The Three Main Reasons Your Back Really Hurts

There are many explanations among and between professionals regarding the cause of chronic back pain. Spend an hour searching the web and you will find back pain attributed to poor mechanical design or defect, trigger points, or muscle imbalance. You’re also likely to find a plethora of gizmos, treatments and even surgeries touted to relieve the pain. The term root cause is frequently bandied about by those who go beyond the defect level, proclaiming to provide a foundational answer.

Unfortunately, if you search further you will discover that many of the techniques designed to provide relief have instead been found to provide either temporary, little or no relief, often leaving back pain sufferers feeling frustrated and financially drained.

‘Pseudostressors’ in Your Diet can Contribute to Back Pain

When you think about the origin or cause of back pain, it’s unlikely that the first thought to come into your head is your food or drink, but substances contained in your diet may actually contribute to the pain that you feel in your back.

While not a primary contributing factor for chronic back pain, ‘pseudostressors’ in the diet can lead to involuntary muscle tightness, and it is this mechanism that can influence back pain. We know that muscle tightness can be quite painful, that much of the underlying source of back pain is muscle tightness and that people with chronic back pain tend to have a strong muscle contraction in the back muscles in response to stress, compared with people who do not have back pain or recover quickly when they do experience back pain.

The Importance of Ergonomics

Ergonomics, or the ‘study of work’, is a systematic method of applying biomechanical principles to the work place. While BACKCoach recommends many different ways to feel better at work and in your life, applying ergonomics principles that allow, support and encourage proper body mechanics can go a long way in improving your overall comfort and productivity.

The word ‘comfort’ is key, because when you are comfortable at work, you are less likely to experience pain or injury, while, conversely, if you are uncomfortable it may be an indication that pain or injury may be coming your way.

Use your brain to relieve acute back pain

I spoke with a colleague today who told me she had “slept funny”, then played tennis and now has a terrible pain in the middle of her back. She was feeling pretty bad, so I gave her some quick advice on a simple way to relieve or reduce these common, short-term, non-traumatic instances of back pain.

It’s important to first understand that the source of most back pain is muscular tightness. In this example, she slept in an uncomfortable position (muscles got imbalanced into tight:stretched pairs), then she played tennis (strong, asymmetrical muscle contractions), which left her with a muscle or muscles that ‘knotted up’, resulting in the pain she was experiencing.

Challenge your Beliefs about Back Pain

by Mary Williams, MSEd, CPE, Founder, BACKCoach

In 2002, I undertook a study to understand the origin of back pain and the most effective ways to recover from it, and was surprised at what I learned. I had spent my career working with back pain experts, developing back injury prevention programs for businesses and teaching people how to apply ergonomic principles in their work and home environments, and had no reason to question the standard approaches to preventing and treating back pain until, I was in an automobile accident and spent the following fourteen years with significant back pain. Since I could not find relief through standard channels, I set out to learn everything that I could about back pain – it’s origin, its mechanism and the most effective ways to achieve lifelong relief.

Add some fun to your run!

Having started running in Converse All-Stars, tube socks and a cotton shirt, I love the Running Fashionista trend in running!

Let 2011 be the year you eliminate back pain from your life

Now that 2010 has come to a close, you may find it useful to look back on 2010 and assess it prior to planning for the upcoming year. If you are still struggling with chronic back pain, ask yourself the following questions:

• How did your back feel at the beginning of the year and how does it feel today?
• Does it feel better, worse, or the same?
• What did you do to try to help your back in 2010?
• How much money did you spend?
• Did it help?
• Does it feel today like you never had back pain, or does it feel like you ‘have a bad back’?
• What do you now believe about your back?
• What part have you played in your recovery?

Next consider the following additional questions. Are you pleased with how the year went? Have you progressed, remained stagnant or retreated?

Many people with chronic back pain find that they flit from one approach to another, trying this, then that, in hopes of a magic bullet or a quick fix that will make the pain go away, if only briefly. They may struggle with their beliefs about the pain, possibly deepening initial beliefs such as, “This is really serious”, “It’s never going to get better”, or “I have a bad back”.

Stress and Back Pain

If you have chronic back pain, think back to the first time your back hurt. It may have been an event such as an accident or a slip or fall. Or it may have been something as seemingly benign as bending over to pick up a sock.

For most people, this pain goes away after a few days regardless of what they do, but for some, it persists. One of the reasons it continues has to do with something that was present before the pain began: chronic stress.

It is important to first understand how the stress response works. When a brain perceives a stressor, it sends signals to numerous parts of the body to respond in a dramatic way. It heightens some systems (muscular, nervous, blood sugar delivery) and curtails others (e.g., digestive). The reason our bodies do this is because it is preparing to either fight or flee; in other words, to do something physical. This was a response that was very much needed by our ancestors but works against those of us in the modern day, especially those in sedentary jobs whose stressors neither require nor allow a physical response.

How the Flatlander (who used to have “A Bad Back”) Hiked the Mountain

by Mary Williams, MSEd, CPE

Founder, BACKCoach™

July 27, 2010

I recently arrived in Colorado for our annual break-from-the-heat July adventures. On our second day here, I went for a hike on Mount Sopris, a climb that began at 8,353 feet and after 4 miles finished at 10,753’. The best part of this hike, as opposed to past attempts in previous years, was that it was so easy. Not bad for a flatlander who lives at ~60 feet above sea level!

After years of struggling with mountain hikes, there are three factors that I attribute this enjoyable experience to:

1)   Application of balanced posture technique

2)   Understanding of breathing from the diaphragm

3)   Training/conditioning/preparation

Why BACKCoach?

I am frequently asked about the origin of BACKCoach™, how and why it works and how it came to be. The simplest response is that BACKCoach™ evolved because of a glaring need, key discoveries and a format ideally suited to meet that need.

The need originates from a gap in the current model of treating back pain and a fundamental, predominant misunderstanding of the origin of most back pain. It has been said that back pain is a symptom in search of a syndrome and this is evident in our culture’s approach to treating back pain.

The BACKCoach™ model developed from my background and experiences, first with exposure to current providers and research through my work, and followed by a search for relief from pain that began after an automobile accident.

For years, I sought help from various providers and while I sometimes found temporary relief, a reliance on repeated treatments was required to be able to function. I also recalled the many conferences that I attended, the contradictory information presented and the frustrated practitioners.

The fundamental problem is that since back pain is typically not addressed at the root cause level, results are inconsistent and commonly inadequate.