Monday, February 27, 2017

LOW BACK PAIN - DO YOU HAVE IT?


Michael Boyle is a strength and conditioning coach in the Boston area.  He is an expert in the field, author, and a highly sought after speaker.  He is also a mentor of mine and someone whose methods I study and replicate.
I was reading in one of his books this morning and came across something I'd never heard of and it got me thinking.  I'm paraphrasing here but he basically said, people who suffer from low back pain don't really have a weak back at all.  Actually, they have a strong lower back.  The pain is usually a result of the fact that there is dysfunction in the hip joints.  The person has either hip mobility issues or hip musculature deficiencies.  They may even have both (probably do).  This dysfunction means that the body has to compensate in some other area to create the movement that the individual is trying to make happen.  In this case, the area affected and taking on the load is the low back.  It's working overtime and actually getting stronger but at what cost?  The low back muscles are not big, they are actually postural muscles built more for endurance.  When we give them the job of the powerful Gluteal muscles or hip muscles, they get over-used and painful.  This area of the body is typically required to be an area of stability, but all to often, we try to get mobility and rotation out of the lower back.  The anatomy of our lumbar spine is not built for very much rotation at all.  This is suppose to happen at the hips.

Here are a few stretches to open the hips:






So, if you have low back pain, maybe it's actually related to hip issues.
Try to loosen those joints to create new levels of ranges of motion out of them.

We are active creatures, we were built to move - some at more intense measures than others.  The fact is that MOVEMENT is vital for optimal health.  We owe it to ourselves to discover if we have movement deficiencies that are leading to common aches and pains.
Get a health assessment, see a trainer, physical therapist, or chiropractor.  Move your body pain free and enjoy life.

Special thanks to the works of Michael Boyle who inspired these thoughts.

I'll sign off with motto of some outdoor company I can't remember but like:

GO - DO - BE