What a Personal Trainer from Manchester knows about back pain and shopping at the Trafford Centre

Sometime in your life you are probably going to be one of those unfortunate people that complains of some form of back pain and  as a personal trainer you would think that I would be different…but I’m not.

Back when I was a bit younger I used to lift a lot of heavy weights and not do enough recovery leading to a lot of muscle ache that built up and affected my posture and then resulted in a back complaint called lumbago which is sever over tightness of the back muscles leading to spasms, joint pain around the pelvis and a total lack of mobility.

These days I’m still a very strong guy and can deadlift 160kg even if I haven’t looked at a barbell in a month and squat some pretty heavy weight to.

The thing is that it doesn’t have to be the so called “more risky” activities that cause problems. In everyday life the most common reasons I see for back pain is excess weight and everyday posture in real life scenarios like at a desk, sat in the car, walking, lifting shopping and standing in a stationary position.

This last one especially makes me laugh and I see it every time I go shopping. Take a look yourself next time you go shopping either at yourself or others, especially the husbands and boyfriends that go shopping with their other halfs and are standing their trying to raise an interest while their better halves are going through the racks. I was in the Trafford Centre more recently and saw hundreds of people adopting this lazy style posture quite excessively. To be honest I was one of them!

When we are in a standing position we basically get very lazy and put all the weight onto one leg that stays straight while the other relaxes and goes into a bent of flexed position. This puts all the weight through the straight leg and hip and finishes in the muscles of the lower back, putting excess pressure on them. Once or twice isn’t going to matter but continuing to do it, coupled with other postural dysfunction will lead to excess soreness, usually on one side and can accumalate until something more sever happens.

Some other common forms of torturing yourself are…

Leaning forward in the shoulders and lower back when at a computer

Adopting a similar position when driving

Leaning forward and downwards excessivley when gardening or picking up the shopping backs or hoovering.

Now more recently I have unfortunately been through a case of lower back pain that was all muscular and have started a process of recovery. One of my favourite methods of recovery is to get a sports massage or deep tissue massage which I’m having a hard job of finding in Manchester while searching on the internet. During these searches I was pretty amazed by some of the advice that is on the internet when it comes to low back pain and also found it quite ironic that I found myself when looking for someone that could help resolve my discomfort.

I’m quite sure that if you have had back pain you will have been told to do one of these points below (I’ll let you find it and I’ll tell you later which one I have nailed as the most popular piece of advice) but it is fairly meaningless without looking at all the points together and could infact make the condition worse.

If you do experience acute or chronic low back pain I would look at all the following to relieve it and even remove it completely for the longer term.

Have a postural assessment

Continue the assessment to consider any dysfunction in the way you move

Look for imbalances in muscle tone and relative strength - Is the front of your thigh dominating all leg movement and putting stress on your lower back. Are you more dominant on one side of your body movement to the other.

Strengthen weaker muscles like the glutes and core/abdominals

Stretching short and weak muscles like the hamstrings

Stretch dominant muscles like the quads that also become tight

Check movements for firing sequence to be sure that the muscles that should be working are working sufficiently and the smaller stabiliser muscles in the lower back or not being overworked.

Participate in release techniques such as the use of a  foam roller or sports massage. This is far more beneficial than the normal type of massage if you are looking to resolve muscle pain and not just having a relaxing time.

One service I recommend is having a kinetc chain assessment or something similar from a practitioner in your area. This is exactly what I was looking for but couldn’t find anyone other than myself. I’m sure there is and they probbaly didn’t have a website or great SEO but I have experiened the work done by a KCA practitioner and found it to be one of the most useful exercises I have undergone.

Stay Strong and look after your backs

Mike

PS If you have been told to stretch your hamstrings only, then you need to change your doctor/physio or whoever you see!