Low Back Pain

Back Pain is Common

Millions of Americans experience low back pain each year. Why? First let’s talk about what typically causes it. Most people will experience back pain due to a ‘mechanical’ cause. The joints of your spine move inappropriately and this leads to pain. Try and imagine when a foreign object gets caught into a machine of moving parts. Now the machine can still operate, but will not be as efficient, and may continue to cause damage. This is similar to what happens in the spine. The connective tissue of our bodies that helps to support our joints gets disturbed. The structure itself is operating incorrectly which can eventually lead to pain. The larger that disruption is, the more we need to compensate to continue to move and go about our daily business - this compensation can also lead to additional sources of pain.

If your back problem is truly mechanical in nature, than there’s a very good chance it can be solved mechanically. If positions, movements, or activities that you perform all of the time have caused the problem, then we can use positions, movements, and activities to solve it. You may call these ‘exercises’ - but in reality we are just moving your body in such a way to improve the state of your joints. This is the essence of therapy: choosing activities, movements, or positions which will ultimately improve your condition so that you may return to full function without pain or limitation.