Spinal-stabilizing Muscles and Back Pain
Back pain is one of the most common modern lifestyle ailments. You sit hunched in front of the computer all day, then jostle along in traffic in the car or bus, and can’t wait to plop into an armchair to watch your favorite series… Your physical activity approaches zero… and you wonder why your back starts to hurt. The more you rest, the more it hurts… It’s all due to weakening of the spinal-stabilizing muscles. But the more it hurts, the less you move. That way you can’t get rid of the unpleasant pain. But there is help!
The role of the spinal-stabilizing muscles
Healthy, strong spinal-stabilizing muscles are largely responsible for upright posture and being pain-free. If these muscles are strong and well-trained, they support your weight and prevent the vertebrae from compressing each other and pinching the nerve exit points, which would cause pain.
If these muscles weaken, the curves of your spine increase and the nerves between adjacent vertebrae can become “trapped” in the gaps between the bones.
In other cases there is no general weakening of the spinal-stabilizing muscles, yet back pain still develops. For example, many manual workers and bricklayers come to me because of back pain. Their spinal-stabilizing muscles are incomparably stronger than those of office workers. However, constant lifting of heavy objects, often with improper posture, causes a “relative muscle weakness.” In other words, the problem ultimately is still that, relative to the load, the muscles are weaker than they should be, so the nerves get pinched between the vertebrae just as in the case mentioned earlier.
Compression of a nerve root causes severe pain, to which the spinal-stabilizing muscles reflexively tighten. If the pain does not subside, the muscle stiffness increases and pain develops in the muscles themselves.
This is a vicious circle: nerve-root pain and rigid muscles “compete” with each other, increasing your pain.
How can back pain be eliminated?
There are small things that help. Changing your sitting position at work (properly adjusting the chair, raising the monitor to eye level, etc.) reduces tension, but it does not solve the underlying muscle weakness.
Likewise, painkillers are a deceptive fix! Medication does nothing to eliminate the weakness of the spinal-stabilizing muscles. That is why the pain immediately returns as soon as you stop the medication. Moreover, long-term use of painkillers is proven to cause side effects! They can cause gastrointestinal complaints, excess stomach acid, stomach ulcers, in severe cases even gastric bleeding, and damage to the bone marrow. It’s worth considering whether to use them!
The solution is very simple: strengthen the spinal-stabilizing muscles!
Click here to find a 3-month, day-by-day treatment plan. By following it you can greatly improve your condition.
Regular back exercises and physical activity are the real medicine, but they only help if performed consistently over the long term. However, you can only start the exercises once the acute pain subsides.
In the first weeks of getting rid of back pain you will benefit from muscle stimulation devices. These create muscle contractions and strengthen the muscles without moving the spine. If the spine does not move, it will not worsen your symptoms.
Stimulation of the spinal-stabilizing muscles becomes noticeable after 2–3 weeks of treatment (1–2 times daily for 30–40 minutes). Expect real results after 8–10 weeks of persistent treatment. By then you can achieve such a good effect that you can gradually begin regular physical exercise. Note! If you neglect exercises and muscle strengthening, muscle strength quickly declines again and your symptoms return. Therefore it is worth maintaining muscle strength — this helps achieve lasting freedom from complaints.
