Relieve Chronic Low Back Pain

When dealing with low back pain, every practitioner has a different approach. For the most part they probably all work, at least for a short time, until the pain comes back and you have to go see that practitioner again. A better long term solution is to identify the cause of the pain, and eliminate the cause rather than temporarily relieving the symptoms.

We’ve talked before about different causes of low back pain like herniated discs or overworking QL muscles, but as discussed before, those are the cause of the initial problem, but not necessarily the cause of your long term pain.

If you have chronic low back pain, no matter what the initial injury was, try following these steps.

Step One: Identify the source of day-to-day pain.

It may take us a while to get moving when we wake up in the morning, but once we get going we should be mostly pain free. After the initial movement prep of the early morning, try to identify what happens in your day that causes your pain to increase. For example, maybe before the 10am meeting every morning, pain is a 2 out of 10, and after the meeting, pain is a 5 out of 10. Identify why that change happened. Do you feel more pain because the meeting was stressful? Do you feel more pain because the chairs in that office are uncomfortable?

Step Two: Remove the source of day-to-day pain.

If it’s the chair you sit in, change the chair and allow yourself more chances to stand intermittently throughout the day. If it’s a certain action that you do, change the movement pattern. For example, if you get pain after throwing the trash bags up into the dumpster because the swift twisting motion is too much, find a step stool to climb up and place the bags in.

Step Three: Strengthen the weak or underactive muscles.

If sitting is the problem you might need to spend some time strengthening your glutes and hip flexors. If a twisting motion caused you problems then you may need to work on TVA and obliques. Strength solves problems, so get your workouts in! When in doubt start with Stu McGill’s suggestion of Bird Dog and Side Plank exercises.

If you need help following any of these steps, contact me at info@keylifestylesolutions.com