Article Rundown

• Why your back pain keeps coming back
• The 3 phase approach to beating back pain
• The “overlooked” 2nd phase
• How to get out of pain FOR GOOD

Why Your Back Pain Keeps Coming Back (And How to Break the Cycle for Good)

Back pain that won’t stay gone is one of the most frustrating problems for lifters, athletes, and everyday people alike. You finally start feeling better… and then it comes back. Maybe even worse than before. Today, I want to walk you through exactly why that happens—and more importantly, what you need to do about it.

First Things First: Get an Assessment

Before we go any further, let me make this clear: if you’ve never had a proper back assessment, that’s your first step. Don’t guess. Go to PowerRackStrength.com and check out what a McGill Method certified assessment is and what it offers. If you’re local to Jacksonville, Florida, I offer in-person consultations and full 3-hour McGill assessments – people come from all over the country to see me here at PRS HQ for an in-person assessment. However, if needed, I also work with people all over the world virtually.

If your back pain has been chronic or has returned more than once, you’re likely missing the next big piece of the puzzle: Phase 2.

The Common Pattern: Why Back Pain Keeps Coming Back

Most people can get out of pain initially. You stop training so hard, take a few days off from the gym, maybe even stop playing weekend tackle football with your old college buddies. Pain goes away. You feel better.

But then what?

That’s where most people go wrong. They skip the second phase: rebuilding pain-free capacity.

You didn’t remove the cause. You didn’t address the root movement issue or strength imbalance. You just stopped irritating it for a little while. So when you go right back to what caused the issue, it flares up again. Rinse and repeat.

Phase 1 vs Phase 2 vs Phase 3: Understanding the Recovery Roadmap

Let’s break this down into three phases:

• Phase 1 – Get Out of Pain:
  You avoid painful movements, modify your activities, and begin basic core endurance work (like the McGill Big 3). You let the inflammation calm down. This phase can be fast or slow depending on your injury.
• Phase 2 – Rebuild Capacity (This is Where Most People Fail):
  This is the critical period after your pain is gone—but before your back is fully healed. You still need to maintain the work from Phase 1 while introducing new movement patterns and strengthening exercises specific to your goals. For example, you might incorporate:
  • Anti-rotation work (like Pallof presses)
  • Anti-flexion work (like bird dogs or suitcase carries)
  • Anti-lateral flexion work (like side planks)
  • Goblet squats, stir-the-pot, glute bridges, etc.
• Everyone’s Phase 2 looks different depending on their sport, lifestyle, and injury.

Phase 3 – Return to Sport/Activity:
Only when you’ve built enough capacity and resilience can you begin integrating higher-level activities like heavy lifting, sprinting, golf, or jiu-jitsu.

Healing Takes Time—More Than You Think

Here’s the hard truth: pain-free does NOT mean healed.

Just because you feel good at the six-week mark doesn’t mean your vertebrae, discs, or facet joints are fully recovered. You might need 12 to 18 months, or even more, to truly heal. Some people can resume their favorite activities in six weeks. Others need a year or two.

It’s not fair. But it’s the truth.

And if you keep rushing back into hard training or sport without fully going through Phase 2, you’ll stay stuck in the injury cycle:
One step forward, two steps back.

Breaking the Cycle: Remove the Cause and Stay the Course

To beat back pain once and for all, you must:

1. Get properly assessed by a professional who can identify the root cause of your issue.
2. Remove the aggravating factors—even temporarily.
3. Train the right way in Phase 2, building back pain-free capacity before returning to high stress loads.
4. Give it time. Real time. Months of consistent, intelligent work.

In my book Gift of Injury (written with Dr. Stuart McGill), we go deep into what Phase 2 looked like for me after a serious vertebral injury. I got out of pain relatively quickly, but I didn’t rush the rebuilding process. I stuck to it for months because I knew that skipping Phase 2 would have put me right back in pain again.

Final Thoughts: The Answer Isn’t Magic—It’s Methodical

If you’re stuck in the pattern of recurring back pain, you’re not broken. You’re just missing a phase. And with the right guidance and patience, you can rebuild.

It’s not about magic exercises. It’s about targeted rehab, discipline, and knowing when to push and when to pull back.

Want to learn more?
Visit PowerRackStrength.com, check out Back Mechanic and Gift of Injury, and book an assessment if you’re serious about changing your path. Don’t settle for being in and out of pain for the next decade.

Let’s fix it for good.

BRIAN DOES ONLINE AND IN-PERSON COACHING!

Back Injured Average Mary or Joe who wants their life back

Back Injured Athlete Wanting to Return to Sport

Lift and exercise coaching & cueing to troubleshoot form

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