Case Study: Resolving Unexplained "Phantom" Core Pain & Restoring Biomechanical Stability
Case Study: Resolving Unexplained "Phantom" Core Pain & Restoring Biomechanical Stability
Client: Michele
Primary Condition: Persistent, unexplained core pain ("phantom pain") following childbirth.
Prior Treatments: Medical evaluations provided no structural diagnosis; traditional physical therapy failed to produce lasting relief.
UNSTOPPABLE Protocol: Whole-body movement diagnostic, root-cause imbalance targeting, progressive bracing mechanics, and load vs. capacity management.
The Initial Assessment: Identifying the True Weak Links
When Michele came to us, doctors and physical therapists had been unable to pinpoint the true source of her pain or provide her with lasting relief. They told her it was something she would have to live with. Rather than treating her symptoms locally, we assessed her entire biomechanical chain to discover how each part of her body was working together.
What Our Movement Diagnostic Revealed:
Flexibility & Mobility:
- Overall flexibility was good.
- Significant restriction in Thoracic Spine rotation when twisting to the left.
Strength & Stability Imbalances:
- Squat Pattern: Right leg was significantly weaker than the left.
- Single-Leg Deadlift Pattern: Right leg showed severe instability compared to the left.
- Core Stability: Right side of the core showed poor stabilization and lower overall strength than the left.
- Shoulder Mechanics: Right shoulder experienced acute pain during upward pulling movements. Left shoulder was pain-free but lacked stability and motor confidence.
- Posterior Chain: Right lat was visibly weaker and less engaged than the left.
Despite being right-handed, Michele’s entire right side had developed significant structural stiffness over time as a compensation for being vastly weaker than her left side. This often happens and is the body’s way of protecting the weak side from doing things it isn’t capable of doing. However, this protection mechanism means the weak side just gets weaker if not addressed.
Uncovering the Trigger: An Unplanned Neurological Response
Michele described her discomfort as an unpredictable, “ripping” sensation deep within her core. It would start out mild, then intensify over a week or two, then go away on its own. It was inconsistent, with no obvious pattern, trigger, or clear method of relief.
However, she did note one scenario that consistently triggered the sensation: when riding in the car while her husband was driving, if she leaned forward to grab something off the floor and he slammed on the brakes, that sudden movement instantly brought on severe core pain.
This detail provided a critical diagnostic clue. It revealed that her body lacked automatic, reflexive bracing. Her core could not protect itself against sudden, unplanned physical stimuli, causing her nervous system to lock up and register pain. That information, combined with the results from her strength testing, gave us our starting point.
Phase 1: Rebuilding Core Responsiveness & Diaphragmatic Control
To teach Michele how to react to sudden movement, we first had to teach her how to brace correctly under controlled conditions.
Most people mistake core bracing for pulling the belly button in toward the spine and tightening their core muscles. This is great for aesthetics, but true functional bracing requires diaphragmatic control - creating intra-abdominal pressure that acts as an internal weight belt to stabilize the spine and pelvis.
Diaphragmatic Re-Education: We asked Michele to lie on the floor on her back, with her legs elevated on a box at 90 degrees and just breathe normally. This position is comfortable for most and eliminates unwanted distractions or inputs so that the client can focus on their breathing. Assessing her natural breathing, we observed a chest-dominant pattern (chest rising before stomach). We cued her to transition to true diaphragmatic breathing to create a wave-like pattern, with her belly rising first, then her chest.
Creating Tension: Once she mastered diaphragmatic breathing, we taught her to create tension around that air volume before initiating movement.
Upright Progression: While Michele mastered bracing while lying down, standing up immediately caused her to regress into chest breathing and elevating he shoulders. We systematically progressed her bracing mechanics from static ground positions to standing, and finally were able to integrate movement.
The Target Exercise Protocol
While Michele worked on her breathing everyday in order to learn to properly brace during movement, we prescribed a targeted weekly protocol to rebuild her weakest links. We addressed the lowest-hanging fruit first, giving the right side of her body extra volume to eliminate side-to-side imbalances.
Pallof Press:
- Prescription: 3 sets of 10 reps per side (weekly).
- Notes: An extra set was added to her right side to help it become as strong as her left side
Floor-Elevated Split Squats:
- Prescription: 3 sets of 8 reps per side (weekly).
- Notes: Started from the ground up because her right leg initially lacked the stability and range to touch her knee to the floor from a standing start.
Single-Leg Heel Drops:
- Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps per side (twice weekly).
- Notes: Prescribed an extra set on the right leg to help it become as strong as her left side.
Side-Lying Thoracic Band Rotations:
- Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps per side (twice weekly).
- Notes: Prescribed an extra set working toward the left to restore restricted Thoracic Spine mobility.
We prescribed these exercises for Michele first because they targeted her weakest areas. Improving these areas first would allow Michele to see progress the soonest, because if the intense pain in her core were solved, it would allow us to do so much more.
Why Core-to-Extremity First?
The body is designed to generate power and stability from the core outward toward the limbs. With severe core dysfunction and asymmetry, Michele was automatically at a disadvantage in her daily movements and definitely during workouts. This is why we took a core-to-extremity approach with Michele. It would have been impossible to make meaningful progress without first addressing this issue. By addressing her core and pelvic foundation first, we created a stable foundation for her entire body to operate safely.
Results & Navigating Setbacks
Within 2 months, Michele’s core pain had decreased significantly. By the 3-month mark, she had been entirely free of her primary pain for a full month.
However, long-term rehabilitation is non-linear. Navigating setbacks and managing flare-ups is an expected part of the process.
1. Managing Practical Setbacks
When uncontrollable setbacks hit, we focus on what we can control. During our time together, Michelle’s family got sick. This put a pause to our in-person sessions temporarily. Rather than letting this stall her momentum, we transitioned to a strategic home movement routine using exercises she already had mastered with us and that we knew would benefit her recovery. She executed her home program until her family recovered and she returned to the gym without losing ground.
2. Resolving a Flare-Up (Load vs. Capacity)
Later in the program, Michele experienced a sudden flare-up of core pain without a specific correlated event. Instead of panicking, we audited her Load vs Capacity variables:
Recovery Factors: Her sleep quality had dropped significantly over the last few weeks leading up to the onset of pain, and work-related stress had spiked.
Training Factors: We had recently increased her workout intensity and introduced new, more challenging movement patterns to match her progress.
The Diagnosis: Her physical output and external stress had exceeded her body’s current recovery capacity.
The Action Plan: We did not stop training; instead, we intelligently dialed her volume back to the previous week’s baseline. We stayed here for about 3 weeks. This allowed her nervous system to calm down with a familiar routine, while giving her time to restore her sleep and recovery habits. Once her recovery habits were back on track, we re-introduced the higher training stimulus. This time, she handled it with zero pain response.
The Conclusion: Long-Term Independence & Freedom
Today, Michele is no longer sidelined by unexplained, phantom core pain. By identifying the hidden structural imbalances that traditional medicine missed, we didn’t just manage her symptoms; we demystified her pain and eliminated the root cause.
Michele didn’t need to “just live with it,” nor did she need endless passive treatments. She needed a custom biomechanical blueprint, precise coaching, and a clear system for managing her recovery.
This is the core philosophy of UNSTOPPABLE Training: We assess the whole body, fix the foundation, and give you the tools and confidence to stay pain-free for life.
Client: Michele
Primary Condition: Persistent, unexplained core pain ("phantom pain") following childbirth.
Prior Treatments: Medical evaluations provided no structural diagnosis; traditional physical therapy failed to produce lasting relief.
UNSTOPPABLE Protocol: Whole-body movement diagnostic, root-cause imbalance targeting, progressive bracing mechanics, and load vs. capacity management.
The Initial Assessment: Identifying the True Weak Links
When Michele came to us, doctors and physical therapists had been unable to pinpoint the true source of her pain or provide her with lasting relief. They told her it was something she would have to live with. Rather than treating her symptoms locally, we assessed her entire biomechanical chain to discover how each part of her body was working together.
What Our Movement Diagnostic Revealed:
Flexibility & Mobility:
- Overall flexibility was good.
- Significant restriction in Thoracic Spine rotation when twisting to the left.
Strength & Stability Imbalances:
- Squat Pattern: Right leg was significantly weaker than the left.
- Single-Leg Deadlift Pattern: Right leg showed severe instability compared to the left.
- Core Stability: Right side of the core showed poor stabilization and lower overall strength than the left.
- Shoulder Mechanics: Right shoulder experienced acute pain during upward pulling movements. Left shoulder was pain-free but lacked stability and motor confidence.
- Posterior Chain: Right lat was visibly weaker and less engaged than the left.
Despite being right-handed, Michele’s entire right side had developed significant structural stiffness over time as a compensation for being vastly weaker than her left side. This often happens and is the body’s way of protecting the weak side from doing things it isn’t capable of doing. However, this protection mechanism means the weak side just gets weaker if not addressed.
Uncovering the Trigger: An Unplanned Neurological Response
Michele described her discomfort as an unpredictable, “ripping” sensation deep within her core. It would start out mild, then intensify over a week or two, then go away on its own. It was inconsistent, with no obvious pattern, trigger, or clear method of relief.
However, she did note one scenario that consistently triggered the sensation: when riding in the car while her husband was driving, if she leaned forward to grab something off the floor and he slammed on the brakes, that sudden movement instantly brought on severe core pain.
This detail provided a critical diagnostic clue. It revealed that her body lacked automatic, reflexive bracing. Her core could not protect itself against sudden, unplanned physical stimuli, causing her nervous system to lock up and register pain. That information, combined with the results from her strength testing, gave us our starting point.
Phase 1: Rebuilding Core Responsiveness & Diaphragmatic Control
To teach Michele how to react to sudden movement, we first had to teach her how to brace correctly under controlled conditions.
Most people mistake core bracing for pulling the belly button in toward the spine and tightening their core muscles. This is great for aesthetics, but true functional bracing requires diaphragmatic control - creating intra-abdominal pressure that acts as an internal weight belt to stabilize the spine and pelvis.
Diaphragmatic Re-Education: We asked Michele to lie on the floor on her back, with her legs elevated on a box at 90 degrees and just breathe normally. This position is comfortable for most and eliminates unwanted distractions or inputs so that the client can focus on their breathing. Assessing her natural breathing, we observed a chest-dominant pattern (chest rising before stomach). We cued her to transition to true diaphragmatic breathing to create a wave-like pattern, with her belly rising first, then her chest.
Creating Tension: Once she mastered diaphragmatic breathing, we taught her to create tension around that air volume before initiating movement.
Upright Progression: While Michele mastered bracing while lying down, standing up immediately caused her to regress into chest breathing and elevating he shoulders. We systematically progressed her bracing mechanics from static ground positions to standing, and finally were able to integrate movement.
The Target Exercise Protocol
While Michele worked on her breathing everyday in order to learn to properly brace during movement, we prescribed a targeted weekly protocol to rebuild her weakest links. We addressed the lowest-hanging fruit first, giving the right side of her body extra volume to eliminate side-to-side imbalances.
Pallof Press:
- Prescription: 3 sets of 10 reps per side (weekly).
- Notes: An extra set was added to her right side to help it become as strong as her left side
Floor-Elevated Split Squats:
- Prescription: 3 sets of 8 reps per side (weekly).
- Notes: Started from the ground up because her right leg initially lacked the stability and range to touch her knee to the floor from a standing start.
Single-Leg Heel Drops:
- Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps per side (twice weekly).
- Notes: Prescribed an extra set on the right leg to help it become as strong as her left side.
Side-Lying Thoracic Band Rotations:
- Prescription: 2 sets of 10 reps per side (twice weekly).
- Notes: Prescribed an extra set working toward the left to restore restricted Thoracic Spine mobility.
We prescribed these exercises for Michele first because they targeted her weakest areas. Improving these areas first would allow Michele to see progress the soonest, because if the intense pain in her core were solved, it would allow us to do so much more.
Why Core-to-Extremity First?
The body is designed to generate power and stability from the core outward toward the limbs. With severe core dysfunction and asymmetry, Michele was automatically at a disadvantage in her daily movements and definitely during workouts. This is why we took a core-to-extremity approach with Michele. It would have been impossible to make meaningful progress without first addressing this issue. By addressing her core and pelvic foundation first, we created a stable foundation for her entire body to operate safely.
Results & Navigating Setbacks
Within 2 months, Michele’s core pain had decreased significantly. By the 3-month mark, she had been entirely free of her primary pain for a full month.
However, long-term rehabilitation is non-linear. Navigating setbacks and managing flare-ups is an expected part of the process.
1. Managing Practical Setbacks
When uncontrollable setbacks hit, we focus on what we can control. During our time together, Michelle’s family got sick. This put a pause to our in-person sessions temporarily. Rather than letting this stall her momentum, we transitioned to a strategic home movement routine using exercises she already had mastered with us and that we knew would benefit her recovery. She executed her home program until her family recovered and she returned to the gym without losing ground.
2. Resolving a Flare-Up (Load vs. Capacity)
Later in the program, Michele experienced a sudden flare-up of core pain without a specific correlated event. Instead of panicking, we audited her Load vs Capacity variables:
Recovery Factors: Her sleep quality had dropped significantly over the last few weeks leading up to the onset of pain, and work-related stress had spiked.
Training Factors: We had recently increased her workout intensity and introduced new, more challenging movement patterns to match her progress.
The Diagnosis: Her physical output and external stress had exceeded her body’s current recovery capacity.
The Action Plan: We did not stop training; instead, we intelligently dialed her volume back to the previous week’s baseline. We stayed here for about 3 weeks. This allowed her nervous system to calm down with a familiar routine, while giving her time to restore her sleep and recovery habits. Once her recovery habits were back on track, we re-introduced the higher training stimulus. This time, she handled it with zero pain response.
The Conclusion: Long-Term Independence & Freedom
Today, Michele is no longer sidelined by unexplained, phantom core pain. By identifying the hidden structural imbalances that traditional medicine missed, we didn’t just manage her symptoms; we demystified her pain and eliminated the root cause.
Michele didn’t need to “just live with it,” nor did she need endless passive treatments. She needed a custom biomechanical blueprint, precise coaching, and a clear system for managing her recovery.
This is the core philosophy of UNSTOPPABLE Training: We assess the whole body, fix the foundation, and give you the tools and confidence to stay pain-free for life.
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Not Fitness.
Axiomatic Protocols for Outliers Refusing Physical Limits.
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Not Physical Therapy.
Not Fitness.
Axiomatic Protocols for Outliers Refusing Physical Limits.