Low back pain blues...
Let's talk low back pain. It's a pain in the neck, but in the low back!
I once had a friend that said, "you never really think about how important your low back is until it goes out".
As someone that has been on the receiving end of this pain, I can agree. Let's talk about this pain and what you can do about it!
How pervasive is low back pain in your life? Is it frequent? Does it leave you unable to move? Are you limited in your life because of it, or does it cause frequent visits to the heating pad?
Fact is, millions of people suffer from low back pain and mask its symptoms with pain relievers, muscle relaxers, and other medicines instead of treating the root cause.
Ask yourself this:
1. Does your pain occur after a specific activity?
Narrowing the cause of your pain to a specific activity can help with alleviating the cause. Sometimes it can be easy to do this: when you weed the garden it causes pain, or when you lift your child, etc. Sometimes you may not know what exactly causes it, and that can be a little more tricky!
2. What time of day does your pain occur?
This is another way to pin point what is causing your pain. Waking up the in the morning with low back pain could be indicative of a poor mattress. Going to sleep at night in pain could mean your daily activities are causing your pain. Again, this may only be one thing of many causing your pain, but this gives you more information to detect the causes.
3. What are you doing to relive your pain?
Are you stretching and finding relief? Are you popping anti-inflammatories or pain meds to find relief? Knowing what you are doing to relieve the pain and how well it is working are great pieces of information to have when seeking treatment.
4. What is your fitness level and are you specifically training your abdominals and low back?
If you are working out and overtraining yourself, this is important to know! You could have issues with your form when exercising contributing to your back pain. If you have a weak core and are lifting heavy objects daily, this is key information to give your treatment provider.
5. How is the support in your shoes, and how are your foot arches?
Foot arches and back pain can go hand in hand when left untreated. If you have collapsed arches in desperate need of support, the lack of support simply works itself up the chain affecting other parts of your body...including your low back!
As you can see, low back pain is a multi-faceted issue affecting so many people each and every day. But working with a treatment provider, like our in-house Physical Therapist Justin Thompson and our exercise physiologists, you can work on solving the issue and eliminating it! BOOM!
Please join us on Tuesday, July 9th at 5:30pm for a free workshop given by Justin Thompson to talk about low back pain. Simply call us at 352-872-5373 to reserve your spot as spots are limited!