Recognise the 3 Early Warning Signs of Back Pain… FAST!
If you are unable to bend properly, stand for a long time, drive long distances or pick up heavy objects it may not be obvious to you that you’ve developed a back injury.
Here’s why…
In my 12 years of experience in the Health Industry as a Physiotherapist you see a pattern occurring with new back injuries. They have a ‘signature’ that you recognise very clearly!
The ‘Top 3 Signatures’ on how my back pain patients have developed their injury:
- Bending forward too often
- Sitting for too long
- Repeatedly lifting and twisting
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 1 in 6 Australians suffer from back pain in 2015.
That’s 16% of our entire Australian population.
It gets even worse!
The report continues to state that ‘it’s estimated that 70-90% of people will suffer from lower back pain in some form in their lives”.
These are self-reported statistics from everyday Australians like you and me when filling out the National Census.
If we trust these numbers then it would suggest that there’s a lot of people out there who are in pain or soon to be in pain!
Sounds scary doesn’t it! Sure does!Click Here
So what do you need to know and what can you do about it?
Well let’s start by tackling the 3 major causes of back pain and how you can understand and translate your pain without spending $$ on expensive equipment or taking harsh medications.
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1. MUSCLE INJURY
You are a busy person.
Living a busy life chasing after your goals and often you burn the candle at both ends.
Your health may play second fiddle and so over time you can let yourself go resulting in deconditioning and weakness of the muscles.
This creates a problem because you still demand a lot of your body!
But it’s running low on petrol then you are a high chance of straining a muscle around your spine.
This is common in athletes who are overtraining, everyday people who are neglecting themselves and gym goers who tend to train to failure like in CrossFit or F45 circuits.
I have torn my R shoulder rotator cuff and both my hamstrings playing Rugby.
Not fun!
2. BONE INJURY
I’ve found that people who continue to neglect their bodies causes overload on other systems that muscles rely on.
Namely the bones start to get overloaded.
The result?
Osteoarthritis for starters then terrible inflammation and worsening pain over time.
Muscle weakness enhances the wear and tear of the bones which creates two problems – inflammation and joint pain.
You see this a lot with older Australians who are mostly > 40yo.
They are trying to be active but years of neglect and wasting has resulted in achy, painful and degenerative joints!
Another common mechanism of a bone injury is trauma.
A blunt force can result in a break or fracture of the bone. Very painful!
I have suffered broken ribs and my L collar bone playing Rugby so I know exactly what it feels like to be busted up!
3. DISC INJURY
Here is where it gets serious.
If you don’t have active strength anymore because the muscle has weakened significantly, the joints are inflamed and painful the last surviving structure are the discs which cushion between your bones of the spine.
Think of discs as jelly with cushion your spine.
As you bend to the right, the bones squash the right side of the disc causing the ‘jelly’ to move to the left and vice versa.
Over time, repeated bending and lifting causes the disc to push the ‘jelly’ backwards which over time can ‘bulge’.
This disc protrusion (bulge) can often squeeze onto the spinal nerves which is responsible for the referral leg pain (sciatica).
As you can see… this is serious stuff!
In 2014 I was lifting weights in the gym and I suffered a back injury. I can sympathise with your low back pain because I suffered this injury too!
So there you have it!
The Top 3 common causes of Back Pain laid out for you to think about.
#MakingHealthySimple
Leki
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