80% of us will experience low back pain at some point of our lives.  Low back pain can affect our everyday living in a minor, irritating way or dramatically affect our family life, our sleep, to our ability to just move freely. Globally, low back pain is currently the leading cause of disability.

The three main components that can cause pain in our low back are muscular, joint and discogenic (pain coming from a damaged vertebral disc).

Muscle Pain

We have about 600 muscles in our body, and from overuse, injury or functional compensation, a weak, tired or damaged muscle can give us functional/ postural issues and pain.

Out of all the components in our body, if muscles are the cause of pain in our low back, they are likely to heal the fastest.  Resting the muscle so it has time to heal is crucial to help reduce the pain it is causing.

Joint Paint

In our lumbar spine, the facet joints are the main joints which allow us to bend, twist and rotate. These joints can get inflamed if we make sudden, and possibly demanding movements when the muscles, ligaments and tendons are not ready to strongly contract and stabilise these back joints.

Lower down the spine, we have two sacroiliac joints in our pelvis.  If these joints are overused, unstable, restricted, or used in an uneven way, any resultant pain caused will be felt lower down, right into our low back or buttocks.

Discogenic Pain

In between the vertebra in our spine, we have discs that act as spacers.  These in-between vertebra spacers are crucial in creating tunnels, or pathways, along which our nerves travel unimpeded all around our body.

Pain from a disc can be caused by a whole variety of reasons, but a common cause is disc herniation. This can occur when some of the disc is pushed out of place and right on to the very sensitive nerve next to it.  The nerve commonly will then give issues in the low back, but also issues in other areas too, most commonly down and along the leg.

Heal > Adapt > Evolve