My name is Joe Risser. I'm a physician working for people with severe, chronic back pain. I started Backtivity to learn more about people who have beat back pain through exercise, share their stories with the world, and create more like them.

It is my great pleasure to introduce 3 very ordinary people who have done exceptional things to beat pain. If you have an inspiring story you'd like to share, please email me backtivity@gmail.com or call 855-922-2584.

Our first extraordinary ordinary person is Betty Lou Sweeney, a 70-something arthritic great grandmother who was near death, on 26 different medications, and with such severe knee and back pain she was unable to get out of a chair. But she made a decision to do something about it and went to a gym. She found a trainer to motivate her and discovered that she could do one exercise that even the strongest, fittest athletes find too difficult, the plank. At first she was able to hold it for a few seconds. But she continued to add seconds each day until she had held it longer than anyone previously was able to...37 minutes. Doing a plank for one minute is very good. I've known few regular gym goers of any age or level of fitness than can hold it more than 5. She also lost 115 lbs (52 kilos) in the process and cured her back. She's now, herself, a personal trainer in Wisconsin. My favorite quote,
"This (life of illness, pain, and deterioration) is ridiculous. I firmly believe exercise is medicine. Maybe you haven't achieved something so far but never underestimate yourself because every one of us can have a success."
Arthur's Transformation is another inspiring story of recovery from a life filled with pain and disability. Arthur was injured while serving in the military as a paratrooper. Repeat jumps and injuries resulted in chronic, debilitating knee and back pain. He became inspired by watching videos of a former wrestler turned yoga coach, of all things. If you watch Arthur's youtube video, you'll see that he's not the typical yoga practitioner. He was very overweight, with crutches strapped to his forearms, having great difficulty bending his knees.

At first, Arthur can be seen attempting to do a yoga pose. He's not able to kneel on the ground without grabbing onto a nearby chair for dear life.

My favorite quote from Arthur:
"Everyone told me that I would never walk on my own again. I believed it too. I had given up hope because others told me to. I took a risk and started this workout. But hopefully my story might inspire you to believe anything is possible."
This is so interesting. First, that the so-called experts, the doctors, told Arthur give up, don't do too much. Lie down and give up. In line with that, he saw starting a workout as a risk. Think about that. If he did absolutely nothing, he would continue to deteriorate, eventually be bedridden, live a miserable existence, and die an early death. Yet, he considered exercise the risk.

I saved the best for last. Tony the Fridge. Tony is just a regular guy or, as he put it, "I'm as ordinary as grass." He ran the length of Great Britain with a fridge, as in refrigerator, strapped to his back. And, in case your wondering what all that running and fridge-carrying has done to his back, Tony was kind enough to email me back to tell me that he had an MRI of his back and it's in perfect condition; "like a 16 year old's" according to his doctors.

Those in the US will be hearing a lot more about Tony as he runs across the country with a fridge on his back to raise money and awareness to cure cancer, starting in June 2016.

My favorite quote? There are too many to list them all.