I have suffered from debilitating back problems for 8 years since I was 24. At the age of 29, I finally had to give up my desk job as I was taking too many days off work with pain and doctor appointments. I trained as a chef and became self-‘un’employed. 2 years later, when my son was 3 months old, I slipped a disc in my lower back putting him to bed and had to have surgery, which has subsequently failed. I’ve barely worked since, due to the complications of the surgery.
“Whilst lying on my back, I began to think about inventing a very simple, self-massager that could be used to release the painful muscle spasms in the bits of my lower back that I couldn’t reach (and that my wife was bored of massaging). The basis for the product design was an ancient Japanese shiatsu massage. A simple hook, inspired by elders who used to use their walking sticks to massage themselves. From there I found a shape that matched the contours of a body, and used a combination of materials that were durable enough to withhold the significant force needed and a head that gave the intense precision of a knuckle.
“I got a few prototypes made and spoke to the experts helping me with my recovery. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive with true experts in back pain, spinal injury and physiotherapy, making it clear they’d support the product should I take it to market. I also gave the Back Nodger to some of my wife’s friends with various problems arising from looking after their young children. They equally fell in love with it and it gained a lot of attention in offices when they pulled it out to use it.
“The result was the launch of Back Nodger (through backnodger.com and selected physio outlets initially) in May ’13. The response has blown us away; we sold out of all our samples during the first day at The Back Pain Show (Feb ’13) and the queues of people (mostly female) at the Health & Wellbeing at Work Show (March ’13) and at FitProLive (April ‘13) also served to confirm that we’re onto something really exciting. We logged thousands of pounds worth of Back Nodger pre-sales and have picked up some amazing endorsements from back health experts, world class physios, trainers, as well as some very well-known sports professionals.”
Back Nodger Stockists
