He was quite round shouldered with a growing stomach ‘paunch’ and obvious stiffness when arching backwards and it was painful bending to the side - particularly to the right. Following examination he was found to have an L5 right facet joint arthropathy which is Stage 2 of the five stages of spinal breakdown. This is when the thinning and drying of the discs, causes the facet joints to rub.

He was treated with my foot to mobilise the stiff and tender facet joint, he was prescribed anti-inflammatories by his G.P. and was started with 3 floor exercises to reduce muscle spasm and the compressive forces of sitting and driving. I explained how a large stomach weakened the back and how it was necessary to tighten up his muscles to support him, I advised him to try reduce lose some weight to help with this. He also agreed to not playing any golf for a while as this was provoking his symptoms.

Initially he wasn’t keen on the medication and would forget to do his exercises when he was unaware of his pain, but agreed that the exercises had helped him. On this visit I mobilised his spine with my foot and found that it was less tender than before. I gave him further exercises including the back block all taking no more than 15mins to complete.

On the 3rd visit, the golfer admitted to playing 18 holes of golf, as it was booked some time ago and because he was really keen to play. He continued his exercises and took his anti-inflammatory tablets religiously and suffered no aggravation.

Brian comes back to see me when he feels his stiffness is returning, although if he continued with the exercises this would not be necessary.