Brief History

SpineFITyoga was created to treat spine pain at home by taking an all-body fitness approach.

All-body because just "spine stabilization" exercises have three problems.

First, they're almost universally dumb. If you have experienced typical physical therapy treatment for spine pain, you have to have asked yourself, "Is this bridge or clam shell really doing anything?" To answer your question. Not a lot.

Second, to focus on strengthening your core, with more effective exercises that in fact do, do something, puts more stress through the spine. The very spine that's likely already overworked, but definitely injured and trying to heal.

Third, spine stabilization is leaving weak all the muscles

Fourth, if your body was flabby at the start of treatments, it's still flabby, and spine stabilization burns very few calories.

Meanwhile, Spine Biomechanists, Stuart McGill amongst others, were elucidating

I did so by integrating, distilling, and simplifying what I knew from physical therapy, exercise science, yoga, and strength training. Also incorporated were principles secondary to an in-depth understanding of the best of modern spine biomechanics research; Stuart McGill's among others. I wanted a generalized but adaptable program that people could do at home, and not be dependent on the gym full of exercise equipment I had in my physical therapy office. I would go so far as to say that I was able to implicitly fit 85% of a lifetimes of fitness and rehabilitation study into what are now two 5-minute exercise programs that are truly state-of-the-art, if unconventional. If yoga means union, and it does, SpineFITyoga is certainly union of the best of what I know, periodically updated as I further research, self-test, and refine ideas.

To better appreciate what SpineFITyoga is now, I think it helps to understand from where it came. For a long time this website URL and my company name was SpinalFlowYoga.com and the first Spinal Flow (SFOne) was an hour-long all-body flow, performed with a neutral spine. Why neutral Spine you ask? This is why. An hour-long workout was what I thought necessary and what I was used to from yoga, weight training (lifting was often two hours), and providing physical therapy treatments. However, as much as I liked SFOne, I knew it wasn't delivering what my weight routines were.

Yes, it was a decent workout, it burned calories, it was good for the spine, but it was a compromise, and not something I wanted to do myself. I also found that people who liked yoga would do SFOne with me leading them, but they weren't doing it at home, which was kind of the point. I think an hour was just too much. The juice wasn't worth the squeeze, at least not when your pain went away. Do you need to continue to work on neutral spine alignment and posture once you have learned it?

No you do not.

So having that part make up half of the hour workout was not only drag, but it decreased exercise intensity.

I then divided SFOne into two shorter routines. SFMetcon (the hard stuff), and SFControl (the easy but still important work to teach neutral spine postural awareness). At first I thought SFMetcon was the answer. It was only 23 minutes long, it was intense, and something you could do quickly. The problem was that SFMetcon was too intense for 23 minutes, yet not done quickly enough. I literally had to psych myself up for it, and once developed, like SFOne, I didn't want to do it either. Half because it was hard, and half because, despite being hard, it still didn't work as well as lifting weights, particularly not for legs. You might notice all bodyweight workouts suck for legs, and SFOne and SFMetcon were no different.

SFMetcon was intended to be a 2-3 day per week workout that but because it was a chore, I to put off until the end of the day. Then I put off until the following day, and then I wouldn't want to do it at because I had missed a few weeks and my performance had backslid. It was effective, but not enough to love it, but I hated it.

I honestly don't like exercise, but walking through Walmart I'm it becomes obvious most people like exercise less than me. I knew if I wasn't going to do a 23 minute flow, neither would my target market.

I soon realized that if I wanted to make Spinal Flow do what I wanted I was going to have to do it myself as my sole form of exercise. Only then would I know with any certainty what did what, and this was in relation to not only muscles but motivation. It had to be clearly worth the effort. For me spine pain is no longer an issue so much as overall health and fitness was. Thus I wanted to make Spinal Flow not only the best spine rehabilitation workout, but also the best all body home workout, bar none. I wanted Spinal Flow to effectively optimize health, performance, willpower, and (forgive me) appearance, at the same time that it helped eliminate spine pain, delivering for all of us what I think we want; the most gain for the least pain. Finally, I had an epiphany on a single exercise was so simple, but worked, and allowed me to shorten the workout time to 7 minutes daily. I took my new concept further, reducing Spinal Flow to 5 minutes and it was even better. With the culmination of SpineFITyoga F5, my 5-minute, admittedly not very flowy flow, I think I nailed it. S5 is my routine, it's what I do for overall fitness, and it''s good for the spine. Anyway, Spinal "Flow" not being a flow at all anymore is why I changed the name to SpineFITyoga. My thoughts are that yoga is encompassing enough to an even more different, and even better type of exercise.

About S5 (the Fitness program)

F5 turned out dramatically better than expected. It's no compromise for me to NOT have a gym membership, it's a preference.

Now I'm no longer doing SpineFITyoga just to learn, test, and develop for others. I'm doing it for me, because I think it's the best workout, not only for myself and people with back pain, but for most anyone, in most situations, period.

So while SpineFITyoga was originally intended to treat neck and back pain, with F5, I'm genuinely curious whether more people will be interested in doing it for overall health and fitness. It's that good.

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How S5 works

• Admittedly a highly effective 5-minute total body workout sounds a bit too good to be true. If it wasn't me I don't think I would believe it [hence the guarantee]. But working on it for about two years now, I think I've worked out the whys, and how scientifically it makes sense.
• F5 is primarily based on multi-joint exercises that hit as many muscle groups as possible at the same time. More muscles worked per exercise means you need less exercises to work the entire body.
• Though S5 is strength training, Levels-2 and 3 of S5 are high rep enough, and incorporating enough muscle mass to raise the heart rate to aerobic conditioning levels, both during and for several minutes afterwards. Thus I think exploiting the same conditioning effects achieved with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Surprisingly, in spite of the fact that I do no additional aerobic training besides F5, my resting heart rate is 35 BPM. That's well below the low 50s I was in years ago, when I was running 5 and 10Ks, and just 3 beats above Lance Armstrong's reported lowest. So I feel like this is an amazing, if unexpected achievement from the program.
• F5 is a split routine, such that you are training roughly one third of the body each day. This allows each day to be shorter. Because it's short, you can train each exercise harder. Short and intense despite not being easy, feels easier, physically and mentally, than long and intense, and even long and slow. Being quick and feeling relatively easy, means you hate it less, miss less workouts, equating to greater progress. Also being able to focus on just 2-3 exercises per day, allows you to genuinely focus on them, working to make each one better, every time, instead of just going through the motions. I won't lie, it's still not easy per se, and I still hate it, but the gain per pain ratio is better than any workout I have ever tried. In short, it's worth it, and within just a couple weeks you can tell it's worth it.
• Because it's a 3 day split routine, each exercise gets 72 hours of recovery before it's performed again, much reducing risk of overtraining, equating to better relative progress.
• Because it's the same exercises repeated every third day, you know if you are making progress. If you are not making progress REGULARLY, you're not doing it right. It's honestly not about doing any of the exercises by themselves, it's about MAKING PROGRESS on those exercises. START EASY for sure, but once feeling good, confident, and adapted to the routine, every exercise becomes an all out effort. Each exercise is also a test, and you test yourself daily. Knowing where you stand with regards to percent of max performance per level, lets you know where you are in relationship of one muscle group to another, to where you started, and to your ultimate potential.
• F5 is designed for balanced muscle development. This was done by choosing or creating exercises and goals that target balance between all body parts. Weak hips and legs means people use, and thereby strain their backs more when they lift. Weak hamstrings leads to increased risk of knee, back, and hamstring pain/strains. Weak hip muscles have even been associated foot pain like plantar fasciitis. Therefore, even if your focus is purely spine rehabilitation, total body fitness is still one of the best keys to recovery.
• Because you are training daily, you are creating a habit.  If you string together several weeks without a miss S5 becomes more and more like brushing your teeth. It's just something you feel more weird if you don't do it than if you do. A fitness habit you develop is infinitely more effective than any workout that's been quit.
• F5 is capped at 5 minutes, all but guaranteeing you won't push it to obsession or burnout, and again making overuse injuries tough to get (assuming you are following the USER RULES).
• F5 is presented via a website rather than a book. Therefore as quick as I can, learn or conceive and then test a variation or idea, I can immediately update the program. Preferring simplicity, I'm not wanting to add additional sequences, however, I am always testing to optimize the two I have, as well as my way of sharing the information. However, should a complete change prove better, as S5 did over SFOne, you'll certainly see it here first.  

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F5 is designed to work with for virtually ANY FITNESS LEVEL. If you can walk without limping, you can probably do F5. This individualization is accomplished by:

• Having each exercise broken down into three levels.  
  • Level-1 (L1) for people new to exercise and/or those currently injured.
  • Level-2 (L2) for those of average fitness that are starting to feel better, and gaining confidence.
  • Level-3 (L3) is challenging for just about anyone. I still can't max out all the reps of Level-3 and I have been at it for 2 years and counting.  
• Breaking difficulty level broken down by exercise, rather than by the whole routine.  This way you can fully customize your routine to work with your individual strengths, weaknesses, and current injuries. Such that you may be L1 on some exercises, and L2 or L3 on others. For example, I do L3 on all of S5 with the exception of SideOuts, where I stay at L1, because of a prior shoulder injury. FR was able to accommodate my unique injury history, and is designed to do the same for most people.
• Each level is further individualized by varying the repetition number, range of motion, and speed. For example a person just starting L1, unsure of what to expect, might do just 10 repetitions, slow and controlled, through a small range of motion. Over time, as confidence and strength increase they progresses through L1, increasing range of motion, repetitions, and speed. If and when the L1 goal is met, it's a smooth transition to L2, where the exercise intensity and complexity increases, but repetitions, range and speed are reduced as needed. Transitioning from L2 to L3 is similar. Small ways of making progress helps ensure continued progress is made.  
• L1 is designed to be weight insensitive, meaning that even though the exercises are bodyweight oriented, L1 has you only lifting part of your body, through a partial range of motion. In other words, even if you are fat or scrawny you can probably still do F5.
• F5 encourages weight optimization. Once you have your habit in place and appreciate the appeal of evident progress, with L2 and L3, it becomes more and more weight idealizing, steering your diet in the best direction. As I was approaching the upper limits of my L3 exercises, I had to think hard about whether I wanted to gain or lose a couple pounds. And if I made a wrong decision, my performance on each exercise very quickly let me know. The answer for me has consistently been that I need to gain muscle, but not too bulky of muscle, and continually become leaner. So more like a sprinter than a weightlifter or bodybuilder. I use intermittent fasting to do this, aggressively to burn fat, but not too aggressive or I'd feel weaker. I'm sure the fasting has helped with the lessening of my resting heart rate. As there is less mileage of blood vessels, and less fatty occlusion that I need to pump blood through.
• And finally, again, the USER RULES keep you safe. Common sense and well tested over the years in my physical therapy office helping discern if something is a good pain you should work through, or a bad pain you should avoid. With self testing and confidence in their use the user rules should keep you progressing while keeping you out of trouble.