Ron’s Story: From 5+ Years of Low Back Pain to a 295 lb Trap Bar Deadlift

Age: 53  |  Active in: Cycling & strength training  |  Condition: Chronic lower back pain (5–7 years)  |  Outcome: Pain resolved & trap-bar deadlift from 65 lb to 295 lb in 6 months

The Problem

Ron came to RXN Performance after living with lower back pain for between five and seven years. He’d already tried multiple chiropractors and physical therapists across Dallas. Nothing had given him lasting relief, and by the time he walked through our door he was actively researching surgical options.

He’s 53, loves cycling and the gym, and his back pain had progressively shrunk what he was willing to do in both. Strength training had backed off to almost nothing. Long rides were off the table.

What We Found in the Assessment

A targeted movement assessment told a different story than the imaging-and-surgery path Ron had been heading toward. Two root-cause findings drove the entire plan:

• A significant lack of left hip internal rotation. When one hip can’t rotate inward properly, the lumbar spine and SI joint pick up the slack on every step, every squat pattern, and every pedal stroke. Year after year, that compensation accumulates.
• An old injury pattern in the right SI joint that had never fully resolved — Ron’s pelvis was loading asymmetrically, and the lower back was the loudest place the body could complain about it.

Neither of those issues shows up on a standard MRI report. Both are exactly the kind of thing that gets missed when treatment focuses only on the area that hurts.

The Treatment Plan

Ron’s care combined three things over each visit:

• Joint mobility work on the left hip to restore internal rotation
• Soft-tissue and adjusting work around the right SI joint to break the old guarding pattern
• Progressive abdominal and lower back strength work — not “core exercises” in the rehab-cliché sense, but real loaded patterns that taught his trunk to brace and his hips to drive without his lumbar spine paying the price

The key shift: Ron was treated like an athlete being rebuilt, not a patient being managed.

The Outcome

Ron’s original goal was to be ready for a cycling trip to Taos, New Mexico in six months. He hit that goal early, and we pivoted.

He’d realized how much he loved the trap-bar deadlift, and we set a new target: rebuild that lift to a meaningful number, pain-free.

By the end of his care, Ron’s trap-bar deadlift went from 65 lb to 295 lb. In six months. With no lower back pain.

For context: that’s a 230-pound improvement on a movement he previously couldn’t load at all because of the very back pain he’d been told might require surgery.

“You gave me my life back, and I am very appreciative of that. I would love anybody who’s in my world to work with you if they needed help.”

— Ron, RXN Performance patient

Why This Worked When Other Care Hadn’t

The chiropractors and physical therapists Ron had seen weren’t wrong — they just weren’t looking far enough up the chain. His lower back was the symptom. His left hip and right SI joint were the cause. Treating only where it hurt produced temporary relief, never resolution.

At RXN Performance, every chronic lower back pain case starts with a full movement assessment for exactly this reason: the loudest joint in the room is rarely the one driving the problem.

Could This Work for Your Back Pain?

If you’ve been dealing with chronic lower back pain that hasn’t responded to other care — especially if surgery is starting to come up in conversations — a movement assessment is the right next step. We’ll figure out whether what worked for Ron is likely to work for you, and we’ll be honest if it isn’t.

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Written by Dr. Ryan Giniel, D.C., founder of RXN Performance in Uptown Dallas. More about Dr. Ryan →