If you have back pain there are three things that you should be working on right now to relieve your pain.
I know there are a number of causes for back pain. But there are general patterns that emerge with almost ever single person we see who is experiencing back pain, regardless of what is causing their pain.
The three most common contributing factors that almost all patients with back pain have are:
1.) Poor hip mobility
2.) Poor core muscle strength
3.) Altered breathing patterns
How poor hip mobility leads to back pain:
Hip mobility is key to the success or failure for a majority of the activities that you do. Good hip mobility will allow you to squat down to pick something up while maintaining good spinal posture.
Good hip mobility will also allow you to efficiently walk or run without overextending your spine to compensate.
There are three key directions that your hips need to be mobile into in order to effectively take stress off your low back.
Cara in Supta Badda Konasana pose
1.) Adduction: Being flexible into adduction will allow your pelvis to clear your hips when you squat down to pick something up. By clearing the pelvis through the hips you will be able to squat deeper while maintaining a nice neutral spine. This way you won’t have to round your back so much to when squatting down.
A great stretch to improve adduction is supta badda konasana (yes it’s a yoga pose, you could probably tell by the name) shown here.
Cara demonstrating the pigeon pose.
2.) Flexion: Being able to flex your hip higher will allow you to squat deeper while maintaining your back in a neutral alignment. In order to do this you need to have flexible glutes.
A great stretch to improve hip flexion and glute flexibility is the pigeon pose, shown here.
Cara demonstrating a kneeling hip extension stretch
3.) Extension: Having good hip extension is critical to maintaining a happy and healthy spine when you walk or run. Naturally you need your hips to extend to move through your full gait cycle. If your hips are tight into extension then the body will compensate by extending more into your low back. Over time this could cause irritation and pain in the low back.
A great stretch to improve hip extension is a kneeling hip extension stretch, shown here:
How poor core muscle strength leads to back pain:
Honestly this one is pretty self explanatory. If your core is weak you won’t be able to stabilize your spine when you perform daily tasks. This can easily lead to back pain through overuse. Traditionally this means that your paraspinals (the muscles that run along the length of your spine) will be overworked leading to fatigue and soreness.
Watch this video below to get a better idea of how to properly contract your core:
Now that you know how to properly contract your core there are a number of exercises you can do to strengthen.
How altered breathing patterns lead to back pain:
This one is not so obvious compared to the first two. But how you breathe is critical to stabilizing your back during activities throughout the day.
The diaphragm is one of your core muscles. Possibly one of the most important and least talked about core muscle.
Timing diaphragm breathing to specific movements like squatting and lifting can significantly improve your core stability and reduce strain to the low back.
For example: As you squat down to pick something off the floor you should be taking a nice deep breath in through the diaphragm. The contraction of the diaphragm will increase the intraabdominal pressure making your back more stiff and rigid to lift.
For more info on diaphragmatic breathing I wrote a great article recently that you can check out here: https://www.gofit-pt.com/blog/diaphragmatic-breathing.
In Conclusion:
Back pain can have a number of different causes. However there tends to be a trend among all patient’s with back pain regardless of the cause of the pain. These patient’s all seem to have three things in common. First, they have poor hip mobility. Second, they have poor core muscle strength. Lastly, they do not know how to breath properly and use their breath to stabilize their spine.
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