Chronic back pain can be very debilitating and often all you want is to find a way to make your pain go away.
So good to have you back on the sidelines, @SteveKerr. #DubNation pic.twitter.com/GjyaoFAl8Q
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) June 5, 2017
Steve Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors basketball team, was in that place in 2015 when after rupturing a disc in his back he just wanted the pain to go away and was told surgery would fix his problem. Before surgery Kerr's pain was so bad that he couldn't walk more than 30 yards without needing to stop and sit down. He described it as "getting old."
I think his injury and pain had nothing to do with his age and can't be blamed on "getting old".
Steve Kerr had surgery on July 28th, 2015 and everything seemed better for a short time. But then he started experiencing pain, intense and new pain. It took his doctors a while to figure out what was causing his pain, but they discovered that during the initial surgery, the surgeon had punctured his dura, the membrane that surrounds his spinal cord, and this caused his cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) to leak. The leaking CSF was causing Kerr severe debilitating headaches and fatigue.
After the leak became apparent, Kerr had a second surgery to repair the punctured dura on September 4th, 2015. While that surgery appeared successful, his symptoms came back.
Over the last year and a half, Kerr has tried many things including medicine, yoga, meditation, exercise, and marijuana, but has found no lasting relief.
Kerr's back pain started getting bad during the 2015 NBA Finals and caused him to miss the first 43 games of the 2015-16 season. He was able to come back and coach the remainder of of that season and the playoffs, but was still in pain. Kerr coached the entire 2016-17 regular season, but after the first 2 playoff games has been sidelined with pain until he was able to return to coach game 2 in the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
After the leak became apparent, Kerr had a second surgery to repair the punctured dura on September 4th, 2015. While that surgery appeared successful, his symptoms came back.
Over the last year and a half, Kerr has tried many things including medicine, yoga, meditation, exercise, and marijuana, but has found no lasting relief.
Kerr's back pain started getting bad during the 2015 NBA Finals and caused him to miss the first 43 games of the 2015-16 season. He was able to come back and coach the remainder of of that season and the playoffs, but was still in pain. Kerr coached the entire 2016-17 regular season, but after the first 2 playoff games has been sidelined with pain until he was able to return to coach game 2 in the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Steve Kerr updates his health status, says symptoms have worsened, he will not coach tomorrow and status unknown beyond pic.twitter.com/qtQRAYYHvq
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 23, 2017
Kerr, while reluctant to talk about his pain, will happily tell you to avoid back surgery if at all possible.
"I can tell you if you're listening out there, if you have a back problem, stay away from surgery. I can say that from the bottom of my heart. Rehab, rehab, rehab. Don't let anybody get in there."
"I can tell you if you're listening out there, if you have a back problem, stay away from surgery. I can say that from the bottom of my heart. Rehab, rehab, rehab. Don't let anybody get in there."
Before the NBA Finals started, Steve Kerr was asked if he was ready to return to coaching on the sidelines:
"No, as, of right now, I would not coach Thursday night. But it's still up in the air."
Then he paused.
"I'm still waiting for that 'Aha' [moment]," Kerr said, raising his arms to the sky as he and the group of reporters around him laughed. After a pause, he smiled and said, "It's coming."
"No, as, of right now, I would not coach Thursday night. But it's still up in the air."
Then he paused.
"I'm still waiting for that 'Aha' [moment]," Kerr said, raising his arms to the sky as he and the group of reporters around him laughed. After a pause, he smiled and said, "It's coming."
I have seen many people in similar situations to Steve Kerr's and I have seen them have that "Aha moment." We have all heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Aha moments come when we look at things in a totally new way and discover that there's something very obvious we'd been missing.
During this interview, Steve Kerr can be seen sitting in spinal flexion and every minute or so puts his hands on the arm rests of his chair and uses his arms to push himself up, decompressing his spine.
Kerr's body is trying to talk to him, send him a message, about how to get better. His spine has been compressed and when he gets his spine to maintain a tall, upright, decompressed position, he will feel better. Notice Steve Kerr's relaxed, normal sitting posture in the images below which show excessive lumbar and thoracic flexion and posterior pelvic tilting:
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Spinal flexion is caused primarily by two things:
- Poor pelvic alignment caused by weak, underused, and unstable pelvic muscles.
- Weak, overstretched, and un-facilitated spinal extensor muscles.
This combination of factors has devastating effects on the spine:
- Compressed spinal discs often leading to disc herniation or rupture
- Spinal disc degeneration
- Spinal stenosis
- Facet joint osteoarthritis
- Digestive issues from compression, restriction, and tilting of stomach and intestines
- Reduced lung capacity from collapsed rib position and altered diaphragm positioning
- Reduced blood flow to the brain causing headaches and dizziness
Steve Kerr, it was great to see you back on the sidelines coaching Golden State to a win in game 2 of the NBA Finals. If you are ready for an "ah-ha" moment, I'd be happy to offer you a free posture evaluation where I can explain where your body is off and what you can do to get it working much better.
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