by Scott Schwartz – Co-Owner, Sports Massage Therapist

Low Back Pain SkeletonI injured my low back in high school, playing soccer. For years after the injury, I was plagued with a once or twice a year “re-occurrence” of the pain — not of the injury, but the pain. The pain was identical every time, and lasted about the same amount of time (roughly 1 to 2 weeks) as when I originally had the injury. My symptoms are listed below, and I have seen countless clients who identify with this story. Ask yourself if it’s similar to your own.

  • Bending and lifting or twisting causes a minor but distinct pain in the low back (once or twice a year)
  • It feels achy and starts to tighten up over the next 24 hours
  • The next morning getting out of bed is not easy
  • The wrong movement or a cough, sneeze or laugh causes sharp pain
  • Over the next couple of days I’d really stiffen up and notice one hip hiked up
  • Pain remains high and movement is uncomfortable
  • My butt is rock hard
  • Sleeping is uncomfortable
  • I’m pretty miserable

See? I feel your pain (and maybe you feel mine). And your friends and family probably don’t get why you are irritable. They would if they understood what an ordeal it is to do simple things like put on your pants. Ouch.

More than half of the clients I see with yearly or twice yearly re-occurrence of low back pain relate to this. The one characteristic that I didn’t mention is key and it happens almost immediately after the first feeling of pain: Frustration. I used to say “#*&@. Great, I’m hosed for two weeks.” And I would be. I just figured this was how this injury worked.

The whole picture was not clear to me at that point.

So here’s the deal people – the body is a strange thing. It’s super smart and pretty stupid all at the same time. If you were to hurt your arm badly, the muscles around the injury would contract and stiffen in order to prevent further damage. It’s called “splinting”  – and that’s smart. However, the splinting reaction is because of the pain, not because of some super body awareness we possess. The muscles don’t say “the arm is severely hurt – let’s splint.” It feels pain, and then one of the bodies strongest reactions is to contract, or splint, near that pain – and sometimes, that’s not so smart. And this splinting reaction is strongest in certain areas of the body like around the head, groin and yes – THE LOW BACK. The contraction or splinting is your body’s valiant attempt to protect your very-important spinal cord. This is good right? Yes, it’s good but only when your spinal cord needs protecting. Otherwise, it doesn’t seem so smart, but even more importantly – it is the cause of your pain.

I’ll show you why:
You reached down to pick up your daughter or a bag of groceries (really, it could be a toothbrush), the actual movement you are doing is much more likely to cause the pain than the actual weight of what you are lifting.
This is what is happening systemically:

  • You feel pain
  • Your body remembers the original injury and begins to react as if this is that injury
  • You have your frustration response – informing the muscles that they should be panicked
  • Splinting begins
  • Pain increases

You probably have some irritation in the area – scar tissue from the original injury, a slight bulging disk, or the muscles or skeletal system is pressing on a nerve. But the reason for the pain, at this point, isn’t really important. The point is that if there is some pain, then some protective contracting will occur.

The splinting reflex causes the muscles around your issue to tighten and squeeze, which is causing the pain. The body then feels even more pain due to the splinting. The reaction to this increased pain is increased splinting – which, guess what – increases pain! A vicious cycle.

Breaking this cycle isn’t easy but once you understand your situation better, decreasing the frequency and severity of your recurring low back flare-ups is very common. Let us help you figure it out.

Courtesy of www,psoasbodywork.com