what can you do to help with lower back pain

There is a ton that can be done, but the answer lies not just in strengthening your back. It is important that you restore normal motion in your hips and thoracic spine (the middle/upper back) regions. If you give me more specifics, I can send you some specific things to help take your pain away.

Sherry McLaughlin, MSPT, OCS, CSCS
President/Founder
The Michigan Institute for Human Performance
www.mihp.net
smclaughlin@mihp.net

The goal is to gather information based on some simple questions that the person can answer by looking in the mirror and also doing a series of movement tests. The idea is not just to differentiate arthrogenic/discal pain from myogenic pain, but to realize that either scenario is usually due to excessive motion occurring in the lumbar spine. A majority of lumbar dysfunction is due to excessive rotational forces occurring in the area of the spine that is biomechanically designed to contribute a total of about 10 degrees of rotation. Contrast that with the 8-9 degrees per segment in the thoracic spine and the 40-45 degrees of rotation that is normally contributed by the hip joints.

Through some simple tests, it is easy to to determine if the thoracic spine or hip mobility is limited, especially in the rotational plane. By restoring rotation where it is supposed to happen, lumbar irritation (arthrogenic, discogenic or myogenic) is often alleviated.

Sherry McLaughlin, MSPT, OCS, CSCS
President/Founder
The Michigan Institute for Human Performance
www.mihp.net