Right at this moment, some 20% of the population is experience back pain; making it one of the most common ailment on the planet.
Despite it being such a common ailment, determining the exact cause of back pain is often difficult. By breaking down back pain into stages, Physiotherapy treatment and Core Stability training can help alleviate pain and work towards preventing recurring back pain over the long term. Today, conservative treatment is able to resolve some 95% of back pain cases when attended to at the right time. Only 5% of patients really need surgery.
One of the reasons as to why it is hard to determine the cause of back pain is its complex structural nature. It is made up of joints, disc, ligaments, nerves, vertebrae, muscle, fascia and other soft tissues. Pain is often a a result of one these structures failing combined with a physiological and external environmental factors. Until these sources and factors are sorted out, the pain will recur.
This makes treating back pain a challenging problem. The cause of back pain is normally multi-faceted, requiring a multi-pronged treatment approach. It is therefore necessary to accurately assess and treat the underlying cause and contributing factors in stages. It is important to understand first why your back hurts.
Baring external causes like a fall or an accident, our back pains is most likely a result of the amount of stress we place on our spine.
One of the key reasons our spines degenerate over time is exposure to repeated loads over long periods of time. These loads causes some of our spinal structures to wear down like joints and strain like muscles and ligaments.
Your spine is capable of a great deal of movement. However, to keep that mobility and freedom, all of the structures must work together smoothly and efficiently, like a ‘well-oiled machine’. Pain arises when one of these parts fails, such as when a bulging disc, bony spur or inflamed ligament irritates or traps a nerve.
A healthy back is a result of the rigid structure such as the spine and the soft support structures like the muscles working smoothly together controlled by a healthy nervous system. Muscles should contract and relax at the right times and by the right amounts. Otherwise, movement by these structure are either too rigid or too loose/unstable.
Back pain sufferers have been found that poor control of their deep abdominal muscles that support the spine. Or more specifically, it was found that the contraction of the deep core muscles required to hold the spine steady is often delayed. Meaning, movement occurs before it is safe to do so. Do it often enough, injury occurs.
Core stability exercises are specific exercises targeted at these deep abdominal muscles. Strengthening them and learning to better activate them can relieve and prevent low back pain from recurring.
Visit Core Concepts, your Specialist Physiotherapy Musculoskeletal Health Group to find out how to treat Back Pain and gain a better understanding of condition