Strickland Fitness

Back Pain and Tight Muscles

This is definitely not a diagnosis; however, lower back pain can be caused by tight muscle in the legs, hips or abdominals. I have many new clients that come to me with one of their goals being to eliminate lower back pain. If this pain is not caused by soft tissue, nerve or spinal damage (which is out of my range to treat), the first thing I look for is tightness. Many times this is the problem. After a specific and persistent stretching routine, their back pain is slowly eliminated. Besides the upper leg muscles, abdominals, and muscles in the hips attaching to the pelvis, so do all the lower back muscles. If the any of the upper leg, abdominal or hip muscles are tight, that causes constant tugging on the pelvis. If the pelvis is being tugged on, then so are all the lower back muscles which are attached to it. This tugging on the pelvis is called a pelvic tilt. If the pelvis is tilted either way of the neutral position, this can cause extreme stress on your lower back. The purpose of stretching your legs, hips, and abdominals is to release the tight muscles and get your pelvis into a neutral position at all times. What are some things that can cause tight muscles? The first and most common thing is sitting down for long periods of time. Sitting causes the abs and hip flexors to be in a shortened position. The shortening causes an anterior pelvic tilt (the pelvis tilts forward). This puts your lower back muscles into a compressed state when standing. If you have a sit-down job, stretching the hip flexors and working on strengthening the abdominals will help to release your pelvis. Running is also a common reason for back pain. Now, I am not saying you shouldn’t run (it is a great cardio workout and stress reliever), however, what you do before and after your run can help to relieve back pain. Besides impact on the spine, running will cause a lot of your leg and hip muscles to tighten up. If you are a runner, be sure to do a good warm up of active stretching (see warming up post) and an immediate post run stretch and another one before bed. It is a good idea to stretch the morning after a run as well. I will post another article about specific stretches to do to release your pelvis and help eliminate back pain. If you have any specific questions, you can email me.

There is one common mistake people make when training their back. That mistake is that they are not usually training their back even when doing exercises for the back. Let’s look at the Lat pull down. This exercise is used to train a large muscle in the back called the Latissimus Dorsi (Lat). The Lat is responsible for shoulder extension, adduction, and rotation. It also plays a role in the extension and lateral flexion of the spine. Now when we sit down at the Lat pull down machine, we know we should be lowering the bar TO THE FRONT OF OUR CHIN (not behind the head) and releasing it back up, thus working our Lats. After all, it is a Lat exercise. What normally happens is we don’t even get the Lats firing and end up using our arms to complete the action. We use our arms everyday so we know how to get those muscles firing. With the arms doing most of the work, we are now doing a variation of a bicep curl. Ever do a back exercise and wonder why your arms are tired and you don’t really feel anything in the back? The arms are working harder than the back. Let’s solve that problem.

We will use the Lat pull down again for our example. You are sitting at the machine, your back is straight and not arched and you have your arms fully extended above your head gripping the bar. As you begin to pull the bar down in front of your chin, concentrate on pulling your shoulder blades down into your back pocket. You should feel your shoulders drop down as well. This action of dropping your shoulder blades will activate your Lats. Keep them dropping as you bring the bar down to your chin bending at the elbows. Now as you begin to slowly release the bar back to the original position of arms above the head, don’t let the shoulder blades leave your back pocket. Try and keep them down until you have reached the starting position. At this point you can release your shoulder blades and prepare for the next rep. It should take 2 seconds to pull the bar down (positive motion) and 4 seconds to bring the bar back to its original spot (negative motion).

You will feel your arms working because they are helper muscles in this exercise. The real burn should be in the back. Concentrate on this concept and you will be well on your way to the perfect “V” shape.

Strengthening the lower back can be the first defense in fighting or preventing lower back pain. This is a great beginning exercise to strengthen your lower back.

Lay down on your stomach with your legs straight and your hands and arms stretched above your head. Simultaneously raise your right arm and left leg off the ground keeping the limbs totally straight. As you raise your arms and legs, concentrate on using your lower back to control the movement (you should feel a small contraction). After a small pause, lower to the ground. Again, concentrate on the lower back controlling the movement. It should take 3-4 seconds to complete one repetition. First do the right arm and left leg and then the left arm and right leg. Begin with 2 sets of 12-15 repetitions. Progress to 2 sets of 18-20 repetitions and then 3 sets of 18-20 repetitions.