Low Back Pain and/or Nerve Impingement

Cause

Low back pain can sometimes start as the result of one specific event or lift, other times it seems like the pain is coming out of nowhere and just won’t go away. Whether the pain is connected with a specific event or not, low back pain is caused by postural deviations in the hips. One hip could be sitting more elevated than the other, one or both hips could have an internal or external rotation, or one or both hips could have an anterior or posterior tilt. Any postural deviation in the hips is going to cause strain and stress on one or more of the surrounding tissues, resulting in pain. Constant pain signals slowly cause the client to compensate or muscle guard, trying to avoid using the injured tissue, resulting in even more pain. 

Effects

As previously mentioned, low back pain can stay very localized and only cause pain in the low back and/or glute muscles. Other times, however, the inflammation and pain in surrounding tissues can cause nerve compression or impingement resulting in nerve pain shooting down the leg or up the back. Low back pain can also be accompanied by muscle cramps in either the trunk or lower extremities.

Treatment

Sometimes it seems like low back pain heals itself and stops being a problem for a while until another event agitates it. Other times it seems like the pain never goes away, no matter what method is used. In either case, Ibuprofen helps with the pain and inflammation and heat helps restore blood flow, but often something else is needed to help the inflamed muscles to return to normal.

At Structura Body Therapies, we understand low back pain is connected to some kind of postural deviation, whether that just means the client sits too long with incorrect posture or the surrounding tissues are locked out of place, meaning one side is locked long or short resulting in the antagonist to be also locked short or long respectfully. Treatment for low back pain starts with at least 3-5 weekly appointments. Some cases may take up to 10 appointments, depending on how chronic the condition and how willing you are to completing an at-home program with e-cises. The e-cises are meant to re-educate the surrounding muscles into alignment, and therefore decrease pain and increase joint Range of Motion. Come in and get an exerciseEcise manual made specifically for you. 

Treatment sessions for low back pain involve hip work from all angles.quads and hip flexors. After the hip has been addressed from all four angles, the therapist will reassess client’s posture and pain patterns and make a plan for the following two to seven appointments.

It may seem strange to work the anterior hip and abdominals in order to address low back pain, but if the client spends a lot of time sitting, the stress will get stuck in the hip flexors causing them to become locked short and the low back to be locked long. Even though the pain is in one place, like the low back, the cause could be somewhere else, which is why the therapist needs to be aware of postural deviations and holding patterns and work the area from all sides.