What you need to know about your low back pain – CNN

When you have low back pain, it’s understandable that you’d feel powerless. An acute bout can leave you feeling immobilized for days or even weeks, wondering if you’ll ever feel better again.

Having multiple herniated discs in my back, I understand that feeling. But as someone who has healed my own low back pain and now lives a pain-free, active lifestyle, I’ve made it my goal to empower people with the information and resources needed to recover and live pain free, too. That’s why I’m sharing this four-part series.

Working in professional sports as a mobility coach, it’s part of my job to create treatment and prevention protocols for back pain. As such, my advice in this article series is not only based on medical research and my own back pain journey, but also my work experience helping hundreds of professional athletes overcome and prevent low back pain over the past two decades.

In this first article, I help you gain a better understanding of your own personal experience with back pain, why proactive techniques are more effective than passive approaches, and how you can start finding relief now and forging a path to prevent future pain. In the second piece, we look at exercises for lasting relief and rebuilding strength, while the third article focuses on soothing sciatica. In the last installment, I help you create your own back pain prevention plan.

If you’re ready to get out of pain and stay out, join me for this series.

Understanding your pain as your experience

Back pain is a very personal issue with myriad causes and presentations that impact your recovery and prevention strategies.

The good news is that most cases of back pain are not caused by serious conditions, like fractures or cancer, and 90% improve without surgery, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Below, I’ve included a list of common causes. Consider which ones may relate to your lifestyle and could be contributing to your pain.

Poor breathing mechanics and posture

Because your rib cage is attached to your spine and your primary breathing muscle, your diaphragm, attaches to your lumbar spine, how you breathe influences spine position, overall posture and, consequently, back pain.

Hip tension

Your low back is designed to be more stable than mobile, so when our hips are tight and lack rotation, if you try to compensate with your low back during twisting movements, it can lead to muscle and disc injury.

Physical trauma

A “broken back” with vertebral fractures is rare, but it can happen due to significant trauma from things like a bad fall or automobile accident. Generally, these incidents result in herniations and/or muscle injury, as opposed to fractures.</…….

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/07/health/low-back-pain-relief-causes-wellness/index.html