Sylvain Kalache
mountain biking, hiking, diving, climbing
Born and Raised in France, now a San Francisco native and entrepreneur who can’t go a day without cheese. He is the Co-founder of Holberton School; a college alternative for Software Engineers that is free until students find a job.
Summary
Patient presented to Motus a chronic 2 + year history of constant debilitating low back pain. He had multiple rounds of physical therapy, chiropractic and even saw an alternative care practitioner without success. He was beginning to feel hopeless and after receiving a personal recommendation he decided to try a different approach to his care
Problem & History
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Moderate to severe low back muscle atrophy with overuse of secondary back stabilizers allowing an increased compressive load on the spine, stressing both the joints and discs of the spine. This resulted in intolerance to any prolonged activity or inactivity: sitting, standing, walking etc.
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Due to the fact that he was unable to tolerate any impact he also reported shin splints which prevented him from running/sport.
Solution
- Initial focus was on pain management which we achieved with regular soft tissue work and joint mobilizations/adjustments. This allowed temporary change in his pain cycle so we could start to build new movement patterns and break the old.
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After this initial tendious process we began to slowly load the patient to tolerance to build up his trunk/core strength isolating the atrophied back muscles with resisted/weighted exercises.
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Lastly, we added back in activity, building to tolerance while we continued to strengthen the patient.

Results
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After 6 weeks pain reduced, within 2 months patients pain was minimal and finally after 3 months the patient was back to activity and is now running and cycling pain free after 2 + years of not being able too.
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Update: Patient signed up for his first 1/2 marathon in 3 years!
To phrase this simply…
it has been life changing for me
Yelp Review
A word from the founder
“Low back injuries are a nasty reality to live with and are more debilitating than the top 3 diseases in the US combined. The pain and suffering can be relentless, shrinking their lives and limiting activity. It commonly drives patients to feel hopeless and can lead to depression. However despite what we are seeing now, back pain does not have to be a life sentence. It brings us great joy and we are honored to have made such a positive difference.”
Dr. Lindsay StephensDC, CCSP, FMT