3 Common Myths About Back Pain Still Being Promoted

I've managed my own back pain since my pre-teens, and spent a decade helping others to recover from their back pain.

These are 3 common myths about back pain I hear still being promoted by the health and fitness industry....and they're probably keeping you stuck in pain.

• You need to make your core stronger
• You've got weak glutes
• Your hamstrings are tight and pulling on your lower back

These 3x myths are so pervasive that they're pretty much taken as gospel. Whole rehab programmes are built around them - core strengthening exercises, bridges to work the glutes and hamstring stretches.

But if these 3 myths were actually true, then all it would take is to send someone on a 12 week course of planks, bridges and hamstring stretches, and their back pain will be gone forever.

Except, that's not what actually happens!

Some people will find their back pain does resolve doing these exercises of course. But the reality is that many more people get repeat flare ups of back pain, despite doing their prescribed exercises and stretches. 

How much stronger do your core and glutes actually need to get before they're strong enough to support your spine without pain?

How much longer and stretchier do your hamstrings have to be before they stop pulling on your lower back?

Let's dive into these myths and do some debunking!

1) You need to make your core stronger

Core strength IS a thing. Core stability IS a thing. They're just not necessarily the same thing!

Stiffness, muscle tension and injuries tend to come from instability - uncontrolled force distribution or load management in the body.

The pelvis is the master controller of load and movement in the body. Literally all movement patterns go through the pelvis.

So we do need the pelvis to be a stable structure. 

You just don't need to brace the core as much as you might have been led to believe.

True core stability comes from mastering 2x components.

The pelvis articulates on the hip joints - the top of the thigh bone (femoral head) sits in the acetabulum (hip cup) of the pelvis. The hip joint is the top of the leg.

The bottom of the leg is the foot and ankle.

Therefore how the foot interacts with the ground and the stability of the ankle joint is integral to ensuring the pelvis functions optimally.

The downward pressure of the foot into the ground locks the ankle joint and activates the 'screw home' mechanism of the knee joint. This makes the leg a very stable, strong structure in stance.

The sacroiliac joint is a force closure joint. The downward pressure of the foot + the stability of the standing leg + the upward lift of the upper body creates tone in the muscles above and below the sacroiliac joint that locks it.

Once the sacroiliac joint is locked the pelvis becomes extremely stable, able to handle powerful forces and movement, such as supporting your bodyweight against the drag of gravity.

If there's some dysfunction in the foot, leg, hip, ribs, upper body or head the sacroiliac joint may not lock as designed. This destabilises the pelvis, so you end up borrowing stability by tensing or bracing your hip, back or abdominal muscles.

This leads to stiffness, tension, soreness and pain. 

Over-bracing your core could make you too stiff and rigid, disrupting your natural movement patterns and increasing your pain. Being rigid and being stable aren't the same.

There's a lot to more to core stability, such as when do the sacroiliac joints need to lock and unlock (yes, they do unlock too!), but that's for another time!

2) You've got weak glutes

Have you heard this one? Yep, let's create a scapegoat for your pain.

There is evidence that people with low back pain do have less awareness of and ability to activate their glutes. I've also seen this when I've trained clients who've had back pain for a while.

You may have heard of the term "glute amnesia"?

There is a phenomenon called Sensory Motor Amnesia (SMA).

This is where muscles tense continuously to guard or stabilise a part of the body in a protective response to an initial acute pain or injury. But muscles don't always return back to their previous state pre-injury.

Sometimes they stay in this guarding mode, always tense. After a while your brain decides to ignore the signals from these persistently tense muscles because it's busy doing other things, like surveying your environment for potential danger, maintaining homeostasis in your body and basically keeping you alive.

Your glutes can be used to stabilise the pelvis if it's not functioning optimally. If you contract your glutes to, say 30-40%, they only have 60-70% voluntary contraction available, and they'll feel weak.

But actually they're really quite strong - they just lack sensory awareness and neuromuscular control.

And until you restore these 2 elements traditional glute strengthening exercises, like Bridge, will be much less effective. You could end up simply reinforcing the compensatory patterns that are already contributing to your back pain. 

3) Your hamstrings are tight and pulling on your lower back

This is one of the most pervasive myths of all.

Talking of scapegoats, the poor old hamstrings really do get slandered.

I like to think of the hamstrings as acting like a set of guy ropes.

They attach at the top to the base of the pelvis (ischial tuberosity / sit bones). Two of their actions are to flex (bend) the knee and extend (open) the hip.

Therefore they could be used to help the glutes stabilise the pelvis if there's a dysfunction somewhere compromising the pelvis. But they're not designed for this job.

Therefore they start to signal their fatigue and discomfort - that's when you feel they're 'tight'.

If you stretch them, you could destabilise the pelvis even more or further irritate the hamstrings.

Often times, I hear people say that stretching their hamstrings provides temporary relief, but they just feel tight again after a few days,

So they end up in this cycle of constantly stretching their hamstrings, sometimes so aggressively their leg begins shaking.

But their back pain still won't go away, despite all that painful stretching.

So if these myths don't hold true, what can you do instead to make an actual difference to easing your back pain?

How To Actually Find Relief From Back Pain?

• Stabilise your core without constantly bracing 
• Restore sensory awareness and neuromuscular control to your glutes
• Release muscle tension without aggressive or painful stretches

The key to finding lasting relief from persistent back pain is to:

• rebalance the muscles at the front, back and sides of your body, so they all play nicely together, rather than engaging in an internal tug-of-war that creates stiffness and pain
• restore stability and optimal function back to the pelvis, hip and lumbosacral spine
• get the feet to interact with the floor well so they can absorb impact forces and support all of the body's structures above them effectively
• re-programme the nervous system's response to movement away from pain towards safety and confidence

If you're ready to take charge of your back pain grab your copy of my new E-guide "How To Get Relief From Back Pain & Muscle Tension in Just 10 mins a Day".

You'll learn what creates persistent muscle tension and pain in your body, with video tutorials of 2x simple exercises that you can do in the comfort of your home which will rebalance the front and back of your body to release that held tension and pain. 

Each video tutorial is less than 10 mins - you can fit them before you leave the house in the morning, during a lunch break or to relax before bed.

Click on the link  below to grab your copy of this free E-guide and watch the video tutorials:

"How To Get Relief From Back Pain & Muscle Tension in Just 10 mins a Day".

NEXT STEPS

Have you got your free copy of my new E-guide "How To Get Relief From Back Pain & Muscle Tension in Just 10 mins a Day"?

If not get access HERE.

I'm planning new weekend workshop retreats for 2024. Each workshop retreat will help you to:

- find stability, balance and safety in your body

- reduce pain and release muscle tension

- move with ease and freedom

The workshop retreats will be a deeply relaxing, fully immersive mind-body experience with guided meditations and a sound bath at the end of each day.

Get onto the early bird list so you get all the details of the event when bookings open:

EARLY BIRD LIST 

You can also:

• Book into a Stretch, Yoga or Pilates class with me - these are a good introduction to The BYB Method and take the first steps to your pain-free body.
• Attend a mind-body retreat - these are deeply relaxing, fun, social small group experiences typically held in various locations within easy reach of Worthing, West Sussex. The next retreats are "Rest & Reflect" half-day winter retreat on Sunday 3rd December (FULL) and "Sun & Moon" mini retreat on Sunday 17th December (last 4x spaces left). Click HERE to read more about them,
• Subscribe HERE to receive "The Movement Chronicle", a weekly e-newsletter delivering mobility and pain reduction tips directly into your inbox every Monday morning,

To find out more about my classes and retreats, or to join my email list you can contact me via any of these channels:

• Email at norma.pearson1@ntlworld.com
• DM me on Facebook Messenger 
• WhatsApp message to 07801 867361.