Low back pain can come in many shapes and forms. Some people get the pain in the center, right, or left side more. Some are lucky enough to get back pain that shoots pain down both legs. What ever the situation that brings you to my door, when it comes to back pain, it's important to get to the bottom of the situation.
I recently met a patient that was experiencing a bout ofl low back pain. He was one of the lucky ones with pain going down both legs. I bring this instance to my blog because he is one of many people that are in this situation where pain is something he deals with daily. Not pain that's intolerable, but pain that has become tolerable and something he has to deal with.
Now what? Most, although not all, people that have back pain such as this...constant and dull with bouts of extreme pain. They've had surgery, accidents, or know they have something going on in their back.
He like many others deal with the pain and have been told that, dealing with this pain is life. Deal with it, take some meds etc. Meds can help, but they don't fix the problem. What can help then? A few things. Scar tissue develops from injuries, surgeries, a host of problems. Getting the scar tissue to go away helps allow the muscles and tissue to heal properly for more than just function, for exercise and work. Helping the muscles heal properly gets blood flow to the area AND gets some if not most or even all the pain to go away. It can help decrease the bouts of severe low back pain as well.
Exercises to help strengthen core is the next step to decreasing low back pain and less bouts of extreme low back pain. Not hundreds of pounds, we aren't talking about Olympic lifting, we are talking about getting balance back into, well the back.... the core. Core doesn't mean abs. Core isn't a six pack, that's made in the kitchen. Core is low back, abs, glutes, and hip flexors. It's balancing those 4 areas of muscles to help your low back, your SPINE out. The MUSCLES not the SPINE should be holding up the spine. If the muscles are de-conditioned and don't function properly and keep the spine in place...you can have a perfect spine and it still give out and cause pain when not given the proper support. A good ratio should be maintained in those areas. Doing ab crunches till you bleed doesn't make a core strong. It makes the abs stronger and negates the strength the back needs to keep things balanced. You don't have to lift hundreds of pounds with your low back. It needs enough weight to be beneficial and in a good ratio with abs. Same thing goes for the glutes and the hip flexors. Keeping things balanced allows the body to work optimally in non-optimal situations. It helps decrease the instances of low back you experience regardless of what your back looks like. It doesn't mean you won't have back pain at all, it means your wont' have as much back pain, it means your won't have to walk on egg shells and be afraid to exercise cause your back might go out. I've seen that fear, and I've felt that fear. Lucky I don't have a bad looking back, just de-conditioned at times.
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