Why do people get low back pain or what causes low back pain? I will not be able to fully answer this question in a short video. Also, as said before, the depends. However, this is a common problem I see in my practice everyday. Trauma is one big one. A car accident for example is one that makes a lot of sense. You get hit, you are moving fast, and things stop or get pushed in a way they aren’t meant to move. There are 3 main ways that the body gets injured. There is trauma, which we just discussed. The second is repetitive motion. This is typically the patients that I see the most. Things like sitting at a desk for hours on end and shoveling snow, we all know it’s coming, are common repetitive motion examples. This is where we do things over and over again until finally we get injured and feel pain. The third injury type is sudden unguarded movement. The easy example is stepping off of a curb you didn’t know was there and it gives you that jolt and your body wasn’t quite ready for it.
Injury can be an any three of those areas and usually a combination of those as well. Those are generally the way people get injured. Thinking of your spine, low back specifically in this video, there are ligaments that attach your vertebrae together at various places. There are also muscles that attach the bones together at the vertebrae level, and then layers of muscles and connective tissue that cover it. Ligaments are like a plastic bag, they will stretch but not return to their previous length right away. There is some lag time. On the other hand, muscles are like rubber bands and will stretch and return to their normal or resting length quickly. Take yourself sitting at a desk for hours and hours as an example. If you are rounding your back and doing it for extended periods of time, you are stretching the muscles and the ligaments. Then after sitting for a long time you stand up and want to go do something. The ligaments are more likely to get injured because they will allow excess movement and they haven’t been able to return to their normal previous length like the muscles have. This is the same when discussing the spine or any area of the body. These ligaments are stretched out and if you put stress on your system or want to do some sort of activity, whether small or large, your body is not quite ready to hold yourself together, to an extent. The same is true with shoveling snow or any repetitive activity. Another factor here is fatigue. Your muscles are not able to hold you together as well because they get tired. Then if the muscles aren’t working, there is potential for some instability in the joint because the muscles are too fatigued to support the body as normal, and now more load goes onto the ligaments and they are more likely to get injured. For those who have sprained their ankle, it hurts and can hurt for a long time, and the back and any ligament in the body can have a similar injury occur.
This is just a quick overview of possible causes and examples of low back pain. Any repetitive motion or prolonged position has potential of causing problems. There are lot of possibilities out there. However, keeping yourself moving well and in good health can make a gigantic difference in getting hurt once a day, once a week, or once a year. You determine the type of health that you want and we try to help you reach those goals and help you live your Tahoe lifestyle here at Summit to Shore Chiropractic.
Give us a call for an appointment today and get back to your Tahoe lifestyle at 530-544-8495.
When I say it depends on a few things, here is WebMD’s list of most common causes of back pain.
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