McGill Certification
I recently completed my practical examination, the final step to becoming certified in the McGill Method for treating lower back pain. I’ve been studying his research and approach since 2008, and after spending 4 days with him and his faculty in 2019 decided to commit to going whole hog. The method, developed by Stuart McGill, PhD is based on evidence developed through hundreds of research studies in the lab, the field, and in the clinic. It appealed to me because of its grounding in applied sciences, comprehensive assessment procedures, and practical interventions. The American health care system today is poorly equipped to treat patients with lower back pain. A visit to a primary care physician does not allow for an examination that will provide a proper diagnosis—it will either be a non-specific description of your symptoms (“you have lower back pain”, “you have sciatica”) or it will be very specific, typically based simply by looking at findings from an MRI, CT or X-ray. Even these ‘specific’ diagnoses don’t provide patients the information they need. Being told “you have a disc bulge” or “you have stenosis” doesn’t help guide patients to relief. In fact, it is a near-certainty that any abnormality found on a scan was present before the patient felt the lower back pain leading them to seek care.
Instead of focusing on the formal title of a condition, success requires determining the cause of the symptoms and addressing them directly. This is why I like the McGill Method, and I try to apply its principles not only to lower back pain, but to other body parts as well. The key to success is understanding the pain mechanism, and addressing that mechanism. People fail at treatment for a variety of reasons: They are given non-specific or even harmful exercises, they were never taught how to do their daily activities in way that allowed the damaged tissue to heal, or they were discouraged from appropriate activity by overzealous interpretation of diagnostic imaging.
Success begins with a thorough assessment, continues with developing and refining movement patterns that spare the spine (or shoulder, or knee), and proceeds with enhancing the stability, motor control, endurance, speed, strength and agility necessary for their sport, their job or their daily activities. If you or anyone you know is experiencing lower back pain and has not had success with typical treatments, I would encourage them to seek out a Physical Therapist, Chiropractor, or Medical Doctor certified in the McGill method.