One of the most common things I hear before a session is "just go as hard as you can." It's a well-intentioned request, but it reveals one of the most persistent misconceptions about this type of work.

Chronic pain is not just an inconvenience you push through. It interrupts sleep, shortens your stride, and chips away at the things you used to do. Over time, you adapt around the pain, building new tension patterns that make the original problem harder to unravel.

Your lower back pain almost never comes from one structure. When any one of these is overloaded or shortened, the others compensate, and the whole system starts pulling unevenly.