Season 1: Episode 8 - The shit box

Hello and welcome to episode 8 of the Fiber Guys Corner with your host me Adam Buster. So guys today tackling probably the worst advice ever. Let's get to it. Somebody asked me a couple of weeks back Adam how come you don't do any piercing? Well the reason is really simple because piercing is absolutely terrible, terrible, terrible advice and if you want somebody not to get better from chronic pain then piercing is by far the best way to do that. And I know, I know that goes against a lot of things that you get taught in your pain management classes and things like that. But the thing is are people recovering from these pain management classes? No they're not because it's pain management, even the word, even the name even is a horrific and a sea boar pain management. It implies no recovery only managing and living your life best you can. Who wants to do that? Nobody. People want recoveries from chronic pain. And the thing is when we use things like piercing it puts people in boxes that they cannot get out of it. So in the studio and the way I've helped people to understand this in the past is I call it the shit box because that's what this box is. It is a box of shit basically where you can't do anything and you're limited. So let's think back to before you got ill. You would have had a certain amount of activity, a certain activity level that you could do. So that might have been walking the dog every morning for half an hour. It might have been going to the gym three or four times a week. But this isn't just about exercises, this is about different stresses. So yes exercise is going to be a physical stressor. You're going to have chemical responses, histamine, things like that. But then you've also got chemical stresses, the food you eat, the environment. You've also got psychological stresses, trauma, the amount of stress you have going on at work, social, things like that. So this activity meter that I'm referring to encompasses all of those different stresses to the system. So you would have been able to get so high up being caught and caught a normal person on the day-to-day life, just cracking on with life. So you might have been able to do 30 hours a week and you might have been able to go to the gym two or three times a week. However, at the point you get ill just before you, before life kind of crumbles around you, what happens is you start to struggle. So for me it was, I would be walking up the stairs and I would be thinking, "Christ, why am I at a breath and why is that so hard and why is that so painful?" So what happens is, if we use this, let's use work for an example, that's a good one, I would go to work and I would do 40 hours a week. And what would happen is, as soon as I ended up with my symptoms, I was starting to struggle. So, I do what everybody does, I start to pay us. So go all right, so I'm working 40 hours a week. This seems to be a bit too much and I'm also going to the gym four times a week, right? So I tell you what, I'll do the gym twice a week. So I'd go to work for 40 hours a week and I'd go to the gym twice a week. And then what would happen was, I'd be okay. So I'd think to myself, oh, brilliant. I'm not doing as much activity now and this seems to be keeping stuff a bit, fantastic. However, your brain gets really wise to this really quickly. And what happens is it drops, let's call it an exposure line and it drops it a little bit further down now. So what happens is, after a week or two, I was feeling, okay, I can do this. But eventually I got to the point where I was working 40 hours a week, doing the gym twice a week. But then I was getting symptomatic again and I thought, shit, am I overdoing it? Well I was okay last time I did it but now I seem to be kind of getting symptomatic. So I went all right, I'll tell you what, I'll drop the gym down to one day a week. And what happened was for the first week or two, that was okay. I was a little bit less tired. I was still symptomatic but it wasn't as bad. And then I thought, well you know what, I say if I can get the gym in two times a week. So I went to the gym twice a week, did my 40 hours of work and what happened was I ended up in a flare up or my symptoms got massively bad. Well after I'd recovered about two or three, maybe four days later from my flare up I went right, fuck this. What I'm going to do is I'm just going to do my 40 hours at work but I'm maybe just going to miss the gym for the next two weeks. And for the next two weeks, you know what, I was absolutely fine. And I was like, okay, I've got a handle on this now, this person thing is working for me. However slowly over time, every time you stop doing the things that you want to do, it just reinforces your brain, that pain, that fatigue, whatever the symptoms you've got is the correct response to getting you to stop doing the things that brains don't want you to do. And eventually what happened was I wasn't going to the gym anymore and I was starting to decondition a bit. I was getting stiffer which was making me worse. And eventually I had to drop my hours from 40 hours a week down to 30 hours a week. And then I thought, right, well okay, as long as I do 30 hours a week, I am okay. And what would happen was over the next few weeks, I would have to drop my hours down again to 20. And eventually it pushes you down and down and down until you get in the, in what I call the shit box. This is a little box right at the bottom of your stress emitter which basically means yes you will be in pain and yes you will have fatigue but as long as you stare within the confines of this box, you will be okay. And this is what I refer to as the shit box. It's the box that everybody in chronic pain eventually gets put into. So it becomes their everyday life. It becomes the thing that confines them. And when people try and do any kind of exercise or any going to the shops or whatever else it might be that they're trying to do, what happens is they start to creep out of this box and then their brain just slams them back in it with a massive flare up. So the thing is over the course of the years of pain management they always advise pacing just do a little bit of the time. Only problem is it's like building a house on sand. Yes you might get the first five bricks down. You might go to the gym, you might start walking on a treadmill for 10 minutes of the time. And yes you'll be putting those bricks down of that house. However it's some point you are going to hit that exposure line and your brain is going to slam you straight back into the shit box. And what happens for most people is they get just heartened and they just stop and they just accept it that they're stuck in this box and then that's where their journey ends. So things like pacing can be slightly beneficial for people at the very beginning. But the thing is without a strong foundation down you are just going to keep putting bricks up and they're going to keep crumbling down. If we were both building a house and we didn't have a foundation down and the house kept falling down when we tried to build it. If we went to the foreman, the first thing I'll say is well whatever you done differently and we'd be like oh well we haven't put a foundation down. Well of course the house has fallen down and you complete more runs. You need to put the foundation down before you build the bricks. And the thing is most people trying to get out of this shit box don't understand that you need that solid foundation underneath you to build. So the thing is if there's a lot of people listening who think pain means damage. If they think the degree of pain they're in correlates whatsoever to the amount of damage they're in, the amount of pain they're in or how much damage they have then that is going to be horrific when it comes to building because as soon as you start putting those bricks down you start trying to move out of that box your brain's just going to go what the hell you're trying to do. And it's going to get you slams straight back down. When it comes down to foundation building, brains like routines and if you can get something especially movement wise that is a routine. It is safe. In order brains are really concerned with oxygen not having enough of it is probably the leading cause of death worldwide so it's pretty important. Secondly, the like chemicals that make them feel good, they like producing chemicals that make us feel good. And thirdly, brains love safety. And the thing is if you're on massive amounts of gab, pen and a pre-gab and in convulgent medication meant for people with epilepsy and basically what it does is it dulls down the kind of nerve activity in your brain. It stops it from spiking so you don't see it if you're epileptic. But if you're not epileptic and you're on that all you do is slow it down impulses which means when you step into that big wide world your brain is not going to feel safe because it can't react quick enough. Christ, I remember when I was on it. I forgot the word for socks once and had to refer to it as foot clothing which is absolutely insane. So the thing is your foundation, building, it needs to be one of routine most importantly because when we do the same things every day, brains get complicit and rather than conflicting with us, they start to compromise with us. If you can do the same thing and then this is where kind of pacing does take over. They say try and add a little bit on and a little bit on. But the thing is that isn't breaking down any specific beliefs you have. It's just add in a little bit more activity on very slowly and then eventually those that with that house is going to fall down your foundation. You need that foundation underneath it. The thing that supports you. So your foundation really needs to consist of something physical which will be, let's say, moving to good example. If you have certain movements that you do when you get out of bed or you have a little yoga routine or polite is whatever it is, it means you can start to use that to start creating a movement routine. And then more importantly, it means you can push out of it. But don't just push out of it tiny bit. You need to go a little bit further. And the thing is, yes, you might have a slight flare up to the symptoms, but if we're gonna get over this initial exposure line, you have to push through it somewhat. Because remember, pain isn't there to say, hello, Sandra, this is what's going on with your knee. This is why we're hurting. That's normal pain is full. Pain is a really shitty indicator of what's actually going on in the body. Pain is there is a really good deterrent. There's a reason why you don't put your finger in a toaster when it's on, because you know it will hurt. And the thing is, what happens is when we get in the shipbox, there's a reason we don't start to push out of it, because we know it will hurt. So there is a certain amount of self-discipline that you're gonna have to put out there in order to get past this first hurdle. And this is the hurdle that most people never, ever get past. But it's incredibly important. If you, let's say you go out walking, yes, you back might start hurting, your knees start hurting, your ankle start hurting. However, if you stop, your brain is just gonna go right. We didn't want to go out walking. In case we got damaged. So I tell you what, let's produce pain, and we produce pain. And then let's say Sandra, stop doing what we were doing. All right, cool. Reinforce that. Next time she goes walking, I tell you what, even if she walks not as far, let's do it anywhere. Slowly over time it will learn to not to go walking. So this is why I always think of my guys. In your time outside of the studio, if you are going for a walk and in the first few weeks initially, when you've still got your pain, then you may have a little flare with your back. But it is very important not to just stop straight away and go back, you need to push somewhat. You need to say right, well, my back's hurting, so you know what, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna go for lamppost, sub the street, then I'm gonna sit down for a minute. This is important because it teaches your brain that pain isn't gonna be an output that is going to get you to stop. Your brain is not gonna start producing pain, wasting energy if it's not gonna work. So the thing is, even when it comes back to oxygen, chemicals and safety, we can use these to kind of almost hijack your brain because the thing is oxygen, first and foremost, is the most important thing. But the second thing above safety is chemicals. And the thing is, there's a reason why brains let people jump out of airplanes with parachutes on. There's a reason why brains let people jump off bridges attached to bungee cords because the brain knows it's gonna get chemicals that make it feel good and sometimes it negates the safety aspect of it. So you can use things like, if you can do something physical, or even if you were gonna exercise, how go to a class with your friends so that you can at least hijack some of those chemicals and negate the safety bit. Then it means as long as you don't die, and as long as you don't get damaged at that yoga or polite class or wherever the hell it is, you are, it means you can go batting a brain can process all of that and think, right, well, actually, we were a bit apprehensive and we made Sandra's back hurt. However, she kept going. And in the end, actually, we had a pretty good time we were laughing with our friend Linda, we went for a coffee afterwards. All right, okay, maybe polite isn't so dangerous. And then that means the next time Sandra goes back to polite, remember, she is gonna see the front of the polite studio. That's an input to her nervous system and her brain has to figure out what to do with it. And because she's already been there and she didn't die, and actually she had somewhat of a good time. Her brain had gone all right. Well, we did think before this place was probably dangerous, but and we did try and produce pain together to stop doing much. She was doing all these complex polite movements. However, we ended up having a really good time. All right, well, I'll tell you what, this time let's still make pain just to be sure, but let's not make lots of it. And if we start having fun, we'll just start with the pain. And what happens is over weeks and weeks, you can just trick your brain into associating this polite studio, yoga studio, whatever, with being a safe place. Where initially it would completely freak out, but it's about those chemicals. If you're doing something fun with people, then obviously your brain will go, all right, okay. Maybe we should just focus on releasing those feel good chemicals. Brains are incredibly complicated. People are incredibly complicated. But the piercing and that guard that drives me insane, when you stop doing the things you were doing, you just get further down that meter until you get trapped in that shit box. Anything is in my studio, in all the other studios around the UK, we do not use piercing. We lay a strong foundation down physically, getting people into routines, getting movements that are transferable to everyday life, and making them being marked as safe. Psychologically, we go through a shit turn, an absolute shit turn of education. We show people the actual truth. We debunk tons of myths around pain, tons of myths around damage and things like that. And we add that little social element in as well, where you can become friends with the client that you're working with because pain is a very complicated thing. And it's a very personal thing for people. So when you're working with people in pain, it is a personal thing for them. And it's really hard not to become really good friends with those people. I mean, Christ, I've been to ex clients, weddings and birthday parties, and you know what I mean, it's really nice on that level. So the thing is, in the studio, we'll lay down that foundation before we even move anywhere close to hitting that exposure line. Because what it means is that when they do get close to the exposure line, we're going to be quite sneaky with it. There's tons of different things you can do to get past that first exposure line. A really good, easy way to do it is with things like isometrics. So isometric exercises are basically stress positions. They're quite safe because no joints are moving, so even height more people can do them. However, they have got a really important analgesic effect, eye, pain killer. And there has been a ton of research on why this might be the case, but no conclusive answer. And they have done a lot of studies. If you ask me personally, and this is just my opinion guys, I don't have any evidence to back it up, but I would imagine is because all isometric exercises are stress positions. And when we are in a stress position, what happens is we burn through a lot of what we call a dentistry and trifosphate, one of our energy systems. And the more ATP we use, the more hydrogen ions build up. And when hydrogen ion builds up, what happens is the trigonosis septers, that telebrain, look brain, something dangerous might be happening in the tissue. And then what your brain does off that no-seception signal, it goes shit, yeah, actually, give me, yeah, this is quite dangerous, let's stop. So it produces pain to get you to stop. And more importantly, if you can produce that pain to stop, it will reward you somewhat with some endorphins, painkillers to try and fight the stress that's coming into the system. Just my theory, I see there's not much evidence there to back it up, but that's just me. Could be wrong, have been mega wrong in the past with stuff, but that's the way life kinda goes. So we can use ATP, and we can use those hydrogen ions because those isometrics are gonna give us a painkillin effect. But if you think there isn't a massive amount, or a big margin of error really, when it comes to getting past this first hurdle point, just when you get out the shitbox, but by doing things like isometrics, what happens is, it is painful, it is god-awful, painful exercise. And when you finish that session of isometrics, your brain thinks, Jesus Christ, what the hell was that? We're gonna be completely wrecked tomorrow. However, when you're doing those isometric exercises, you will either have to stop because of two reasons. First one is the hydrogen buildup gets so high that you start producing massive amounts of pain, and you have to stop because it's painful, or in organic compounds are phosphate, which is just another byproduct of this system working, starts sticking to calcium. And when calcium gets stuck to it, it means we can't send out more, and when we can't send out any more calcium, we can't contract the muscle, and thus we get muscle fatigue. So you'll either have to stop because it's so painful, or you'll have to stop because you can't physically contract muscle anymore, and you'll fatigue out. And the thing is, you will be very jelly-like after you've finished, and more importantly, you will think, Jesus Christ, that was a horrific session, I am gonna be broken tomorrow, but you have actually had to stop exercising before you've even caused any trauma to the tissue. And what that allows you to do is, it allows you to get up the next morning, and when you do the usual MRT everybody, as I call it, where you start going, right, how am I feeling today? What's my leg like, what's my knee, what's my neck? You will be expecting to be really sore from that. However, you won't be because we haven't damaged the tissue because you've had to stop. So it's a good way to trick your brain in thinking it's done more than that exposure line, but in reality you've stayed underneath it. And that's really important, because what that does is it totally contradicts what your brain knows. So it has to go, well, shit, how does, oh, okay. So we can do more than the exposure line, and we'll be okay. Oh, okay. And what you find is that exposure line starts to lift a little bit higher, which means day to day, you can do more, and not be flared up, you can not be in pain. You can increase your hours of work, and be okay. It's just a little bit more, to really sneak you away to kind of hijack how the systems of your body work and how you bring in turpets them. So I see it. When it comes to the podcast guys, I normally explain this with infographics or on a white board because it's far easier to do and I don't know how much sense that might make via kind of me rambling on with a microphone. So if it's something else you want me to go into detail or if it's something you want me to stick some of the infographics on the Facebook page or you even make a short animation on YouTube because they've been getting quite into that lately as they've been filming the hyper mobility online course which is probably the most common hence of course ever ever done. So I've got a lot of edit and software now and animation stuff and I've been having a little play around with that and it's been coming quite handy. But yeah, but just to do a quick recap, Pearson, all Pearson does is it limits people's activity and when it limits people's activities, brains get really comfortable with that and they like it. So what happens it will continue to push you down the meter until eventually you get stuck in the box where yes you're impaired, yes you're infotigue, however you're all care and you know what and your brain knows what's going on for most of the for all of the day really. So foundation wise needs to be something physical, needs to be something psychological, needs to be something social, you need a strong foundation to build upon and the thing is if you've got a little disabled hanging around your head. So somebody's told you you've got a bulging disc and that's why your back hurts, well the thing is there is a plethora of people out there who have bulging discs and have no pain whatsoever, they don't correlate with pain very well. In fact most of them herniate back in by themselves without you doing anything bigger than the other better it is as well, better rate of recovery. So if you've got a lot in the seaboard, hang around your brain, what's going to happen is then that your brain is going to use that information and when you try and get out that shit box your brain is going to go and not a chance we are not causing more damage to this body. It's the same when I see loads of people who hype a mobile, the thing is they've been hyped mobile for so long and they've heard so much misinformation that that then becomes the truth. So whenever they try and get out the box by doing any kind of movements then what happens is the brain just slams and straight back in because it's like look this is too dangerous and we're not doing it. And the real kicker of this is whatever is in your brain, whatever information you store in your brain it doesn't have to be true, it can be misinformation, your brain will still treat it as truth. So that's why you have people who have osteoarthritis in the knee and are completely fine and that's why you have osteoarthritis, people with osteoarthritis in the knee who are in pain. If they're a big contribute factor to pain because your brain uses them to process what's going on. If you're walking up the stairs and you have osteoarthritis and you know osteoarthritis doesn't correlate with pain whatsoever, it's just normal age related changes. Everybody over the age of 50 should have osteoarthritis because you've lived long enough to get it. Just in the same way that anybody over 50 should have wrinkles because you don't have this going to be an 18 anymore, you're 50. But if you've got somebody else going up the stairs who thinks that osteoarthritis does cause pain then you're about 99% sure to produce pain from that because it doesn't matter if it's true or not, if it's in your brain that is what your brain is going to use to figure out what it should do with the information that it's receiving. Whether that's walking up the stairs bending over to pick a small child off the floor to pick them up and give them cuddle, it does not care because at the end of the day the people that come in my studio, they have a body and at the end of 12 weeks or so they still have the exact same body. Yes the tissue might be slightly healthier, they might return a little bit more water but they have the exact same body, it is not changed. If anything their body 12 weeks later is worse because their 12 weeks older, 12 weeks more degenerated. As I said it doesn't matter what is in the brain, it is about what your brain does with that information, it's about the process of it. But I cut this short guys because I've got a ton of stuff to do, I don't want to keep rambling on, I can never find an end point when I do these podcasts as I have a tendency to go off on big kind of tangents of nonsense and different stuff like that. But if you want me to go a little bit more into this kind of ship box then definitely send me a message and I'll get something up on YouTube which is a bit more visual so that you can really understand it. But for me, person not a good idea, how many people have recovered from chronic pain through piercing? That is the question I ask you and I can tell you it is not many if not anybody. So I see you on the flip side guys, take it easy and I will see you soon.