The best prevention is prevention itself. To understand your body and make adjustments to your lifestyle in order to improve function and longevity.

Back pain in my experience comes by way of the following: Referred pain (originating from another area either through injury or imbalance but effecting the back), Genetics, Imbalance (Usually through repetition of movement through lifestyle choices causing the weakening of related muscles), Injury or accident.

In most cases, you can improve the health of your spine and back through exercise. This does not mean just lifting weights and doing cardio. Core related work, stretching, and targeting specific supporting muscles (depending on the issue) all play a part in combating back pain.

Ensuring you get adequate rest, keep hydrated, and make better food choices will assist. I am personally not a fan of relying on pain management medications simply because they can cause future health complications and generally mask the pain. They rarely fix the problem.

A thorough warm-up, balanced regular exercise routine followed by stretching after a workout while you cool down can be a huge preventative and rehabilitation component to combating back pain. By balanced exercise, I mean using all muscle groups throughout the workout week.

Focusing on the basics of exercise such as correct posture and breathing while keeping good form. Work on the core as opposed to just the abdominals. So Prone Holds instead of crunches.

Should a back issue occur either by injury, accident, or randomly your best bet is to head to a Dr for a preliminary examination and referral. Depending on the situation, you could be directed to a physical therapist, for a scan or just be told to rest. Consistent or frequently reoccurring issues should be taken seriously.

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The reason this feature is so sort after is it apparently represents peak physical health but most people are unaware of what other factors and sacrifices are made in this journey.

Few people have the genetics that allows for ‘easy abdominals. For the rest of us, its hard work over long periods of time. Usually sacrificing social occasions and standard high-calorie meals for simple clean meals like skinless chicken breast with steamed greens and high-intensity exercise. In short, you need to be in a consistent, controlled caloric deficit.

I believe that everyone should make better nutritional choices and keep active on a daily basis. Recording a starting weight, pictures, and measurements along with your daily food and fluid intake is the best way to begin. Use an app like My Fitness Pal to give you a relatively accurate calorie calculation per item of food and fluid. The average person roughly consumes 2000 calories per day, so you could aim for 100 calories less (1900) per day to start.

Be consistent with your exercise. You want to keep your health in mind so if exercising regularly, you will need to ensure enough food is consumed. At the end of each week, record your measurements, weight, and take pictures again. Use the same clothes and measure at the same time of day for accuracy.

Has there been a change? Weight can safely drop 600g – 800g per week. Consistently dropping over 1kg per week may cause that dreaded rebound effect in the future where your weight quickly climbs back on and then some! Remember that we are aiming to lower calories but not starve yourself.

Now I’m going to throw a real spanner in the works and mention that while you may be dropping calories, there may not be much change straight away or even in the first few weeks! This I’ve seen many times and it can be very disheartening. Compared to 20+ years ago we did not have near the number of convenience foods we have today! Years of packaged foods, takeaways to support our busy lifestyles, etc have caused a massive increase in gut-related health problems.

So how do we get around these problems and start trimming down our mid sections?

You must first start with your mindset. No one will bring you down or lift you up more than your own mind! Be thankful that you are in a position to change your condition. Next, we decide why we are doing this! Do you want to get on stage or do you want to have a flat stomach and be able to still make social events? If you want a shredded 6 pack then be prepared to go through a stage of feeling absolutely miserable! Anyone who has ventured here for the first time can attest that this process involves huge sacrifices both socially and personally.

This is why a 6 pack isn’t everything! You can still have visible abdominals, a flat stomach, eat regular food, and look healthy! This is a much more realistic goal to work towards. Please remember that your body is unique! You can only be responsible for yourself. Focusing on your path and consistency instead of someone else’s. Scrolling through social media looking at ‘perfect bodies’ is not always the best idea.

Now how do you feel about your gut health?

Is there any food or drink that you feel brings your mood down, or causes your stomach to bloat, cause gas or any skin reactions? Can be a real trial and error process but if you have an idea then the best thing to do is cut these foods/fluids out. Improving your gut health through probiotic and prebiotic foods/supplementation in my opinion is a good place to start. This will allow you to better process food and absorb nutrients. If a machine is to do a job effectively, you want it in good working order correct?

In summary, having that shredded 6 pack year-round for most of us is not the be-all and end-all. Focus on learning about your body, following a plan that you can keep consistent with, and regularly record your progress. The end game is a long and healthy life. No goal is worth you being unhappy and sacrificing your health.

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While there can be non-food related causes such as work/life stress, hormones, or other health complications, we are going to focus on the food aspect. In my experience and to keep this simple, bloating is the result of food not being accepted by the body due to the digestive system not working at optimum levels.

There is a huge list of causes, but I will focus on probably the most common which is lifestyle food choices. Meaning food, you eat on a regular basis that has over time shifted the balance of bacteria and upset the working order thus the overall health of your digestive system. I find the best way to reduce bloating is to limit food you know has a negative effect on your body. That is the easy part. The difficulty comes when you bloat from non-processed food and figuring out the cause. This can take some experimenting to determine.

Everyone is different. What works for a friend may not work for you. Try different methods and learn more about your body. Monitor bloating and energy levels. Common foods to avoid are packaged and processed foods, sweets, gluten, dairy, carbonated drinks, and onions. Sadly, even garlic and broccoli which are considered ‘superfoods’ can cause mysterious bloating. Dining out can be a problem due to unknown ingredients and preparation of some meals.

I would next suggest the following tips to help improve gut health and limit the occurrence of bloating:

• A course of live probiotics which are available from most pharmacies and health stores. Highly recommended if you have recently run a course of antibiotics. Some people have mentioned their stomachs felt a little grumbly after a few days, however this is your body trying to regain a good to bad bacteria balance.

• A glass of room temperature water upon waking. Lemon is a common addition. This is very easy on the stomach and will help rehydrate the body after a good night’s rest.

•  If you are someone who is not a fan of breakfast due to bloating, I would wait 2-3 hours before eating to allow the digestive system to work for you more efficiently. A small meal with added fiber such a smoothie with fruit and psyllium husk may be a good start. This is where fasting can be effective. An 8-hour eating window from 12pm to 8pm for example.

• Greens! The darker the better. High in fibre, usually light on the stomach and packed with nutrients.

• Aim to wait at least an hour after eating before you exercise. Allow the body time to break down your food. Same goes with after training. Your digestive system slows down during training as it is not required much during the exercise process. Have you ever felt bloated drinking too much water or having a protein shake straight after training? If you have eaten a good hour prior, your body should have what it needs nutrient wise. Let your digestive system kick back into gear before you eat.

• Start with smaller meals, then a larger lunch. Afternoon tea and dinner can be smaller again. This will help your stomach digest your food more effectively before getting ready for bed.

• A herbal tea such a peppermint or ginger, honey and lemon is gentle on the stomach, aids digestion and lowers inflammation.

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