You’ve done too little for too long.
- Stopping movement completely.
- Avoiding certain movements for long periods.
- Resting for too long.
- Becoming increasingly cautious about what you do.
- Gradually losing physical capacity.
Start your path
If you’ve dealt with chronic back pain for way too long, this is for you. You’ve tried everything. Chiropractors, rehab, rest, massage, meditation, healthy eating, the McGill Method, core training, back extensions — and the list goes on.
Some of these things may have helped. Until another flare-up hits. So you try something else. Then another flare-up comes. Then another. Eventually, you can end up stuck.
Afraid of certain movements. Afraid of making plans because you don’t know how your back will feel. Thinking about your back before you lift something, train, travel, play with your kids, or do something you used to do without thinking. Your life slowly starts revolving around one question: What if I flare my back up again?
First of all, thank you for coming. We know how exhausting this cycle can feel.
Ready to start building your way back?
See if Back Path is right for me — just $67/month
Takes about 1 minute.
There are two main reasons why you are stuck in recurrent back flare-ups.
You’ve done too much too soon.
- Feeling better and immediately returning to sport.
- Jumping back into heavy squats or lifting after avoiding them.
- Trying to resume your old training volume immediately.
- Going from very little movement directly into demanding movement.
- Repeatedly exceeding what your body is currently prepared for.
The difficulty most people with chronic back pain face is finding the sweet spot between too little for too long and too much too soon.
And that’s where Back Path comes in.
We start you where you are and build you up gradually from the ground up.
Your pain and symptom scores help inform when the program progresses, modifies, or temporarily regresses your pathway — together with the program’s progression framework and professional guidance.
Then we keep moving forward.
See if Back Path is right for me — just $67/month
Takes about 1 minute.
Here’s how we help you get out of the chronic pain cycle.
We use a three-part approach.
1. We educate you on what the research actually says about back pain.
Back Path contains a robust, research-backed education library built around modern back-pain and rehabilitation science.[2],[3],[5],[6]
Members complete the foundational education component before beginning the progressive rehabilitation pathway.
The complete curriculum is designed to include approximately 15 hours of education.
By the time you finish the education component, our goal is for you to understand back-pain rehabilitation well enough to make far better decisions about movement, flare-ups, progression, and recovery.
You’ll learn why pain does not automatically mean you’re damaging your back, why many MRI findings need to be interpreted in context, and why some discomfort during rehabilitation does not necessarily mean you should stop.[5],[7],[8]
You’ll learn why some pain or discomfort during rehabilitation does not automatically mean you’re causing new damage — and how to understand when to continue, modify, regress, or seek assessment.[1],[4],[9]
- Understanding pain
- Imaging and MRI findings
- Flare-ups
- Movement
- Progressive loading
- Fear and avoidance
- Rehabilitation
- Recovery
- Returning to activity
The goal is to stop seeing your back as something that is automatically fragile or damaged every time it hurts.
2. A rehabilitation plan built to progress from where you are now.
A progressive rehabilitation pathway built around your starting point — not a random list of exercises, and not a one-size-fits-all protocol copied from someone else’s back.
Five progressive tiers
Tier 0 → Tier 1 → Tier 2 → Tier 3 → Tier 4
Tier 0
Rebuild movement
Accessible bodyweight movement and mobility. For people who have become guarded, deconditioned, or apprehensive around movement, the starting point should feel manageable. Many members may begin here depending on their starting point.
Tier 1
Expand range of motion
Gradually introduce movement through more planes and ranges — forward bending, backward bending, rotation, and lateral movement. The intent is gradual exposure to movements that may have been avoided.
Tier 2
Introduce resistance
Bands. Very light resistance. Controlled loading. Increasing physical capacity.
Tier 3
Build strength
Increasing resistance. More demanding movement patterns. Preparation for compound movement. Building broader full-body strength and capacity.
Tier 4
Return to life under load
More demanding loaded movement — gym, work, sport, lifting, carrying, training, and the physical activities you actually care about.
We start with the basics and progressively rebuild movement and physical capacity. Your workouts live inside the Back Path app. The program is intended to progress from basic movement toward increasingly demanding loaded movement.
Depending on your starting point and response, progression may take roughly 2–6 months. The exact amount of time it takes matters far less than consistently doing the work and progressing appropriately.
There is no magic exercise.
Back extensions can be useful. Core training can be useful. Mobility can be useful. Strength training can be useful.
They’re pieces of the puzzle.
The goal is to progressively build capacity across all planes of movement at a load that is above what you use from one day to the next.
3. Message a Back Path chiropractor every day from 9 AM–9 PM.
We connect you with a Back Path chiropractor — a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) — who is available through member messaging every day from 9 AM–9 PM during the six-month program.
Rehabilitation can have ups and downs. It’s an up-and-down process for a while. That’s normal.
Flare-ups and symptom changes can happen during rehabilitation.
Exercises sometimes need to be modified. Sometimes you progress. Sometimes you temporarily back off.
Having professional guidance available throughout the process gives you a place to ask questions and get reassurance when something changes.
Our chiropractic team
Dr. Francis Zolli, DC
Dr. Frank Aguilera, DC
Dr. Terrance Stackwood, DC
Dr. John Zeravich, DC
Dr. David York, DC
Dr. Sandra Roddy-Adams, DC
Dr. Anjannette Price, DC
Dr. Gwen Jones, DC
We calm shit down.Then we build shit back up.
See if Back Path is right for me — just $67/month
Takes about 1 minute.
Everyday messaging access to our Back Path chiropractors.
- “My back is more irritated today. Should I change the workout?”
- “This exercise doesn’t feel right.”
- “Should I move forward?”
- “Should I back off?”
- “I want to get back to hockey. How should I build toward it?”
9:41
Dr. Francis Zolli, DC
Back Path Chiropractor · 9 AM–9 PM daily
My back is more irritated today. Should I modify the session?
Let’s keep today’s work, but drop the last progression and stay in the control variations.
This movement feels different on my left side.
That’s a useful cue, not an emergency. I’ll send a left-side regression for the next two sessions.
Message your chiropractor
Member stories
Stories from Back Path members.
Back to hockey
Jim Cook
Back on the ice after 10 years of chronic low back pain.
“For 10 years, chronic low back pain kept me from doing the things I loved. I had to stop playing hockey, and even doing things with my kids became difficult.
After five months with Back Path, I’m back on the ice playing hockey again. I’m incredibly thankful for everything the Back Path team did to help me get here.”
Back Path member · 5 months
Active again
Catherine Pedersen
Sciatic pain gone after a year of struggling.
“I dealt with sciatic pain from a herniated disc for a year. Nothing seemed to work. I tried the McGill Method and was told to avoid bending forward for eight months, but my back pain kept getting worse and I was having multiple flare-ups every month.
After eight months with Back Path, my sciatic pain is gone. I’m active again, happy, and feel like I have my life back.”
Back Path member · 8 months
Climbing again
Sean Jones
Back to climbing after repeated gym-related back injuries.
“I injured my back doing squats and then kept re-injuring it in the gym. I tried massage, acupuncture, and rehab, but the cycle kept repeating until I eventually had to stop climbing.
After a year with Back Path, I’m climbing mountains again, stronger than ever, and completely out of back pain. I’m newly married too, and it feels incredible to be able to live my life without constantly worrying about my back.”
Back Path member · 1 year
Individual experiences and results vary.
Here’s the pain relief Back Path members experience based on real member data.
Average reported pain frequency
Here’s everything included when you join Back Path.
- Six-month Back Path rehabilitation program
- 50+ progressive rehabilitation workouts
- Five progressive rehab tiers (Tier 0–4)
- Back Path mobile app
- Desktop dashboard
- Research-backed back-pain education
- Symptom and progress tracking
- Flare-up guidance
- Progression/regression guidance
- Chiropractor messaging 9 AM–9 PM daily
- Research library with citations
9:41
Good morning, Alex
Ready for today’s path?
Your path
Week 7 · Control
34%
Today’s session
Rotation + Hip Control
28 min
Pain today
3 / 10
Confidence
7 / 10
Education
Why flare-ups happen
6 min
app.backpath.io
Today’s path
Good morning, Alex.
Week 7 · Control
Today’s session
Rotation + Hip Control
Week 7 · Control28 min
Pain today
3 / 10
Confidence
7 / 10
Path progress
34%
Current stage
Control
What’s next: Capacity
Education
Does pain always mean damage?
Support
Message your Back Path chiropractor
9 AM–9 PM daily
See if Back Path is right for me — just $67/month
Takes about 1 minute.
All of our education and guidance is based on gold-standard research for back pain.
Everything we recommend is based on the most up-to-date research about what works and what doesn’t work for back pain. This gets rid of the fluff that exists online and throughout North America when it comes to managing back pain, and gets you focused on what actually works. It empowers you to focus on solutions that have science behind them, rather than outdated or ill-informed recommendations that aren’t supported by current back-pain research.
[1] Exercise therapy for chronic low back pain
Hayden JA, Ellis J, Ogilvie R, Malmivaara A, van Tulder MW · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 2021
[2] Noninvasive treatments for acute, subacute, and chronic low back pain: a clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians
Qaseem A, Wilt TJ, McLean RM, Forciea MA; Clinical Guidelines Committee of the American College of Physicians · Annals of Internal Medicine · 2017
[4] Interventions for the management of acute and chronic low back pain: revision 2021
George SZ, Fritz JM, Silfies SP, et al. · Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy · 2021
[5] What low back pain is and why we need to pay attention
Hartvigsen J, Hancock MJ, Kongsted A, et al.; Lancet Low Back Pain Series Working Group · The Lancet · 2018
[7] Systematic literature review of imaging features of spinal degeneration in asymptomatic populations
Brinjikji W, Luetmer PH, Comstock B, et al. · American Journal of Neuroradiology · 2015
You won’t find pricing with daily chiropractic rehab support like this anywhere else.
Regular price
$1,000
Current offer
$67/ month
6 monthly payments of $67
or $399 upfront for the six-month program.
Pay $399 today and save $3 versus six installments.
After six months, continued app and desktop access is $9.99/month without chiropractor messaging.
See if Back Path is right for me — just $67/month
Takes about 1 minute.
For $67/month you’re getting:
- Six-month Back Path rehabilitation program
- 50+ progressive rehabilitation workouts
- Five progressive rehab tiers (Tier 0–4)
- Back Path mobile app
- Desktop dashboard
- Research-backed back-pain education
- Symptom and progress tracking
- Flare-up guidance
- Progression/regression guidance
- Chiropractor messaging 9 AM–9 PM daily
- Research library with citations
Not another PDF.
Not another random list of exercises.
A path.
The questions people actually have.
Many people improve during a short course of care, then stall when the appointments end or when they try to return to full activity. Back Path is a six-month structured pathway with progressive sessions, education, tracking, and daily chiropractor messaging designed around continuing the rehabilitation process over time.
One of the biggest differences is how we manage flare-ups. We are experts in flare-up management and temporary regression. When a flare-up occurs, we temporarily regress your program, use our flare-up management formulas to help you recover, and then work to get you back to where you left off. Based on our member experience, this process takes about a week on average. Then we continue pushing your rehabilitation forward.
That requires day-to-day communication with a chiropractor alongside Back Path technology that tracks pain levels and flare-ups and helps guide when to regress and when to progress.
The second major difference is education. Before beginning rehabilitation, you complete a robust education section designed to help you understand back pain, flare-ups, movement, and rehabilitation, and take much of the fear out of movement.
Some change in symptoms can happen when activity changes. That does not automatically mean you have caused new damage, and it also does not mean you should ignore worsening or unusual symptoms. Back Path is designed to help you temporarily modify your program, let symptoms settle, and then resume an appropriate level — with chiropractor messaging available from 9 AM–9 PM during the six-month program.
Flares are common in persistent back pain. Almost all of our members will experience flare-ups at some point during their rehabilitation journey, and based on our member data, flare-ups tend to go away altogether around the four-to-six-month mark.
Flare-ups are a normal part of the rehabilitation process, and managing them is one of our areas of expertise. Our chiropractors and Back Path technology are built around helping members manage flare-ups, including how and when to temporarily regress and then progress again based on pain scores.
The main way out of back pain is through movement, so you will be required to move every day.
Early in the program, most Back Path sessions will take approximately 20–30 minutes per day. This does not include additional workouts or activities you want to do outside of Back Path, which we will also help you manage throughout the process.
As you progress through the tiered program, sessions can range from approximately 20–40 minutes. The later tiers include longer sessions of around 40 minutes, but those longer sessions will generally only be required three to four times per week.
The majority of our members have had back pain for multiple years, and this is extremely common. A longer history of back pain does not make you a poor candidate for Back Path, nor does it decrease your chance of success. It means you haven’t yet found the solution that helps your nervous system and tissues progressively build the capacity required for regular life.
So long as you don’t have red-flag symptoms, which we screen for in the questionnaire you’re about to complete, findings such as a disc bulge, degeneration, disc herniation, or scoliosis do not automatically prevent you from following the Back Path rehabilitation approach.
The pathway uses slow, progressive movement practices that build on each other. When pain scores move into a zone that indicates it is time to plateau or slow down, we temporarily regress the program, give your body time to settle, and then begin progressing again.
Our education section also demystifies much of the fear that can come with MRI findings and walks you through the research on what different back-imaging findings can — and cannot — tell you.
Back Path is a digital program aimed at people with persistent or recurrent back pain who want a longer, progressive rehabilitation pathway.
So long as you don’t have red-flag symptoms, which we screen for in the questionnaire you’re about to complete, Back Path is designed for people dealing with back pain, sciatica, and recurring flare-ups.
It combines a properly structured long-term rehabilitation program with daily access to chiropractors who can help you manage your rehabilitation, plus education designed to help you understand your back and become highly knowledgeable about managing your own rehabilitation by the time you finish.
Plan for daily exercise for six months, plus short education and check-ins.
Depending on how long you’ve been in pain and how sensitive your nervous system is to movement, it can take anywhere from approximately two months to a year to return to sport and live without recurring flare-ups. Based on our member data, users on average move beyond recurring flare-ups around the four-to-six-month mark.
Yes. The entire Back Path program is designed around getting our members functional enough, strong enough, and regulated enough to return to the sport of their choice. That is our expectation with you. Our goal is to get you back to the sports you want to play.
By the time you reach Tier 3 and Tier 4 of the rehabilitation program, you’ll be in a good position to begin returning to sport. In addition to the Back Path program you’re already following, our chiropractors will work with you to design a custom conditioning plan for the specific sport you want to return to.
Yes. During the six-month program, you are assigned one of our eight licensed chiropractors who will work closely with you one-on-one throughout your rehabilitation.
You can communicate with your chiropractor through the Back Path messaging portal every day, as often as you need, about regressions, progressions, flare-ups, exercises, your pathway, outside activities, and questions that come up throughout your rehabilitation.
Daily from 9 AM to 9 PM during the six-month program. After six months, if you choose to continue, you can continue using Back Path without chiropractor messaging for $9.99 per month, or choose a discounted option to continue chiropractor messaging for an additional three, six, or nine months.
You can pay in six $67 installments, or pay $399 upfront, for the six-month program. These are two payment options for the same six-month program — not an ongoing $67/month membership. After six months, continued app and desktop access is $9.99/month without chiropractor messaging.
Your six-month Back Path membership ends at that point unless you choose to continue.
You can stop using Back Path, continue using the app and desktop platform without chiropractor messaging for $9.99 per month, or, if you want ongoing chiropractor support, choose one of our discounted options to continue chiropractor messaging for an additional three, six, or nine months.
Yes — six $67 payments over the six-month program, or $399 upfront. That monthly option is a six-payment plan for the program, not a never-ending $67/month membership. Payment is not collected on this website yet.
Stop starting over.
Give your back pain a path forward.
Start with a one-minute safety check to see whether Back Path is an appropriate next step for you.
See if Back Path is right for me — just $67/month
Takes about 1 minute.