The Car Accident That Started It All
At 14 years old, in the winter of 1989, I was cycling to school when a car cut the corner ahead of me and hit me. It struck my left thigh with its front bumper and I went up over the bonnet. The next thing I remember is sitting in the road surrounded by people who had come to help. At hospital they checked for a broken femur, said I was okay and discharged me with no treatment. For weeks I limped with a dead leg which eventually seemed to heal, but the real damage was to affect me for the next 30 years.
Why Standard Treatments Didn’t Fix My Chronic Back Pain
At 16 I started going to Atlanta Gym on Clifton Moor in York, thinking the car accident was behind me. I had been referred to an NHS physio for neck massage but had no idea this was anything to do with it. By 17 I had started driving lessons despite constant lower back pain. But the end of each one I was so sore that I had to do stretches the NHS had given me as soon as I got home. They didn’t do any good though. For years my birthday and Christmas presents were massage gels, massage balls, foam rollers, heat packs and ice packs. They offered temporary relief but ultimately didn’t help either.
In 2000 I was 25 and from here onwards I was regularly hurting my back. Sometimes in the gym sometimes not. Over the next few years I had many massages from many physios and therapists, private and NHS. But they only worked on the lower right side of my back where the pain was. None of them touched the lower left side. And none of them would work on loosening my hips or glutes, which is where my research had led me to believe the source of the problem was.
Why Even A Good Massage Isn’t Enough
In 2005 I completed my first qualification in massage to learn how to fix myself. Then in 2008 I qualified as an advanced personal trainer. I learned a lot about anatomy, massage technique, exercise programming and weight loss but my issues were too complex and specific for standard approaches to fix. To my clients and the people I worked with everything was fine, but it definitely wasn’t.
In 2009 I thought things were looking up when I finally found someone who massaged glutes and hips. She told me mine were the tightest she had ever massaged and “like concrete”. Sadly even this wasn’t enough to create real, lasting change though. While she was very competent at massage she was unable to offer any diagnosis or targeted plan, so the issues all quickly returned. I had also been getting intermittent knee pain, especially on the right, though not enough that it stopped me working out. But with increasing regularity my back pain was so bad I was spending a week on the floor with an ice pack. Plus my knees had worsened to the point that even with knee wraps I couldn’t train properly. This forced me to learn how to make exercises harder without adding more weight. For example, full range of movement on all exercises, slow eccentrics, pause reps, much shorter rests between sets, no bouncing, unilateral exercises etc. In other words, as close to perfect technique as possible. This helped me to keep training, but it wasn’t fixing the problem.
My Ah-Ha Moment
While massaging me the therapist once asked what had happened to my leg. I had no idea what had caused the indentation on my left thigh. It had always been there as far as I knew. But as I thought about it I suddenly realised the cause of my 20 years of musculoskeletal problems. The car accident hadn’t damaged my back, but it had damaged the quad muscles in my left thigh. It was bad enough to cause a limp that lasted several weeks. By the time I started going to the gym at 16 those muscles had already become tight and guarded for protection. This meant my right leg was having to do more work to compensate. The more I had trained the more the guarding and scar tissue had spread into my glutes and lower back. And the more this happened the more the right side had to compensate for my left. I didn’t need to do more exercises, as I had always been told by NHS and private physios. I needed to unlock and release those muscles and then restore their strength.
Once I knew the exact cause of my chronic lower back pain wasn’t my lower back or even my glutes, it was my left quad, I could concentrate on fixing it. For many months I painstakingly used tennis balls, cricket balls, foam rollers and targeted stretching to loosen everything up. And I continued focussing on perfect technique at the gym rather than the weight lifted. As well as concentrating on isolation exercises for each muscle as it was loosened and began working again. This included the glute medius, glute minimus and Tensor Fasciae Latae (TFL), as well as my erector spinae muscles which had bore the brunt of the symptoms. As I did this the knowledge I gained enabled me to train and massage clients with a greater understanding, which helped me, and in turn helped them further.
Current Performance
As of today, April 2026, I can’t remember the last time I had lower back pain, let alone a back injury. As I have always done I train completely naturally, with no steroids, HGH, TRT or any other assistance or performance enhancing drugs. At 12 stone 8lb and beltless I now lift heavy and pain free. This includes a 300kg Leg Press for 5 reps and a 350kg Reverse Hack Squat for 5 reps. I tell you this to demonstrate that my 30+ years of chronic back pain is a thing of the past. And it can be for you too. Even if you’ve seen numerous private and NHS physios, had countless sports massages, chiropractor, osteopath and acupuncture appointments over many years. I literally spent decades meticulously analysing my own compensation patterns, muscle tightness and imbalances. As well as 1000’s of hours doing the same for others. See my Google reviews for client feedback
I don’t just listen to where you say it hurts, I want to know what’s causing it. It’s rarely the same thing. I observe how you’re standing when we first meet, how you shift your weight and how your body moves. This often lets me identify the true source of your pain before the session even begins.
Why This Matters For You
My decades long story doesn’t need to be yours. I can treat your recurring twinge before it becomes something more serious or long term. And if it already is long term, don’t assume it’s something you’ll just have to live with. You could go the same route I did with years of trial and error, tennis balls and foam rollers. You could try to figure out which exercise is best to strengthen the newly released muscle. Or you can contact me to do it for you in a few sessions. I specialise in helping people with “untreatable” issues, chronic back pain, and old injury compensations who want to train stronger and move better without simply masking the symptoms.
My work is not limited to the resolution of chronic or acute pain. I apply the same mechanical understanding to Swedish massage. I see it not merely as relaxation but as preventative maintenance. A regular, high-quality Swedish massage can identify and release minor guarding patterns and tension to help you avoid the type of systemic failure I experienced.
How To Book Your Massage In York
If you would like to book a mobile sports massage in York please contact me on 07713 250352 or email david@massageinyork.co.uk. For more information on booking click here