Stress can cause your muscles to become tight and vulnerable to injury. Prolonged stress often leads to muscle spasms and pain.
Improper movement and/or lifting can impose trauma and strain to discs and back muscles. Believe it or not, there is a correct way to use your body.
Repetitive motion from work or sport activities can also lead to imbalance making your body vulnerable to sprain/strains and early arthritis. It’s important to keep flexible, and strengthen weak areas.
Lower back pain is a very common problem in our society. It is the #2 most common cause of visits to the doctor’s office, after cold and flu.
In this lesson, you can learn about lower-back pain causes, since it is essential in your road to recovery as well as avoiding future re-injuries.
Even if your pain is due to an injury or trauma this lesson is important in helping you be less vulnerable to injuries in the future.
Weak abs can contribute to an umbalance in your trunk muscles and region. These imbalances result in the following problems that lead to lower back pain.
Strengthening the abs is not as easy as doing a bunch of sit-ups. Actually, if you are in pain, sit-ups may make your problem worse.
It is best to seek the help of a well-trained therapist who specializes in lower-back pain. Just like there are good and bad dentists, there are good and bad therapists when it comes to solving lower-back pain problems.
One of the reasons lower-back pain is so prevalent in our society is due to the enormous amounts of sitting we do.
Sitting causes a lot of pressure on your discs (in the back). This constant load of pressure can lead to flattening and shrinking of the disc. And since your discs act as “shock-absorbers” for the body, if they are not doing their job well, excessive forces go to your joints and ligaments which often leads to early arthritis.
Talking frequent breaks by getting out of the sitting position every 20 minutes or so gives your discs a chance to rejuvenate a bit (Learn more by viewing the Self-Help Tips lesson)
Tight hip muscles often contribute to low-back pain, believe it or not. Most people do not know this, let alone know what to do to make it better.
Tight hip muscles most commonly occur from too much sitting or repetitive motions from sports or work activities.
When the muscles and ligaments in the front of your hips get tight, they actually pull on the bones and discs in your lower back during simple tasks such as walking. You can imagine the amount of pulling force that occurs during jumping, jogging, or running.
How to resolve hip imbalance issues is beyond the scope of this lesson. We recommend you see a physical therapist that specializes in spine or lower-back pain to determine if this is an issue for you.