It’s one of the biggest reoccurring issues we see as massage therapists. Low back pain. We sit. We drive. We walk. Everything we do, pretty much affects it. So how do we help it? There’s Youtube videos for low back stretches, but those don’t seem to really hit the mark. That’s because it’s only part of the picture. You don’t end up here because of one thing. And you can’t get out of it in one way. In this post we will go over all the ways to help with your low back pain.
Sitting all day is the number one contributor to low back pain. A lot of jobs require sitting at a desk or driving. All of that sitting will pull and put pressure on the low back muscles. It stretches them out and weakens them. In these cases, it usually ends up being the opposing muscles that are what’s tight and shortened. So why would it hurt in the low back if that’s not what’s tight? Those muscles are working harder to do the same thing. They’re pulling against the tightness and that’s what causes the discomfort. It’s why you feel it in the low back when standing up after long periods of time. The low back is working again, and working hard. In a massage, we tend to try to focus on the muscles that are tightened and shortened, which would be the hip flexors. Those are what end up becoming shortened from sitting and driving, and anything else putting our hips in a flexed position. Not that we don’t work the muscles that hurt, they need love too, after all! But it is more important to release the hip flexors that are making the glutes work so hard to do normal activities.
This is why those Youtube videos for low back stretches only help so much. They show you how to stretch the glutes and it feels better, for a little bit. Only to come right back later. The weakened muscles feel some relief for a short time because that’s what they’re used to. Muscle memory makes them want to stay in this elongated position. But it doesn’t actually fix the underlying problem. Just like we want to massage the opposing muscles, the hip flexors, we also primarily want to stretch the hip flexors, moreso over the glutes. If you’re going to stretch the glutes, at least make sure to cover all major muscle groups. I mean, how often are we stretching our legs back behind us? If you’re like most of my clients, never.
As a massage therapist, our main goal is to loosen and release. That can only help so much when the problem is weakness. Sometimes releasing is not the answer. Of course there are other techniques we can use that don’t over loosen a weak muscle, but generally that’s where other help comes in. We need to strengthen those muscles to make sure they don’t overwork themselves doing everyday activities. Since our license only allows us to loosen, not strengthen, that’s when we refer to a personal trainer. A good personal trainer will be able to target exactly the muscles that need to be strengthened, along with all the other muscles that make every day activities easier to do. Problems usually arise because of imbalances. And we can help with the tightness, but we need someone else to help with the weakness, too.
Of course there’s never a one size fits all for muscle issues. That’s why we try to hit all the bases in our approach to pain. But if you’re experiencing low back pain, and what you’re doing isn’t cutting it, you can try Jefferson City’s very own Respiro Spa.
