11/02/2019
|LOW BACK PAIN EDUCATION|
lengthy post – thinking caps on
Are you someone who suffers from niggling back pain? Burning/shooting pain down your legs? Generalised tightness/pulling in your lower back?
✋Have you had little relief from treatment after trying everything?
Why is low back pain such a headache to correct? Often it’s because the cause of pain is actually not in the lower back at all, rather in the surrounding joints of the body. The lower back is generally the symptom, not the cause!
The lower back (lumbar spine) is very good at bending forwards, backwards and sideways, but not necessarily great at rotating
Now the lumbar spine does move through rotation as a unit (L1-L5). However segmentally, there is very little relative movement into rotation when compared to the joints above and below.
Because of this limited motion, our bodies use this area for force transmission and stabilization. Whether it’s in walking/running, swimming, dancing, soccer, jiu-jitsu or CrossFit, whenever an arm is moved or a leg is swung the force effectively crosses through the lower back and core,
1. To stabilize the movement, and
2. To transfer the force.
So why do we get lower back pain/injuries?
If you have great core stability and joint mobility above and below the lower back, GENERALLY speaking, your lower back will be ok (generally)!
HOWEVER, If you have:
- POOR MOBILITY in the hips and midback (thoracic), the lower back now has to work overtime to compensate for that lack of mobility.
- POOR STABILITY in your core, you will lose the ability to transfer forces and stabilize your core leading to uneven or incorrect loading on the lower back.
Initially, many will get away injury free, but later on down the track all that extra effort and load placed on the lower back will wear it down. This is the case with your disc bulges, spinal degeneration and generalised lower back aches (from certain muscles doing all the work)
Everyone’s movement patterns are different from one another so every case of lower back pain is going to be uniquely different. One patient may present with a lack of core stability, another with breathing dysfunctions, and the other with decreased ankle mobility, but ALL present with lower back pain.
That’s why there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to treatment. Every case is a new problem that needs to be solved.
The lower back is more often the symptom, not the cause!
If you are experiencing any type of lower back pain or discomfort, have it checked out by your trusted Practitioner
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