Low back pain becomes a musculoskeletal condition with a very negative social impact and one of the main causes of poor quality of life. Given that today there is a very wide range of factors that can cause symptoms of pain, spasm and limited mobility of the lumbar spine, it is very difficult to eliminate them and solve the problem that bothers you every day.
If we analyze the movements that the average person makes during the day, it is clear that most daily actions are static and that there is actually a lack of mobility. If there is an activity, it is usually repetitive and rectilinear – walking, cycling, and even exercising in the gym for most people are reduced to repetitive movements. If our locomotion system structures do not reach their maximum possible volumes, they will begin to slowly shorten, lose their elasticity and mobility, and it will be increasingly difficult to return them to the positions in which they are elongated.
To clarify the matter with an example:
You’ve been sitting at work all day and your body is in this position.
The shoulders are bent, the chest is tucked in, the spinal column is bent forward, the hips are in the fold, the knees as well. A lot of pressure is put on our pelvis and lower back, which is now there to carry the entire weight of the body and compress under the force of the earth’s gravity. And so every day…
Then our structures get used to such a position and when you try to stretch in opposite directions from the given position, you feel a large dose of discomfort, even pain.
Often, due to the loss of muscle elasticity and reduced joint mobility, injuries occur in structures that are disproportionately more loaded than others, and one of these structures is the lumbar spine.
The lumbar spine is a structure that includes 5 vertebrae and connects to the sacrum – the sacrum. Due to prolonged sitting at work, in the car, or standing for long periods of time, the lumbar spine suffers a lot of pressure because it is a support for all the structures that are above it.
There are symptoms such as pain, a feeling of cramping in the muscles surrounding this region.
There is another symptom, often associated with the pathology of the lumbar spine, and that is compression (pressure) on the sciatica nerve (n.ischiadicus). Surely everyone is familiar with the term “sciatica” and a very large number of the human population has encountered the term and, unfortunately, the symptoms.
The sciatica nerve is the longest nerve in the human body, extending all the way from the lumbar spine all the way to the feet.
Its long path is a risk factor for being pressed in several places and gives symptoms in the form of tingling, burning, and spreading pain along the length of the leg on whose side it is pressed.
The pressure can be on the part of the spinal structures or muscles, most commonly the muscles of the sciatic region.
In a large number of people with problems in the lower back, it happens that for many years they actually have some changes in the structure of the spinal vertebrae, without having any symptoms, until some factor occurs that will trigger the inflammatory process and cause all these symptoms.
One of the most common mistakes in recovery is that people are often advised to just rest. Rest is indicated in the acute phase, while the pain and spasm are too great for any exercise plan to be established. In this case, pain and spasm have arisen as a protective mechanism of our nervous system to prevent any further damage and we should not abruptly relax this spasm.
When the acute phase begins to subside, all that is needed is to move!
The latest research has shown that, in the rehabilitation of the lumbar spine, any form of movement will give better results than rest and inactivation.
