Tired of having to sit so much? Tired of not knowing what to do? Revision Stenosis gives you a complete 200+ page SPARK Program roadmap, with video and photo demonstrations, to open your spine, calm irritated nerves, and avoid surgery.
By Dr. Michael Derry, DPT, author of Revision Sciatica
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Revision Stenosis
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Dr. Michael Derry, PT, DPT, OCS
A few words from people who have worked through Michael’s SPARK program. Everyone’s path is different, and results vary.
“I’m already finding I can walk way further now than I have in the last year.”
“I’ve been very pleased at the progress I’ve made so far, in such a short amount of time. I still have some days where I don’t feel as good as other days but the key here is to keep going.”
The heart of the book is SPARK, the framework Michael has built his clients’ stenosis care around. The book lays it out in three phases you move through at your own pace, and every phase works on all five pieces.
Building capacity in your hips, spine, and core, starting with positions that take pressure off your nerves.
One or two reliable ways to settle your symptoms, like a favorite stretch or simple traction at home.
Gentle nerve glides to nourish irritated nerves, a part of recovery Michael says often gets overlooked.
Restoring your spine’s range of motion, starting with bending forward and turning, and adding more as you’re ready.
Daily movement you can tolerate, whether that’s walking, biking, or the pool, with breaks allowed.
Calming things down with pain relief, confidence, and simple habits you can keep.
Learning the patterns your body responds to, so an exercise doesn’t leave you paying for it the next day.
Higher-capacity strengthening for your legs and core, aimed at the future you want.
You’ll know how each move should look and how much to do before you start. Here are three from the book.
When you stand tall or walk, your lower back arches slightly. With stenosis, that small arch narrows the space around your nerves right when the nerves to your legs need more blood flow. That’s the heaviness, tingling, or burning that builds as you go.
Sitting or leaning forward opens the space back up, which is why the bench and the shopping cart help. Michael calls this the shopping cart sign. Plenty of people feel self-conscious about leaning on the cart, and his advice is to give yourself some grace, because that lean is your body protecting your nerves.
Two ideas from the book build on this pattern and shape the whole plan: stenosis is a space issue, and what you feel matters more than what your MRI shows.
Stenosis simply means there’s less space in your spine for your nerves, either in the central canal or in the openings where the nerves branch out. It usually comes from changes that happen to everyone with time. Discs lose height, the joints wear, and your body lays down bone spurs and thickens a ligament to steady things. Over the years, that extra bone and tissue crowds the nerves.
So the plan starts with the space. Mobility and nerve health come first, and strength builds on top once your nerves are calmer and your spine moves better.
“Stenosis is a space issue. The goal is to maximize that space while building higher tolerance in your tissues and your nerves.”
There are two ways to look at a stenosis diagnosis: what shows up on your MRI, and what you actually feel. The book focuses on the second, because that’s the one you can change.
This is the narrowing a doctor sees on an X-ray or MRI, from arthritis, disc changes, or bone spurs. Imaging is very sensitive, so it picks up stenosis in plenty of people who feel fine. Roughly half of people over 65 have it, whether they feel it or not.
This is stenosis that’s actually tied to your symptoms: leg pain, heaviness, or numbness that builds when you stand or walk and eases when you sit or lean forward. Michael has treated people with functional stenosis whose MRIs look rough and others whose MRIs look fairly good.
How that shapes treatment. Exercise won’t change what shows up on your scan. It can change how you move and how your nerves respond, and that’s what drives your symptoms. So the book treats what you feel. If you feel stiff, you work on stiffness. If you feel weak, you work on strength. As Michael puts it, people are not their images, and pain and mobility can improve even while the MRI still shows the same changes.
Stenosis shows up differently in everyone, but a few patterns come up again and again in Michael’s practice.
Your walks end sooner than you want them to. You head out feeling fine, then your legs get heavy, tight, or tingly and you start looking for a bench. A few minutes of sitting and you can keep going.
You lean on the shopping cart, and it helps. Grocery shopping is easier bent over a cart, and you find yourself looking for a counter or a railing to lean on.
You can sit through a long car ride without much trouble. Standing at the kitchen counter or waiting in a checkout line is where it gets hard.
Your legs hurt more than your back does. The ache sits in your glute, hamstring, calf, or foot, sometimes with no back pain at all.
Your foot goes numb after you’ve been up for a while. It might tingle or just feel “different” from the other side, and some nights cramps in your calf or foot wake you up.
Your imaging report was hard to make sense of. It used words like degeneration, spondylosis, and narrowing, and said very little about what to do next.
When Michael asked his email list what they wanted from a stenosis book, the top answers were non-surgical options and step-by-step exercises with photos. Here’s what Revision Stenosis covers.
Michael is writing it to be highly visual, with photos throughout and QR codes that link to his videos. Chapter names may change before release.
Michael is a board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist and the founder of Revision Health Services in Jacksonville, Florida. He earned his Doctor of Physical Therapy at Bradley University, completed an orthopedic residency, and has been a physical therapist for over a decade.
“I have really grown to enjoy treating stenosis,” he writes in the book’s introduction. “The results can be dramatic but the exact pathway to relief is different for everyone. So, I can understand your frustrations to this point.”
He knows the patient side too. At 25, while in physical therapy school, he was dealing with sharp nerve pain down his leg and was offered surgery as his only option. Working through it himself, he developed the approach that became the SPARK method. He’s the author of Revision Sciatica and shares exercise videos on his YouTube channel, The Resilient Spine.
“While I can’t promise total pain relief, I can promise that if you put in the work and listen to your body, your trajectory will change. It won’t be effortless, but you don’t have to do it alone.”
Dr. Michael Derry, from the book
“Dr Michael Derry is the best! … I am so grateful to him. I feel happy calm and full of energy again. For all his readers please follow him.”
“I came to him with a shoulder injury … He was knowledgeable, encouraging, and took the time to explain what was going on and why we were doing each part of my treatment.”
“My dad had total knee arthroplasty and needed extensive physical therapy. … dad is completely independent, stronger and actually sometime he beats me walking faster.”
“Jeb and Mike … were the best physical therapists that I could have ever hoped for. They were kind, considerate and patient.”
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Educational information only, not medical advice. See our medical disclaimer.
Get an email when the book is out
Joining is free and doesn’t commit you to buying the book. You can unsubscribe anytime. Privacy policy
You’re on the list.
We’ll email you when the book is out.
While you wait: Michael’s free 5-exercise stenosis guide has a photo, exact reps, and a video walkthrough for each exercise. Get the free guide →
