Due to the frequent nature of minor back injuries in our life, it’s pretty easy to spot if someone is faking one or not. To make it look natural and painful, you need to understand the basis of a back injury.

And to understand, follow our step-by-step guide on how to fake a back injury. You’ll be able to master the art of faking back injuries in no time!

Types Of Back Injuries

There are three types of back injuries in general. These are;

Back Strain or Sprain

The most common injuries regarding back pain are back strain or sprain. Though they sound similar, the injury process is different. Back strain occurs when your back muscles or tendons are torn, injured, or pulled.

On the other hand, when you pull, injure, or tear the ligaments located on the back, you face a back sprain. The cause of both is almost always the same.

Herniated Disc

A herniated disc is caused by damage to the fluid-filled discs found between the vertebrae inthe back. The spilled fluid causes pain, along with nerve pain. Also, the types of pain from a herniated disc can be divided into two parts-

  • In the first case, the actual disc may or may not feel painful and inflammatory, but the injured person will feel pain in the legs, neck, and arm joints.This is called a pinched nerve.
  • If the disc and its surrounding area feel the pain, it is regarded as local disc pain.

Spinal Fracture

The most severe and dangerous back injury is a spinal fracture. Sometimes, it renders permanent damage to the body of the injured. When one or multiple vertebrae crack up, come apart, or get broken, this occurs.

When this occurs, the injured feels immeasurable pain. The intensity of the pain is said to be like breaking another of your bone all over again.

Faking Back Strain Or Sprain

To fake back strain or sprain, you need to understand the level of the injury. You will feel pain in the injured spot for a week or two. And you’ll feel pain when you push the muscles around the damaged location. So, keeping those in mind, here are the steps to fake a back strain or sprain;

Step-1: Proper Excuse and Damage

Determine where the pain is originated in your back because the excuse will make people believe. So, create a solid reason, like lifting a heavy object or too much work pressure on the back.

To act the part, you need to show that the damaged area was just fine before now. Try to pull up a heavy object or move your body quickly to an odd position to highlight that your back muscles or ligaments got hurt.

Shout or grunt in pain as soon as the injury happens.Slowly stop the activity you are doing and lie or sit down. The pain will be gone after a little over an hour, and your injured area should feel sore. So, act accordingly and slowly tame down your pained expression.

Step-2: Pain with Movement

Now that you’ve established that your back is hurt, you need to act until you recover. If your back is injured, then any movement involving the back muscles will hurt. So, have your pained expression ready and grunt or gasp whenever you do any work with back muscles.

Your walking should also be limped, and you can add that your back is cramped.

Step-3: Treatment

If you have been acting for a while, people will question the type of treatment you are going through. As a back strain or sprain isn’t a significant injury, you can use excuses like using ice packs or having warm compresses.Massages for cramps and minor painkillers will do just fine.

Faking Herniated Disc

A herniated disc has two variants.If you want to fake the local disc pain, you should follow the same process of back sprain, but it becomes a little difficult for a pinched nerve.

Step-1: Painfully Sore Lower Back

It would help if you started acting as if your lower back feels extremely painful and has become stiff &sore. Also, add that your back, legs, or arm joints burn with pain whenever you try to bend, twist, or carry anything heavy.

For the excuse, you should go for the examples in the back sprain but put them to the extreme, like carrying more weight than capability, sharp bending or twisting of the back, etc.

Step-2: Pain Spreading

Next, you need to act as if the pain is spreading to your legs or arms (you can go with either one), and soon you’ll winch at any movement of your arms and legs. At this point, you should also show that the affected body parts are becoming numb and have a tingling sensation, but don’t overdo it.

As your nerve is affected, the muscles should grow weak. So, limp when you walk to show that you are avoiding any movement in your injured areas. It would be best if you didn’t move your legs faster. Instead, take small steps and grunt in pain.

Step-3: Medical Treatment

For herniated disc medical procedure, you should be examined. So, tell people that you’ve visited the doctor. You’ve ice pack treatments & painkillers to numb the pain, and your doctor will observe for 4-6 weeks before offering surgery or other options.

Faking Spinal Fracture

This is the most difficult to act. Depending on your performance, it’ll be instantly believable or easily caught.

Step-1: Cry out

When the injury occurs, you should cry out and immediately start winching in pain. Keep faking it until you think the pain should begin to come down. Make sure you have lied down straight.Otherwise, your pains taming down won’t make sense.

Step-2: Pain Flare

You should cry out and winch in pain at any movement. Act as if any muscle movement is causing you pain. Walk in a hunchback motion, move extremely slowly, and have a pained expression at all times. You’ll also have to fake nerve damage.

Step-3: Pretend the Treatment

A spinal fracture occurs in a difficult situation, like a car accident, falling from a height, a gunshot, and such.So, your treatment should be going on full scale. You should also use props like a spinal cast or back brace. Don’t move unless you need to, and take medications that subdue pains in general.

Conclusion

Faking a back injury is hard, and you should never fake an injury in real life. It will be regarded as providing fake information, and you’ll also be breaking the law.

Nevertheless, if you have followed all the steps, we believe that you’ve found your answer to how to fake a back injury.