Back pain? Before we look at the interventions that could help remove this problem, let’s first look at why it happens in the first place. Other than grapplers, what population is most commonly afflicted with back pain? Office workers.Sitting at a desk for eight or more hours a day leaves many people so racked with back pain that it costs a variety of industries millions of lost revenue each year.
Now these guys aren’t lifting or carrying in their work, so it’s not an acute injury. There’s no sudden spasm, it’s a grumbling, growing pain that creeps up almost without them noticing until one day they can no longer tie their shoes.
What’s the cause?
Often it’s the sitting posture that is
killing them. Hours spent in a flexed position.
Knees flexed.
Hips flexed.
Spine flexed.
This position holds the hip flexors and hamstrings in a shortened position allowing them to become chronically tight. As the hip flexors, well, flex the hip, our hip extensors are turned off via reciprocal inhibition.
And what muscles extend our hips? The glutes of course. If we have non-functional glutes (hips/butt), then our back and hamstrings have to work harder to straighten us out. These muscles are supposed to be assisting the glutes, not doing the work for them, so they get tight and tired. Our hip flexors, attached to the lower back, pull on it, making the problem area tighter and more tired. Essentially we fall into what renowned expert in chronic musculoskeletal pain, Dr Vladimir Janda, calls “Lower Cross Syndrome” or lower back pain.
Back pain happened like this in a simple words. Tight illio-psoas (hip flexors) → tight lower back and
hamstrings → anterior pelvic tilt (the top of the hip is pulled
forwards) → inhibited glute function and weakened lower
abdominals.
The picture to the below shows all the muscles that are
shortened in the flexed or sitting position.
Not cool eh?
Back pain can be reduce by doing some exercise to strengthen your hips or glutes. Ask a personal trainer how to do it correctly.
