Most people suffer from some form of lower back pain. If it isn’t your lower back that hurts it’s probably your neck and shoulders (or worse it could be both!). Research from many sources says that most back pain has an unidentifiable source. This means that all the digital and technological advances that have been made and are used to diagnose patients, are unable to find out why your back hurts! This isn’t surprising considering that most back pain patients have very tight lumbar muscles and very weak core abdominal muscles. Machines can’t “see” tightness or weakness. Hands however can feel it. It doesn’t take a machine to be able to tell you that the source of most people’s pain comes from overuse of their lower back muscles. This overuse is often coupled with weak abdominal musculature. Some other reasons your lower back can be sore is due to poor posture, tight hamstrings and gluteals, exaggerated lumbar lordosis, scoliosis, sway backs, disc injury or misalignment of the bone structure.

How your lower back muscles become overworked
This is quite simple really. Your low back will work very hard to keep you upright and to support you during movement and your daily life if your Core Abdominals are not doing their part. Your abdominals provide a very important support structure to your back. They wrap around your whole trunk and their main functions include trunk stability and support. If your abdominals are not playing their part in supporting you and keeping you upright, your low back will work very hard to compensate. What happens next is that these low back muscles work double time, and they become very strong, as they strengthen under these conditions they gradually shorten a little and naturally they fatigue. When the fatigue sets in so does the pain and discomfort that you feel. Pain is your body’s way of telling you that it either needs a break or something needs attention. In this case it’s a good combination of both that is needed.
In other cases what may happen is that your hamstrings become so tight and short (which is extremely common for people who spend their days sitting down… which is the majority of us isn’t it!).Because the Hamstrings insert at the base of the pelvis, they will pull slightly on the hips (which in some people can alter the degree of pelvic tilt). When the pull is present the low back muscles (which attach to the top of the pelvis) need to tighten to counteract this pull. Once again these little muscles can only work so much against the force of the big hamstrings before they fatigue and create pain for you.

What can you do to overcome this?
Unfortunately the solution by most people and practitioners is to take pain killers. Whilst this may work in the short term it is NOT a long term solution. Pain in your body is akin to the red lights flashing in your car. The red light tells you that something isn’t working properly. Taking a pain killer is like you popping the bonnet of your car and cutting the wires. The problem is still there you just don’t know about it anymore… and in a car, just as in your body it is not a safe thing to do!
The best thing to do for any back pain is obviously check that it isn’t something serious like some neurological problem or a disc injury of some sort. Once that part has been cleared here are some great ideas for you to try:
• Get a massage. Massage is a great way to relieve tension in tight muscles. A good massage therapist will be able to work on all your tight spots and release your muscles relatively easily and without too much discomfort for you.
• Stretch. Accompanied with a massage stretching is an easy thing that you can do for yourself at home. Stretching is free and not time consuming! Stretching works on the neuro-receptors in the tendons of the muscles and also the ligaments. It therefore lengthens your muscles in a different (but just as important) way to a massage. Stretch areas like:
o Your Hamstrings
o Your Lower back
o Your Quads
o Your Lats (Latissimus Dorsi).
o Your abdominals
• Strengthen. It is pointless to just lengthen your muscles without doing appropriate strengthening of the opposing muscles. If you don’t strengthen what is weak you will just fall back into the same habits as before and the same pain will return. Very important areas to strengthen (regardless of whether you have back pain or not) include:
o Your core abdominals (this is more than just doing sit-ups, it’s about balance, co ordination and integration of all your abdominals not just the 6 pack!)
o Your lower back (There is no point strengthening an already shortened and tight muscle, make sure you have it released first and apply adequate stretching before you strengthen it)
o Your upper body (back)
• Move! Movement is important. Our bodies were designed to move! We have 600+ muscles in our bodies. Use them!