Column: Standing Up to Back Pain

It’s likely you've dealt with back pain – it can affect all ages, from infants to senior populations. Back pain can slowly progress over time or happen in an instant. It can range from a minor nuisance to completely debilitating and is becoming more common in our modern lifestyles.

Often, the most frustrating aspect of back pain is the seemingly endless causes. Back pain can stem from bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles, nerves, etc. Or from muscle imbalances and limited or excessive joint mobility.

Poor posture tends to be the most common theme when assessing back pain; too much curvature of the low back, and alternately too little, are frequent issues. As a population, we tend to spend too much time sitting, leading to excessive tightness of our hip flexors and weakness in the abdominals/glutes. This creates an increased curvature of the back while standing and results in a variety of problems including the narrowing of the small holes our nerves travel through as they leave the spinal cord. This can lead to sciatic pain and other ailments.

By understanding how the spine should look in a neutral position, you can work to uphold correct curvature and develop your strength in this position.
Additionally, some exercises can help treat low back pain, including resisted clamshells, planks, hip flexor stretching, and the Pallof press. These common exercises are demonstrated online or discuss them with your medical provider. The focus of these exercises is to keep your spine in the neutral position and build your strength and stability. While doing these exercises, fatigue is acceptable, but they should not increase your back pain.

If self-assessment and exercises don’t alleviate your back pain, talking to a medical professional is your best bet. Whether you seek physical therapy, physiatry, chiropractic adjustment, massage therapy, acupuncture, or other forms of treatment, a trained medical professional can help you make sense of why you are experiencing back pain and how best to address it. Addressing back pain early yields improved rehabilitation results.

Pat Wettach is a physical therapist at Barton Health. October is National Physical Therapy Month — to learn more about Barton’s rehabilitation and physical therapy services or to schedule an assessment, call 530.539.6600 or visit BartonHealth.org.