Lower Back Pain, Tightness and Causes
Sick of getting into the gym and making a little bit of progress before feeling that dreaded lower back pain, forcing you to either rest or go lighter?
Or maybe you have been resting after a recent flare up, and yet again as you were playing with the kids or doing a simple task you’re back on the couch... resting... yet again!
The good thing is you’re not alone. Resting and taking it easy are probably things you have been told to do many times. The issue with this is that you're never getting to the core of the problem. Lower back pain and tightness may seem a bit tricky and complex, you feel where the pain is but you can’t figure out why! To get to the bottom of it you need to look at what is happening above and below the lower back.
Causes and Fixes of Lower Back Pain
Mobility & Stability
Greater stability and mobility allows for full range of movement to be available, allowing the muscles to perform correctly reducing complications that poor movement can cause. The first step should be to find a health professional in your area to provide some insight into your current mobility through the Thoracic spine, Hip stability and most importantly Ankle stability. These are just starting points to assess, if there is a lack of mobility or stability it can have a major impact on the forces put through the lower back.
Movement is Medicine for the Lower Back
If you experience back tightness when you wake up, or even after sitting down for prolonged periods of time that's normal. It’s your body's way of telling you it needs to move more. Pain medication including ice packs only temporarily masks the pain, but movement and exercise can improve your lower back. For example, sitting down for prolonged periods of time can cause our hip flexors to shorten causing Anterior pelvic tilt. With the hip flexors tight and the pelvis anteriorly tilted, the lower back arches shortening the muscles of the back (spinal erectors). Our bodies try to compensate for these changes by lengthening through the opposing muscles (hamstrings, glutes etc).
How does this cause the lower back to hurt?
Using the hamstrings (posterior leg muscles) as an example, when the hamstrings are tight they can pull on the ischial tuberosities (lower part of your pelvis/hip) causing discomfort through the lower back (vertebrae). Mobility and strength training can help strengthen the hamstrings to counteract the discomfort caused by anterior pelvic tilt.
For a free guide on mobility movement guide click here.
Improving Lower Back Capacity and Strength
Although it can seem a little counterintuitive, movements such as deadlifts when properly executed can aid in preventing future lower back pain. Weight training can improve your muscle’s ability to be able to support the entire body (especially through the thoracic, hips and ankles) and gradually improve your capacity to perform daily and more intense activities.
It is important to begin with exercises that are specific to the stage in your rehab that you are in. Beginning with exercise like a Unilateral Suitcase Carry could be more suitable than a deadlift which requires the body to stabilise in a frontal plane. The muscles used during this exercise (quadratus lumborum and obliques) help control forward flexion, build capacity and strength which can help aid in prevention of lower back pain. For a free consultation on where you should be beginning click here.
If you have made it to then end, hopefully you have taken away a few helpful facts. Perhaps you may know someone who may also benefit from this? I'd love it if you were able to share this to them, so they can also gain some benefit or inspiration to use movement and exercise to gain control over their everyday pain.
