Functional Patterns: A Holistic Approach to Solving Low Back Pain

Today, 1 in 4 people suffer from back pain and it is estimated that 80% of people will experience back pain at some point in their lives. This number continues to climb, but why is that? We will get to that later! But first, what is back pain?

What Qualifies as Back Pain?

Back pain describes pain from the top of the neck/upper back down to the sacrum at the bottom of the spine . Most common is lower back pain, which describes pain from the bottom of the ribs down to the sacrum. The pain can often spread more to one side of the body around the hip, and sometimes refer down the leg to the foot.

It can be short-term (acute pain) or a long time (chronic pain), and perhaps as painful as the physical pain, if not more, is the emotional stress that comes with it. If you’ve experienced back pain, you’ll know how debilitating it can be. It can stop you from functioning at your full capacity and enjoying your day to day life. It can get in the way of your work when sitting or standing for long periods of time, and it can make traveling difficult and exercising impossible.

Symptoms can present as:

• Muscle stiffness
• Localized pain or pain that radiates
• Pain that radiates into the hips or down the legs
• Limited mobility
• Numbness or tingling
• Muscle spasms

The mechanism can be:

• Muscle strain
• Herniated disc
• Arthritis
• Sciatica
• Obesity
• Spinal compression

But the NUMBER 1 cause?

Poor biomechanics and bad posture. Your biomechanics refers to the way you move. When someone walks, or runs, or goes about their normal daily activities, if their body is unstable – especially around the spine and hips – it can lead to problems for their back over time. Likewise, if someone has poor posture, this can put pressure on the spine due to spinal compression.

Some will argue that how someone moves and their posture are not related to pain, but let’s think about an example in order to explain what we think. Imagine driving your car with a very slow puncture in one tire. You could probably drive short distances for a couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks if you put more air in the tire every few days. However, if you tried to drive a longer distance, over a couple of hours at higher speeds you may blow the tire out and have an accident.

A bit like the way you move and your posture, you might get away with out pain for a period, but in the long run putting more miles on your body when it has structural weaknesses will likely cause problems.

The Functional Patterns approach

Firstly in a client’s initial assessment, we analyze their gait (walking and running patterns) and assess their posture. From this, we can see the source of their lower back pain and develop exercises and a tailored plan to fix the issues they have.

We use techniques like myofascial release (self-massage) to break up any areas of tight, dehydrated muscle and fascia that causes stiffness and limits mobility. We use corrective exercises to strengthen the core, the spine muscles and the glutes in order to create more stability in the spine and hips. We then progress to dynamic movement exercises to teach the body how to move as an integrated system.

By doing this, over time you can change the way you move an improve your overall posture. (Check out the results section of this blog to see client results and success stories.)

Conclusion

Low Back pain is not caused by simply having a weak core or weak glutes.  It’s a systemic problem caused by poor posture and imbalanced, unstable movement. It is something that is very unlikely to improve over time unless you get professional help. So, if you are sick and tired of back pain getting in the way of you living your life to the fullest – then contact us to book an assessment. With our help, you can finally learn why the pain is happening and how to fix it.