I’ve noticed most people a lot of people suffer from back pain and if they don’t a lot of people overcompensate other muscles to cover up back pain and sometimes this can appear in the form of shoulder issues, knee and hip issues too.

 

Then when looking at back pain itself we have a lot of things going on from the tailbone all the way up to the neck and everything below the tailbone as the whole body works as a whole unit. Some of you will experience pain because the back is weak and some of you will experience pain because the back is tight.

So there are a lot of things to look at.

A really common and easy detection of back pain is to look at people’s squats.

Now I’ve trained people who lift 100kg and way more and even though they squat heavy that doesn’t mean they are squatting correctly and they will feel the pain, then a very common type of person that suffers back pain is a mother or guy or girl who works in the office and isn’t particularly active or if active simply isn’t doing the correct exercises or is doing correct exercises but with the wrong technique.

Assessment one is in the squat, arms are pulled back and in line with shoulder and thumbs are facing the wall behind. the chest is lifted upwards and the bottom is pushing back and at the same time, the feet are in line and pointed slightly outwards whilst the knees go in an outward direction as the person squats down.

Now usually with a keen eye, the lumbar or lower back switches off, and both the glutes and the lower back need engaging, you can see this as when squatting the butt and the back doesn’t appear to show tension from behind they tend to collapse and curve the spine the hip and the butt position.

The other move is the inchworm which lets you do a forward bend touching your toes and then lengthen your hands away from you along the floor until you can fully extend your arms straight and overhead and eventually able to touch your nose to the floor.

A common cause of back pain comes from sitting down and tends to be down to how people hold themselves while sitting down, chest collapsed, shoulders rounded, lower back arched and hips collapsed. So, what counters that? Hip thrusts and back raises.

For hip thrusts, the palms are facing the ceiling upwards and the thumbs must touch the floor, and the hips and chest, and glutes have to be elevated as high as possible towards the ceiling. the other move, the back raises require you to tense your glutes and lower back while squeezing the elbows behind your head as high upwards toward the ceiling as possible.

Two other moves required would be a movement-based side plank to get the obliques working and also to cause a side bending of the spine and twisting movement from the torso with either one or both legs in the opposite direction of either or both arms.

Of course, this is a simplistic and general view for back pain, and general of course depending on different body types and injuries there will be a lot more exercises, movements, and drills to use based on the individual and the amount of time dedicated to the movement will depend on the severity of how weak or inflexible someone is in one of the movements. If you have back pain and would like to book an assessment contact us today!