TD Fitness Tip - Lower Back is the Good Guy

Ben Taylor; Tailored Health; June 2017

The lower back often causes people pain at some stage throughout their life and as a result can get a bad reputation. Although the lower back is the source of the pain, often it isn't the underlying cause of the pain. Please, let me explain.

More often than not, abnormal motions or forces coming from surrounding areas of the body force the lower back to put its hand up to do excessive work until it completely breaks down.

Our body moves like a chain and any faulty links in the chain eventually cause a break. This could involve getting up from the floor all the way through to playing sport where you may be throwing, hitting, swinging and/or kicking. Faulty links in the chain that require the lower back to do overtime often include lack of mobility in the ankles, hips, thoracic spine and shoulders.

I'll start with the hips since they are next door to the lower back. Arching and flattening the lower back (a.k.a. pelvic tilts) is a great exercise to assess the mobility of the hips and lumbar spine. Often it's important that we can find a neutral position which is in between both the arched and flattened position. Practice these pelvic tilts lying down or on all 4's for a simple way to find neutral. Once you have a greater awareness you will find neutral easier when getting out of a chair or when completing an overhead squat, ultimately reducing back pain. This ability to move and control the position of the pelvis is critical for optimal power transfer from the lower body to the upper body. Therefore, even if you don't have back pain this movement is important for performance in the gym and playing your chosen sport .

Keep an eye out for next time where I'll discuss another faulty link in the chain.

If you feel you can relate and have lower back pain or just want to know more I’d love to hear from you.

Email me @: ben@tailoredhealth.com.au or call 0434 451 226

Thanks,

Ben Taylor

Tailored Health - 14A Yertchuk Ave, Ashwood, VIC, 3147

W: www.tailoredhealth.com.au; P: 0434 451 226; E: info@tailoredhealth.com.au