Lower Back Pain

Does that sound familiar?

Statistics show that almost 80% of society suffers from lower back discomfort (pain) during their lifetime. There are many underlying reasons why you or someone you know has a lower back issue.

In our practice over the last 15 years we have found out that many of our clients could easily avoid lower back pain by adjusting a few crucial things.

Our society spends most of its time during the day in a seated position (sitting in the office, sitting in the car, sitting in front of the TV, sitting everywhere).

If you examine the position in which you sit, you can easily come to the conclusion that our hips (hip flexors) remain bent (shortened) for a greater part of the day.

Remember that our body adapts to what it is forced (trained) to. If the hips stay bent, muscles responsible for hip flexion (illiopsoas, quadriceps) will eventually become shorter which can adversely influence opposing muscle (lower back muscles). Tension created by lower back muscles on the spinal cord (discs) can easily lead to discomfort and pain. Furthermore, it can lead to a herniated disc, pinched nerve, or pulled muscles.

We have seen clients who pulled their back muscles by picking a piece of paper off the floor.

How To Avoid Lower Back Pain

• Strengthen your abdominal muscles: Weak abdominal muscles can create imbalance between the front and the back of your spine leading to potential injury. Core training is a must at the beginning stages of your program.
• Lose weight: Extra weight around your midsection (belly) can significantly increase tension placed on your spine. Losing excess of weight will keep your lower back from taking the unnecessary stress.
• Train the muscles responsible for your good posture (posterior chain). Strengthen your back muscles (lats, rhomboids, lower traps, gluts)
• Stretch the muscles that are shortened (hip flexors, calves, pectorals)
• Lift weights with the correct form. This applies especially to squats, dead lifts, over head presses, or simply lifting up your child or grocery bag. Use your legs not your back.
• Swim. Swimming is a great exercise to improve low back issues. Water gives you low resistance on the joints and at the same time massages you.
• Stay balanced while carrying heavy objects (sofa, TV set, dumbbell etc) Keep the weight close to your body and do not allow the object to force you to carry it slouched to the sides.
• Sleep in the correct position. Sleep on your side with knees slightly bent. You could place a small pillow in between your knees which will keep the hips in their natural position and decrease the tension on the spine. Try to avoid sleeping on your stomach or back. It puts stress on the spine.

Exercises To Help Alleviate Your Back Pain

There are many exercises to improve your problem with your back. Some of them focus on stretching tight muscles. Some of them on the other hand focus on strengthening weak muscle.

One of the most important principles that we teach in our training programs is safety. Having a strong and pain free back could prevent you from potential injuries related to weak stability of the trunk. Proper flexibility and strength of mid-section also can impact the efficiency and safety of other exercises.