The Foundational Skill for Reversing Chronic Back Pain: Recovery Through Body Awareness

In this episode, Dr. Ryan Peebles, Doctor of Physical Therapy and founder of Core Balance Training, explains the single most valuable skill anyone can develop to reverse chronic back pain: listening to your body. Drawing from years of clinical experience and his own recovery journey, he breaks down why pain is communication, not an enemy, and how learning to interpret your body’s signals can guide every decision you make. Ryan discusses why most people stay stuck in the pain cycle, how to identify the activities that help versus harm, and why only you can feel the sensations that matter most. He also explains how to use body awareness to determine how much exercise you should do, the importance of reaching an appropriate level of challenge, and why rigid “sets and reps” don’t work for real-life back pain recovery. This episode covers: Why listening to your body is the foundational skill for reversing back pain How pain acts as communication and why it’s often misinterpreted The importance of reflecting on daily activities to identify triggers Why good sensations matter and how to notice them beneath the pain How the back-pain cycle works and how to break it How to know exactly how much to exercise using your body’s feedback Why rigid “3 sets of 10” protocols fail most people with pain Why posture, muscle imbalances, and predictable patterns influence recovery How Core Balance Training uses neuromuscular re-education to rebuild movement Listener Q&A: degeneration at L5–S1, upper/mid-back pain, inversion tables, forward-head posture, TFL/quad overuse, SI joint injury Why nothing in the CBT program can harm you—and how to adapt if you’re acute Watch the free Core Balance Masterclass and start your 7-day free trial to experience the Back Anchor lesson and begin retraining your movement patterns from the inside out: https://www.corebalancetraining.com/masterclass Disclaimer: All content is for educational purposes only. Consult a qualified healthcare professional before beginning any exercise or rehabilitation program. Episode Chapters 00:00:00 – The most valuable skill for reversing back pain 00:01:30 – Why pain is communication, not the enemy 00:04:30 – Linking pain signals to your daily activities 00:07:00 – Good sensations: the signals most people overlook 00:10:00 – Breaking the pain cycle through awareness and small changes 00:15:00 – How to use body awareness to guide exercise 00:18:00 – Challenge, fatigue, and why sets/reps don’t work 00:25:00 – Q&A: severe L5–S1 degeneration and realistic improvement 00:30:00 – Q&A: inversion tables, decompression, and delayed reactions 00:39:00 – Q&A: forward-head posture and adapting to discomfort 00:42:00 – Q&A: shoulder tension, compensation, and firing-pattern retraining 00:45:00 – Q&A: TFL/quad overuse in bridges and simple fixes 00:50:30 – Q&A: SI joint injury, referral pain, and whether CBT is safe