Check your muscles (Back Pain)

Member Name: Tracy_1127

Product:	Back Pain
Date:	21/07/08 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: There are none to back pain!

Disadvantages: Painful, disabling, recurrent or constant

Back pain is something that affects many of us at various points in our lives and some of us for longer than others. The medical community claim 80% of back problems have no known cause and this irritates me because if there was no cause then it wouldn't have happened! That statement is purely because 80% of patients with back pain do not have structural problems but do have mechanical problems.

Structural problems would involve slipping of discs or verterbrae, narrowing of the spinal canal etc and mechanical problems involve bad posture, muscle imbalances, weak core etc. Most people nowadays have postural issues from sitting badly or too long, standing in a slumped position, on one leg, that kind of thing. And weak core muscles are very very common.

I personally have an unstable sacroiliac joint which is the joint between the pelvis and spine. More common in women thanks to our ligament loosening hormones each month and pregnancy. But my GP didn't have a clue what was going on and I had to visit a number of osteopaths, chiropractors and physiotherapists just to get diagnosed. I would have otherwise fallen into the 80% with no known cause and obviously there is a cause.

My partner gets a few bouts of acute back pain each year and it can be very telling if you can establish the movement that sets off your pain. For example the last time my partner had a flare up he was outside and lifted his leg up to do something and that pulled a muscle in his back. That implies hip flexor problems, I checked his for tightness and sure enough there it was. So again he would have been a member of the unknown cause 80% when the cause was easily identifiable with a bit of looking.

As far as correcting mechanical back pain goes most people do much better after some core stability strengthening (those deep muscles around the pelvis and spine actually do alot more than you'd think), stretching the tight muscles then working on balancing the muscles so the weak ones are doing their share of the workload. I could go into alot of detail here about imbalances, it's one of my passions, but it's far too complicated as a general review, there are many to look for and would fill pages and pages!

With acute back pain where the muscles have been overworked or pulled alternating heat and ice for half an hour (ten minutes heat, ten ice, ten heat, ten ice, ten heat, ten ice) than leaving the area alone for an hour in between and then repeating can reduce the time the muscles spasm and hurt. Keep moving as much as you can and take some anti-inflammatories such as Ibuprofen as long as you're not allergic.

Basically the key to preventing and treating your back pain as long as it isn't structural is to identify what muscles are causing problems. Remember muscles move bones not the other way around! A competent physiotherapist can help you identify your own pattern of imbalances if you ask them to likewise a good pilates teacher or personal trainer can also do this.

I've rated one star only because back pain is a huge problem and affects your every movement when you have it making life very uncomfortable and hard going.

Summary: Don't treat the symptom look for the cause