09/09/2026
A 59-year-old client had lived with central low back pain for four years — physical therapy, chiropractic care, exercise. Every one of them aimed at the spot that hurt. None of it held.
Here's why: his back wasn't the cause. It was the symptom.
When someone finally assessed how he actually moved, five findings turned up — none of which lived in his low back:
Restricted mobility through his ankles, hips, and mid-back. A rotated pelvis. Glutes not doing their job. Hip flexors not doing their job. Core and pelvic floor not coordinating.
On their own, not one of these is dramatic. Together, they left one area — his low back — absorbing the load the rest of his body should have been sharing. For four years.
And here's the part that matters: none of it showed up until someone looked. These contributors don't live in the painful area. They show up in how the whole body moves and distributes load — which takes a proper movement assessment. He'd never had one. Everyone had treated the pain; no one had found the causes.
That's the principle underneath all of our work. Persistent pain is never one thing.
It's a list of contributors, each too small on its own to be "the cause" — which is exactly why single-fix treatment keeps missing it. Miss the list, and you can spend years treating the symptom.
Addressed one at a time, in order — restore the mobility, rebuild the stability, add strength — each contributing driver was cleared. His pain went from 5 out of 10 to 0.
Read the full case study: https://www.experiencealign.com/joint-pain-blog/case-study-ten-years-of-persistent-load-driven-low-back-pain
