There are so many confusing medical terms floating around, usually related to the spine and back pain, that it can be confusing to say the least when you find yourself in a situation related this part of the body. Anyone who regularly suffers with lower back pain will be all too aware of the uncomfortable nature of the condition, and how it can limit day to day activities, which in the extreme, can become debilitating, making life rather difficult indeed.
What is lower back pain caused by? Well, it could be a variety of reasons, and it’s because of this that it’s vitally important to get a proper diagnosis and treatment plan before rushing into any quick fixes. You might think that exercise is the way forward, but if you don’t know what is causing the pain, you could be making it worse.
The answer? Head on down for a proper assessment before you jump into anything!
One possible reason for lower back pain can be poor core stability. You might have heard of this before, especially in yoga and pilates, where you’ll always hear about the importance of having a strong core. Well, if you’re not sure what this is, let’s explain a little.
Your core is obviously the middle part of your body, and stability of your core comes from a collection of muscles, the most important being your transversus abdominus. This muscle may sound complicated, but it basically hugs your middle, attaching into your lower back and further on to your pelvis. This muscle is responsible for controlling your core stability, the term we’ve been talking about, and if it’s not working well, you’re obviously going to have stability problems in this area, and possible pain in the future.
Having said all this, your core stability does need a little more oomph to work, and also needs to involve your pelvic floor and surrounding muscles, all working together to give you optimum strength. What happens when you move? Well, all these muscles are supposed to work as a team, and contract to support your lower back, preventing injury and muscle strains.
Now, this is what is supposed to happen, but we know that in life things rarely go the way they should. If you have had a previous injury or you don’t move around so much, then these muscles become slack and they don’t provide the stability your back needs for protection. What happens? Injury and pain.
The immediate thought to fix this is to exercise these muscles, to get some more strength into them, but going back to what we were saying before, if you go to work on this set of muscles, trying to strengthen them in the hope it will improve your lower back pain, you run the risk of doing yourself further damage. The first port of call should always be to get yourself checked out properly; only then should you get to work on improving your core stability.
