How to find relief from back pain; physical therapy can be a big help

By Sally Tippett Rains

We all know people who suffer from chronic back or neck pain. There are also athletes who repeatedly are out due to back pain. What if there was a way to eliminate back and neck pain, and even sciatica pain without constant use of pain relivers? Two brothers in St. Louis are working on it. Dr. Matthew and David Factor have been doing research within their practice, Factor Physical Therapy.

David was a hockey player and both are sports fans, so their aim is helping athletes as well as anyone suffering from spine conditions, and it surprisingly works with other non-spine problems like the “Yips” in baseball and the “Twisties” in gymnastics, made famous in recent years by Simone Biles. The Twisties caused her to withdraw fr0m  2020 Tokyo Olympics, for most events.

Spine conditions happen to all of us, but athletes are especially vulnerable and risk-exposed because they are pushing their bodies to its limits.

Recent Cardinals players who have dealt with back pain include infielder Nolan Gorman, who  had lower back pain and Masyn Winn had back spasms. Nolan Arenado experienced back issues in 2025 and that could have contributed to the downfall of this first ballot future Hall of Famer, who was recently traded to the Diamondbacks

The Yips (and Twisties,) also called Focal dystonia or focal task-specific dystonia, is the sudden loss of the ability to execute certain skills.  This neurological movement disorder causes involuntary, sustained muscle contractions in a specific body part.

This problem is seen in baseball.  For instance, a pitcher may suddenly lose velocity, lose control of his pitches or suddenly lose the ability to grip the ball effectively.

Steve Blass was a famous Pittsburg Pirate who had this issue in 1973.  The condition was mysterious and was termed “Steve Blass disease.”  This is from a spine injury, and according to Dr. David Factor,  “Its cause is only effectively treated with the Factor Method.  It can happen to any athlete—and can be treated.”

They are concentrating on neurological disorders, and most of that involves people with back pain.

Athletes are not the only ones who suffer from back pain–many of us experience it due to various reason– back pain can get so bad it is a major contributing factor to the opioid crisis and a significant source of prolonged opioid use.

For years, doctors have offered a pamphlet called “Care of the Back” to patients as a way to help in areas after surgery or if surgery is not an option. The booklet which was written in 1967 but is still given out today, contains treatment tips and therapeutic options which if used, can help alleviate pain, speed healing, and improve function. The problem is, most people don’t take it upon themselves to do the exercises.

Most chronic back pain is not necessarily a life sentence, but it is also up to us to do the work required to alleviate it. People who are in constant back pain and end up taking medicine for it don’t live a good quality of life. What if there was a way to eliminate or greatly reduce your back pain and it didn’t involve drugs? There is, but it does involve work on the patient’s part; like doing the exercises and stretching recommended by the “Care of the Back” pamphlet. Better yet, a physical therapist can help.  (I’m not really sure what the “care of the back” pamphlet says but I’d be interested in looking at it if you have one.)

Seeing a physical therapist weekly, patients can have a real person explaining it to them and encouraging them on how they can help in their own recovery.  The doctor (PT) goes over the movements that can help improve or eliminate back pain, but if the patient leaves the office and does nothing throughout the week the chances of recovery are reduced.

“Spine injuries are a health crisis in our country and across the world, and we really need all health care providers to be on the same page in order to make the best decisions for our patients,” said physical therapist David Factor.

He, along with his brother Matthew Factor have been doing groundbreaking research and will soon  publish  their results with a breakthrough in treatment for spine conditions.  David is the one on the left in the photo.

A spinal injury can affect the back, neck, and the peripheral nervous system causing pain and disability.  The spinal cord transmits signals from the brain, through the spinal cord and then out to the rest of the body

An injury to the spine can cause physical damage and that carries psychological stress.

So you may think you have a back problem but sometimes there is more to it.

David Factor graduated from Mizzou and became a Firefighter/Paramedic before pursuing a degree in Physical Therapy at the University of Tennessee; and Matthew has a doctorate in chemical engineering and materials engineering from Missouri S&T.

Together they own Factor Physical Therapy in Webster Groves and in between seeing and scheduling patients they are working on what David calls the “The Factor Method,” which is a comprehensive way to bring clarity through systematically fixing complex injuries.

It’s best to understand what a “spine injury” encompasses. A herniated or ruptured disc falls into that description as does spinal stenosis; but did you know a pinched nerve or even fractured bones, especially from sports can be considered spine injuries.

A stress fracture in the vertebrae from sports is common. It’s called spondylolysis.

“Our research is relevant in the sports medicine world,” said Factor. “Sports medicine, due to its incredible outpouring of resources, tends to be on the cutting edge of breakthroughs and is usually open to taking on training methods, treatments, procedures and medications that can yield advantages to their athletes and ultimately their team.

“It is important that the team stays healthy and can continue to endure a physically demanding schedule and that fans can see these wonderful athletes perform at a high level.  Often, because spine treatments are sub-par, athlete’s careers can be shortened.”

Factor says this can cause diminished performance, inconsistency and players who become injury prone.  Also, athletes tend to have access to a multitude of resources, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.

“They need to have access to the right resources from the right people at the right time, that is far most sophisticated than what is currently being done,” he said.

“Personal trainers, strength coaches, athletic trainers, physicians, physical therapists, surgeons, et cetera, all have things to contribute.”

Factor says with all these people getting involved in an athlete’s care, it is important to understand the appropriate roles and responsibilities for each professional.

“It would be insane to ask a strength coach to do surgery, and it is also equally insane to ask a personal trainer to deal with an injured athlete,” he said. “Physical therapists are experts in disability and recovery.  The Factor Method is a large step forward for medicine as a whole, but it also rightly orients physical therapists as an indispensable member in the healthcare system. “

David and Matt Factor use what they call The Factor Method in their practice, and this reporter was able to experience it in part after an accident which caused a broken bone. They don’t just look at the injury, they look at the whole picture; so working on the neck could help a broken shoulder in recovery. Who knew? They do, because they think out of the box. They take the role of the physical therapist further.

If Factor Physical Therapy sounds familiar to regular readers it is because they were a drop-off point for our food drives this past winter. Their patients were very generous in helping.

It’s not enough to just prescribe pain pills and hope the patient does a few stretching exercises.

“Spine injuries do not go away on their own,” said Factor. “They require a therapist to reverse engineer the injury and make sure that it is recovers.”

He discovered this method works so well that the time of recovery can be predicted.

“We can actually predict the timeframe that the patient’s disability can be removed and he or she will be restored to a better quality of life.”

The current understanding is that back injuries come on painfully and then eventually go away.  But that isn’t what actually happens, according to David Factor. Of course, if you are one who has suffered with lower back or neck issues for years, you know that.

What is happening is that the condition has evolving and changing characteristics and by the time it has manifested symptoms it needs serious problem solving by a trained professional.

“I developed a new method of problem solving and treatment,” said Factor. “This builds on portions of previous treatments that have some effectiveness, but the previous methods were inadequate.”

He says the problem is the medical world was not treating the full problem and had no ability to restore the patient to prior health.

“They mislabeled the phenomenon that would occur as a result of treatment as other conditions.  This is unhelpful to the patient and to the physician.”

“Matt and I began the daunting task of having to prove it,” said David Factor. “In science, you cannot just say something, you must prove it through the scientific method and data by running the best study you can so that the results can be meaningful.”

So, for the last few years they have been doing the research and are close to reporting the outcome.

“The point is not to make sure that you are right but to verify that what you are witnessing is actually true and effective,” said Factor.  “If it disproves what was thought, that is just as important because understanding can grow and science can move forward.  All over the world, healthcare providers are collaborating to improve medicine for everyone.”

David and Matt Factor have been working so hard on their research with the Factor Method, they feel outcomes can be predicted the time the patient’s disability occurs, and that if followed, quality of life can be restored to the patient. David Factor is currently writing a textbook on this issue.

For more information, contact Factor Physical Therapy.

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David Factor headshot photo by Bill Greenblatt; the rest of the photos by permission of Factor Physical Therapy.