The Weekend Trader – Huge Trader Lesson on Back Health & Why Holistic Trading is Paramount

Note: Comments have been activated for today’s post in light of the health discussion which may benefit many traders.

When we think of the term “holistic”, we typically think of health … and certainly not trading.

Miriam Webster defines “holistic” as follows:

Relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts.

And based on the last two months of “back” hell that I’ve experienced – along with its accompanying journey to neurosurgeons, radiologists, chiropractors, physical therapists, massage therapists, primary care physicians, and … well, you get the picture – and the final SOLUTION (more on that discovery below … which may help many a ton of traders), I’m convinced more than ever of the need for a comprehensive approach to everything in life from health to, yes — trading.

Frankly, I don’t know how the heck June was a profitable trading month as I had to battle through one of the greatest focus challenges of my life – not to mention doctor appointments once or twice a week – but I suppose years of trading tends to toughen one just a bit.   But I digress.

OK, first let me explain my back journey of the last two months.

As Jellie Team #8 knows, I’ve essentially been dealing with what has felt like a knife in my upper back for about two months.  And the pain got so bad that the first day of Team #8 was deferred by a day as I had to head to the E.R. to deal with excruciating pain and tingling in all four extremities.

And while I won’t bore you with all of the details, suffice it to say that I discovered both the cause and solution in a way that none of the above-mentioned specialists with their years of training and fancy degrees could.  And that “way” was often Googling everything I could about every symptom — no matter how minor — that I was experiencing.

Frankly, I must have spent at least a hundred hours searching, researching, and looking under every rock in the virtual world before I stumbled across two sites where the giant proverbial light bulb went on in blinding fashion.

OK, many of you know I’ve had back issues over the years.  And much of the maintenance was a regular visit to my chriopractor and — and this is ironically where the problem started – to a massage specialist who beginning in January spent 90 minutes on my back every Friday … in part for stress relief, but moreso to keep that upper back in good shape.

And for the first three months this year, my back was the best it had been in during my entire life.  And the massages felt GREAT as each time she’d spend the first 45 minutes kneading my upper back muscles which often included use of her elbow to flatten out the rough spots.

Then in May, all hell broke loose.  For out of nowhere and after feeling the best I have in years, I developed a dull pain in the center of my upper back, which within a few weeks that pain escalated to the most excruciating constant knife-like pain I’ve ever felt.

OK, now to a few of the specialist reactions:

The MRI showed typical 50-year aging of the spine in a number of areas (MRIs often read far worse than you really are),but nothing warranted surgery and so the neurosurgeons recommended the typical route of oral steroids (which I refused to take) physical therapy (pain management, massage, rehab) and possibly cortisone shots in the back if things didn’t improve within a few weeks.

My chiropractor recommended continued adjustments, massage, cold laser therapy, a ton of Fish Oil and Vitamin D to combat the inflammation.

My physical therapist performed ultrasound, stim, and massage.

Nothing worked, and if anything, the various treatements made conditions worse.

And nothing made sense.  For how could my back go from the best it had been in years to this in only a few weeks?????

I reached out to my Christian friends, business associates, and Emmaus team members for prayer and insight.

Well, if you’ve read this far and figured it out, it took you a lot shorter time than it took me to figure things out.

For in the end, it was all about the massage.

Not only did that wonderful weekly session cause the problem, the recommended subsequent massages by EVERY specialist actually worsened the condition.

For what I discovered is that for people that spend much of their life bending forward, the WORST thing you can do is have your upper back muscles lengthened.  And stretching/lengthening back muscles is EXACTLY what massages are intended to do.

Think about it.  At my end, I spend hour upon hour in front of a PC trading, teaching, writing, etc., I use my Droid at least 20 times a day which tilts the head down, I stoop a bit to get into my compact BMW 3-Series, etc. etc.  And we all know that all of those actions result in weak, stretched back muscles.

Deep massage?

Absolutely the worst thing you could do … UNLESS it was far lighter AND accompanied by an equal strengthening program for those same muscles AND a stretching program to stretch/loosen the opposing tight & shrunk chest muscles (the effect caused by the lengthened muscles in the back).

But without those qualifiers, having a deep upper back massage for people like me is like adding gasoline to the bonfire.

Thankfully, through the grace of God I was led to research two highly unusual symptoms that I was experiencing.  A fire/burning type sensation, and a tremendous itching sensation between the shoulder blades that I felt during the actual massages, and again during my episodes of constant pain (and it wasn’t a healing type itching feeling!).

And after finding those golden nugget websites (the links are noted in the comments to this post) and later contacting one of the therapists, I learned that those are the precise symptoms for overstretched back muscles that are lacking adequate blood supply!

The solution?  Kill the ongoing and rehab massages and work at rebuilding and strengthing those overstretched muscles attached to your spine.

Amazingly, every specialist and my trading coach all suggested massage.

Yet it was precisely the worst thing that could have been done.

As for now, I’m well on my way to a full recovery as the symptoms starting lessening in less than two days after learning all of this.

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OK, back to the earlier holistic comments.

Specialists of course have their place in society.  Yet far too often there is a complete lack of a comprehensive approach to one’s problem.

Neurosurgeons know about and treat issues requiring surgery.

Chiropractors know about and treat bone structure and nerve compression.

And massage therapists know about and treat … well, yea.

So it’s left to us to play “general contractor” of sorts as we try to piece together the solution to a puzzle where we know our overall bodies and “puzzle picture” best, but where each specialist only has a corner piece.

And so it is as well with trading.

Every market rhythm is unique … as is every trader.

The Turtle traders of yesteryear traded well in a trend environment, but the methods failed miserably during times of false breakouts and choppy markets (thus, the famous “Turtle Soup” pattern).

Other traders I’ve met, including one from Jellie Team #8, speak of methods which are suggested to be used all the time but only work in certain markets (including using probes of prior swing highs or lows as stops in a chop market where 90% of them in such a market will trigger before the expected move … which you see all the time in non-trader led chatrooms under the guise of “loss prevention” … which is really “gain prevention”!!)

Sort of like a “wrench expert” trying to hammer nails with a wrench … cuz all he knows about is the wrench!

Yet as my “back journey” can attest, as well as over a decade of trading the markets profitably, trading — like life — is best approached from a holistic perspective.

And while the Jellie effort isn’t perfect, perhaps one of the reasons for its lasting success, participant feedback, and industry accolades is that it offers far more than a quick four-hour seminar fix, or a single method that only works under the works-twice-a-day broken clock theory.

My father once told me everything in life is good if not taken in excess.

And while he doesn’t have many years life left on this earth, those words should be heeded by every trader — and person — on this planet.

Especially when it comes to learning this business … and massages.

The Jellie Trader Training Webinar Series $250 discount will remain in effect over the holiday weekend.  Just email me at don@donmillereducation.com and I’ll email a special discounted invoice.

Have a great fourth!!!