The connection between low back pain and walking may seem an unusual one. We often associate prolonged sitting or standing with low back pain and until recently, I certainly would have questioned the link if I had not worked out the cause to my own chronic back stiffness.
We all get aches and pains from time to time but sometimes these aches and
pains hang around. Muscles that are chronically stiff, tight, achey, or weak can cause ongoing pain for an individual.
I don’t know how many times I hear people say, “I really need to work on my core strength,” or “my trainer says I need to activate my core more.”
Do we really need to be so obsessed with our core? How important is a strong core and good posture in avoiding back pain and stiffness?
Recently I had the pleasure of treating a lovely 86-year-old post-polio survivor. For as long as she could remember she had been experiencing debilitating muscle cramps all over her body which have become progressively worse as she has gotten older. The cramps had become so bad she had become afraid to leave the house.
The majority of Low Back Pain is classed as non-specific, meaning there is no known specific pathology as to the cause of the pain.
I see such cases on a daily basis in the clinic, after ruling out potential red flags or neural implications, I go straight to one muscle I know will most likely be implicated – Quadratus Lumborum (QL).
Lower-back pain is so common in our population that according to leading researcher, Professor Buchbinder, "we should treat it like the common cold," it’s VERY common. In contrast to the common cold, rest is not recommended for low back pain, getting up and moving is. One of the best things for low back pain is walking.
