Low back pain sucks, whether it’s the chronic low back pain that won’t go away, the on and off ones, the debilitating ones, the sharp ones, the shooting down the leg ones, too many variations.
We have noticed there has been a HUGE increase in the number of low back pain cases over the past year in our clinic, correlated with the increase in the number of Working from Home individuals. Gyms were closed, sitting for 10+ hours became the new norm, and the body just became a sitting statue rather than a strong functioning and active machine – the way it was originally designed for.
The main causes of low back pain involves what the body does as a consequence of what we put our body through – for example, being inactive and sitting all day can cause the imbalances in the hip muscle such as overactive/underactive hip flexors and/or glute muscle inhibition. Our hip flexor (iliopsoas) has a primary function in lumbar spine stabilisation, meaning when the hip flexor becomes inhibited or weaker, the lumbar spine gets compressed and unstable – which leads to all sorts of low back issues like disc bulge, disc herniation, sacroiliac joint dysfunction, sciatica and so on. Therefore, with 99% of low back pain cases, it will not get FIXED unless the hip problems get addressed.
Focusing on Glute Maximus activation and strengthening will for many reasons help with low back pain. The Gluteual group works as a major stabiliser of the pelvis and hip, and the STRONGEST muscle in the body, so if all the sitting down and poor hip habits inhibit the gluteal function, the low back will have to take on more load – which will once again lead to the low back conditions mentioned before. Therefore, it is important that once it has been identified that there is a hip dysfunction, that rehabilitation involves some form of gluteal activation and strengthening. Make sure you get a proper activation drill from a practitioner though, since not ALL glute exercises are going to be suitable for you !
If you have any further questions about low back pain and how to fix low back pain, please reach out to us, book online for a proper assessment and we will come up with a personalised treatment plan for you so we can fix your low back pain !
