I’d need to replicate the motions (my baby!), and added all the variables for a real-world scenario — a squirmy baby still developing head control, verses a firm, immobile, indestructible fitness weight.
As a bonus, my baby seemed to love it! Lots of face time and engagement for him as I picked him up and put him down repeatedly. A new, very interesting environment for him to check out. And Jacques was fantastic about providing a baby-safe set up to mimic some of the lifts and challenges of my home space.
One of my favorite parts about working with Jacques is that I’m able to combine getting to use all the high tech assessment and training gear at the Exercise Design Lab at 18 Pleasant Street in Bar Harbor, Maine, with the custom-designed exercises he sends me home with after each training session. Jacques develops exercises and activations specific to my needs that I can perform at home with the equipment I have on hand. This home-work allows me to recover faster and get back to what’s important to me—taking care of my baby, and physically recovering from my pregnancy.
Being a massage therapist (and a new mamma!) takes lots of strength and I rely on my body to feel good and perform. With Jacques and the Exercise Design Lab’s help, I look forward to getting back on track, back to work, and back to enjoying my new baby and life!
Here are some of the products I’ve come to rely on when exercising at home:
Gaiam Yoga Mat - $24.95
Best feature: the textured, non-slip surface for excellent traction and grip
Corkcicle Canteen - $34.95
Best Feature: Triple-insulated stainless steel keeps drinks cold for 25 hours & hot for 12
Retrospec Resistance Bands - $12.95
Best feature: Versatility in resistance levels makes these great for strength & stability training, toning, stretching & mobility exercises, muscle endurance, and more!
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