Hi there!
I have seen a lot of people with lower back pain this month. Here is a little education on why lower back pain occurs and what you can do about it.
The top 5 reasons your back may be hurting:
1. Disc herniation
This is when your spinal cord is pushing out through one of your discs causing a lot of pain.
2. Lumbar facet dysfunction
Just like with gears in a machine, your joints can get stuck. Your facets are the joints in your lower back.
3. SI dysfunction
The sacroilliac joint (SI) is the connection between your hips and your sacrum. When this joint becomes dysfunctional it can cause compensating pain into the lower back.
4. Lower back muscle tightness
Muscles like your longissimus, multifidus, and quadratus lumborum (QL) can be the cause of your lower back pain.
5. Tight hip flexors (specifically the psoas major)
Hip flexors are the antagonist to your lower back and can be the cause of you lower back pain. Your psoas major can actually refer pain to your lower back and be the source of your pain.
What can you do about these issues?
Fortunately the protocol for all of these reasons are pretty much the same. There are a few exceptions like with disc herniation, but here are the treatments you can start doing:
Correct facet and SI dysfunctions
Unfortunately you can’t really do this from home. To correct your dysfunctions you will need to get an adjustment from a chiropractor, or do muscle energy adjustments.
Release lower back, glute, and hip flexor muscles
At home you can do foam rolling, active release with a tennis ball, stretch, and use heat packs.
At Athlecare you can do positional release therapy, fascia scrubbing, massage, assisted stretching, acupuncture, muscle scraping, and cupping.
Improve core stability
This is not sit-ups and crunches. The simplest form of core stability would be planks. Essentially you need to put your body into an unstable position and apply an outside force to train your body to use your core to stabilize. We have a lot of tips and ideas we can give to improve your core stability.
If you are unsure why you have lower back pain, then make sure to come and get checked out before starting anything too aggressive. These are ideas are meant to be a start for your journey to relieve pain.
Hope this helps,
Justin
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