Back pain treatment
Back pain is one of the biggest ailments affecting people today. As we get more sedentary and spend a larger proportion of our time sitting, our spines start to complain.
The good news is that most back pain is easy to solve with a few sessions of loosening and strengthening.
Why does back pain occur?
Throughout our spine there are very small muscles, known as stabiliser muscles. Their role is to keep the vertebrae of the spine in the correct position.
These muscles are very small and not under your conscious control, but they are packed full of sensory organs that continually tell the brain where the spine is and let it know of any postural issues occuring.
When these stabiliser muscles get weak, through excess time sitting, or lack of exercise, the vertebrae can close up, and sit closer together than is optimal.
This closing up of the vertabrae can make the spine stiff, it can also put pressure on the disks and close the "hole" that the nerves exit the spine.
All this can create pain in the spine.
Why am I stiff in the mornings?
When you go to sleep at night, your conscious muscles rest and your spine relies on the muscles not under conscious control to keep the spine in the correct position.
If these muscles are not strong enough, the spine will not stay in an optimum position and when you wake up in the morning, gravity will mean the vertebrae close up, creating stiffness.
As you get moving around, your conscious muscles of the spine, wake up, and support your back. This helps reposition the vertebrae and the stiffness goes away.
Treatment
To solve back pain for the long term, the key is to improve the strength of the deep spinal stabilisers.
Although these muscles are not under your conscious control, it is possible to isolate and strengthen them using targeted strength exercises.
Alongside this we will ensure your pelvis is aligned correctly using soft tissue work and core strength work to restrengthen the whole of the spine and pelvis into the correct posture.
Pelvis position is very important in spinal pain. The position of your pelvis affects the muscles of the spine, but also the muscles of the legs and shoulders! So this is an important place to start when assessing spinal pain.
We will use soft tissue techniques, to release your tight muscles allowing your pelvis to return to a neutral position. We will then strengthen those muscles, often known as "core" muscles to ensure the spine stays in the correct position.
This will ensure your back pain is removed and is very unlikely to return.