Is Your Back Pain Treatment Really Getting To The Cause?
Of course, conducting such a large study is difficult as there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration. What sort of treatment was given? What was the quality and experience of the therapists used? Did the subject all have the same cause of back pain? Did they carry out the exercises or advice as instructed? This last question is the big one in my view. All courses of back pain treatment usually involve some sort of exercise or instruction on how to sit, stand or move to reduce the stress on the back. But, and this is a big but, are we capable of following this advice? Is there a major flaw with
If back pain is not due to a specific medical condition is it usually a muscular problem. The human body is perfectly capable of supporting itself with minimal muscular effort. Postural muscles are ‘designed’ to provide long periods of sustained activity to keep us upright and balanced. The phasic muscles (or movement muscles) are for short bursts of activity such as lifting your arm or turning your head. This is a bit of a simplification because all muscles provide a mixture of both functions but it will do for this example. |
I see many people who tighten their lower back muscles to sit and stand up straight - these are the wrong muscles! They should not be active to keep you upright, this should be a function performed by muscles higher up that will balance your upper body on your spine.
So if someone suffering with their back is not ‘using’ themselves correctly how are they suddenly supposed to know how to use it right for exercising or trying to correct their posture? This is why I believe conventional back pain treatment does not offer the best solution.
What about the most common
back pain treatments?
Physical therapy, osteopathic, chiropractic and acupuncture treatments do get results and I recommend people to get a diagnosis and initial help from a qualified practitioner. In the short-term, manipulative treatment will help to get you moving and back onto your feet. However, I do not see these therapies as a long-term solution because they rarely get to the cause of ‘misuse’ and you could find yourself returning to your therapist on a regular basis. If you are looking to address the cause you will need to go deeper. Your muscles are only doing what you tell them to do, but, and here is the big question, do you know what you are telling them to do?
If you are not sure what I mean by this try my biomechanics test. If you found, as most people do, that you used far too much effort for the simple activity in the test, what are you doing to your back all day, every day? Did your previous back pain treatment stop you doing this?
In view a back pain treatment needs to be a two-pronged approach. Firstly, the manipulative treatment to free up the problem area AND secondly a re-educative step to show you how to move with less effort. Obviously from my position I believe The Alexander Technique as the best method for re-education. However, I do know people who have benefited from the ‘talking cures’ such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). These can work if they change your habits that are leading to your symptoms.
If you cannot get easy access to someone to help with re-education you might want to consider looking at my program Fit for Life. For less than the cost of one treatment you could find a simple solution to your back pain. It contains many procedures to show you how you can relieve the stress on your back for activities ranging from sitting to exercise.
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