Back Pain—What is it and Why We Get it
I’m not sure that there’s a single person in the world who hasn’t had a sore back at one time or another. My father has chronic back pain and lives with discomfort every day of his life. My husband gets more of the “I just leaned over funny and now my back is killing me” variety. And for many of my friends as well as myself, we get back pain from overuse—too much lifting of our kiddos or trying to move the couch by ourselves or hoisting our big dogs into the tub. In other words, back pain is extremely common. But rather than focus on the more negative side of back pain, let’s look instead on how we can avoid it in the first place.
Before we get into tips on how to prevent back pain, it’s important to understand why our backs end up hurting. Even if it’s pretty obvious why you are in pain—you just tried to carry in six bags of groceries at once—it might not be apparent what muscle groups are hurting and in what way.
According to the appropriately-named website bigbackpain.com, most back pain is the result of simple muscle strains. This is because the muscles that help support our spines are being used all of the time. Whether we are sitting or standing or dancing or driving, our muscles in our backs are hard at work keeping us upright and everything in line. And then of course the spine itself can bend and twist around. Basically, our backs are working out 24/7, which for most of us will lead to pain at some point.
Lower back pain is the most common type we tend to experience. This is because the lower back supports more body weight than the upper portions, and it’s also under the most stress in terms of how often it bends, etc. This is why lower back pain caused by a strained muscle or ligament is so common.
It is important to note that back pain can also come about from things other than muscle or ligament strain. The spine is full of nerves that can become injured and this will definitely lead to pain, as will disc issues. Even kidney problems can present with back pain. So if your back is in a lot of pain, it is important to see a physician who can properly diagnose you and figure out what caused it to happen.
We value and respect the experiences of all of our HERWriters, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.
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Back pain is often caused by static sitting for extended periods of time - I use an Evolution Chair as my desk chair - it provides the health core strengthening benefits of a stability ball with the convenience and mobility of an office chair. My old chair ended up in the recycling bin five years ago and I have never looked back and never looked better!
March 17, 2010 - 2:52pm(Link to commercial website removed by EmpowHER moderator.)
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Thank you for your information about back pain. I specialize in treating chronic pain and help many people with back pain by correcting the functional roots of their pain. Here’s a little 1-minute test to help your readers understand, what could be a fundamental cause of their chronic back pain.
March 17, 2010 - 7:47pmLie down on your back for 30 seconds with legs extended out, resting on the floor. Now bend your knees so the feet are sitting flat on the floor near your behind for 30 seconds. Which one feels better? If your back pain diminishes with knees bent then your spine has excessive extension stress acting on it. There are simple exercises to correct this. If your spine felt better with legs extended then you have excessive flexion stress acting on your spine. Again this is easily correctable.
Without getting into too much detail, chronic pain results from a cycle of issues. Anatomical problems feed biomechanical issues which then affect movement habits that reinforce the original anatomical and biomechanical problems. Fixing back pain requires attention to all three levels. It's often quite simple to correct though once the root causes are understood. This is outlined in my book. I’ve also posted this 1-minute back pain test on YouTube, if you’re interested.