Recovering from spinal injuries is hard, but Professor Ishaque is uniquely qualified in how to treat them, as a spinal surgeon and as someone who successfully recovered from a disc herniation. Read below why Professor Ishaque believes that The Musher can help prevent and treat spinal injuries like his.
“Two years ago, I ruptured a disc in my back and the pain was so severe, I passed out in agony. The following morning, I woke up with a paralysed right leg. Being a spinal surgeon, I guessed what had happened, but it felt very surreal. The images are the MRI of my back which show a large disc bulge/prolapse/herniation severely pressing on my spinal nerves. Rather than panic, I dealt with it methodically. I believe surgery should be the last resort, so I followed my own mantra. Within a week, I could walk again unaided, albeit with a floppy foot, but because the damage to the nerves was so severe, I had no pain. Unfortunately, over the next two years as my nerves woke up, so did the pain. Having spinal injections, taking medication regularly and working with my physio Sarah Duncton and personal trainer Laura I built up my weak and wasted right leg and worked on my core strength and stability. I thought I knew how important the core is to back stability, but I soon began to realise quite how important it really is first-hand. That is why I was so keen and grateful to be given the opportunity to be involved with the development of The Musher by Luke Porter. Although I wouldn’t want to go through the pain again, as I reflect on the last two years, I know the experience has definitely made me a better doctor and with development of The Musher hopefully be able to help many people going forward with both the pre-habilitation and rehabilitation of their backs.”
Contents
General:
- Back pain is now the world’s leading cause of disability.
- Worldwide, years lived with disability caused by low back pain have increased by 54% between 1990 and 2015.
- Most people with low back pain recover, however reoccurrence is common and for small percentage of people the condition will become chronic and disabling.
- Most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic—meaning they are not caused by serious conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture or cancer.
- Back pain is the third most common reason for visits to the doctor’s office, behind skin disorders and osteoarthritis/joint disorders.
- Back pain can affect people of all ages, from adolescents to the elderly.
- Back pain affects half the population in a given month and close to 90% of people at some point in their life.
- Every year in the UK, more than 2 million people develop chronic or persistent back pain that may never go away.
- 70% of people with back pain said it impacted their ability to work.
- 80% of people with back pain said it impacted their home life.
- 83% of people with back pain said it impacted their ability to take part in leisure activities.
Economic Cost:
- In the US, the overall economic cost of back pain has now just reached £2 billion.
- Living with persistent back pain is associated with significantly higher rates of job loss, divorce, depression and suicide.
- 12 million hours of work are lost every year due to back pain in the UK.
- Managing back pain costs the UK government more than cancer and diabetes combined. Most of these costs are related to treating people with ongoing pain.
- Low-back pain costs Americans at least $50 billion in health care costs each year – add in lost wages and decreased productivity and that figure easily rises to more than $100 billion.
Golf
- Based on data collected at TPI from over 31,000 golfers, 28.1% of all players deal with lower back pain after every round.
- Altered motor control or joint mechanics in golf leads to 80% of all chronic back problems
- According to TPI, over 23% of pro golfers already play with lower back pain.
- The prevalence of low back injuries in professional golfers has been estimated to be up to 55%.
Cycling
- 58% of cyclists have had back pain.
- In a study on 116 professional road cyclists, 94% of the cyclists had suffered some kind of overuse injury during that period.
- 41% of cyclists have had to get medical attention due to back pain.
- In a study on 116 professional road cyclists, 94% of the cyclists had suffered some kind of overuse injury during that period.
- In another study of 111 Swiss elite cyclists, 51.4% of athletes had severe back pain in competition.
Baseball
- Often affecting players new to the game, poor form while pitching and batting can place added pressure on facet joints and other vulnerable parts of the spine.
- Back and core injuries may represent as many as 12% of all injuries that result in time out of play from MLB
- 59.7% of baseball players show signs of disc degeneration
- 89.5% of the baseball players studied reported having low back pain at some point during their life
Cricket
- For fast bowlers, back pain causes 30% of lost game time.
- Fast bowlers have an unusually high prevalence of up to 67%, compared with the general population, in which the prevalence is about 6%.
- On average, around 9% of cricketers have an injury at any given time, although in fast bowlers over 15% are injured at any given time.
- Research has suggested that bowling is by far the most common cause of injuries in cricket (41%).
March 2021 – Londoner Joe Miller, a 2-time World Long Drive Champion, is already one of the World’s most recognised Long Drivers, but is also extremely popular within golf, health and fitness too. Due to his cross-category status in golf, well-being, strength and fitness, Joe was an obvious choice to work with The Musher Team, moving forwards.
The Musher is therefore proud to announce it has secured Joe Miller, as its Brand Ambassador on a multi-year sponsorship, which will increase visibility to the product as it ventures forward in its multi-sport and multi-use offering.
What is the Musher? The Musher is an innovative exercising accessory that can be used at home or at the gym. The Musher enables individuals to improve core muscle strength, whether you are a gym regular or you do occasional workouts at the home, outdoors or in the gym – The Musher is suited for ALL fitness levels and ALL ages*.
The Musher was co-developed between Professor Mushtaque Ishaque, a Consultant Spinal Surgeon, and the Inventor of The Musher, Luke Porter. Luke is incredibly passionate about Joe’s addition to the Musher Team, stating “Rotational strength is important for all aspects of every-day living and sports. Joe is a great ambassador for The Musher as rotational strength and rotational control are critical for his profession, whether he’s chipping, putting or hitting World record drives. We are very pleased that Joe’s exercise insights are a natural fit for the benefits The Musher can bring“.
Very few golfers have possessed the physique, power and technique of the extraordinary Joe Miller, and fitness, core strength and versality, plus all other notable benefits, is what made the decision to work with The Musher an easy one. “For me personally, I’m all about core strength, good secure rotation, speed and mobility, so this device ticks all the boxes! When you pair that with injury prevention, or even rehabilitation, clearly the medical thinking behind it is what makes it that extra credible. I’m excited to see how it develops my sport and health interests, where I can measure the positive impacts it will no doubt provide. I’m excited to be a part of a dynamic and forward-thinking team”.
The Musher will soon be rolling out two additional products to its Original Musher Pro, by adding a Musher Lite and Musher Elite, increasing its versality and usage options.
*supervised use for the younger generation
For Media Enquiries, contact George Gros on +44 (0)7970-804019
In nearly all sports there is much said about the “visualisation” which is used by competitors before action is set in motion. In particular, leading golfers have exceptional clarity of what they are looking to achieve with each shot. Golfers often refer to the “feel” which a visualised shot gives and then attempt to experience this feel through the execution of the shot.
One big question is how this process of visualisation and feeling for a shot becomes something which the golfer actually physically experiences when the shot is executed.
One of the main sensations golfers actually experience when executing a stroke is how the shot feels through the feet. The feet and toes are very sensitive things and need to be because they have a key job of both sensing and providing muscle engagement in keeping us balanced and upright. So, adding the complication of swinging a club around the body at some speed on a very precise path brings a large range of factors into play.
It is not therefore surprising that a good number of golf instructors place particular importance on improving footwork. As the golf swing is principally a rotational motion and a golf club is relatively light in weight, one good option for improving the muscle feel and strength for footwork is to present an appropriate rotational resistance as an exercise. The Musher is an excellent option for this as it engages both the feet, and the core body muscles in a way that closely reflects the muscle sensation when swinging a club. This ground up physical experience may be the transformational step needing to be taken for better golf!