Low Back Pain & Balance
If you suffer from low back pain your balance is most likely suffering as well.
While you most likely aren’t walking on any high wires or trying to perform a great balancing act our ability to maintain our balance is crucial for our health and one of the biggest factors related to injuries later in life as we age.
When our balance gets worse we are more likely to roll our ankles, fall, injure ourselves and as we age the risk of falling comes with a greater risk of breaking a bone.
Since low back pain decreases our ability to balance and stabilize it is important that individuals that have low back pain don’t just improve their pain but also work to improve their balance as their pain improves.
How does low back pain lead to worse balance?
We know low back pain can be caused by:
Weakness of the muscles of the low back.
Asymmetry of muscles or structure of the lower back.
Dysfunction and/or improper motion of the vertebrae of the lower back.
These three causes of low back pain are usually either due to a trauma, inactivity/lack of use, abnormal movement and/or loading patterns of the low back.
In all three of these instances the sensors that communicate (mechanoreceptors and proprioceptors) with the brain letting it know how to respond and balance when we move aren’t working properly.
These sensors are crucial for us to maintain our balance and stability since they are constantly telling the brain which muscles to relax, contract, and to what extent these muscles should relax and contract.
When these sensors don’t work properly our balance gets worse.
By bringing the structure and musculature back to a balanced state, strengthening the muscles of the lower back and retraining the muscles of the lower back to work together properly we are able to bring the body back to a pain free state that is able to help us maintain our balance and allow us to return to doing the things that we enjoy.
If you or someone you know is suffering with lower back pain let them know that with a data-driven approach less pain and higher quality of life is possible.
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References
Hildebrandt, M., Fankhauser, G., Meichtry, A. et al. Correlation between lumbar dysfunction and fat infiltration in lumbar multifidus muscles in patients with low back pain. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 18, 12 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-016-1376-1
Michał Hadała, Szymon Gryckiewicz, Movement pattern and muscle balance as a source of lumbar spine health according to the concept of Kinetic Control, Polish Annals of Medicine, Volume 21, Issue 2, 2014, Pages 152-157, ISSN 1230-8013,
Yu Q, Huang H, Zhang Z, et al. The association between pelvic asymmetry and non-specific chronic low back pain as assessed by the global postural system. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2020 Sep;21(1):596. DOI: 10.1186/s12891-020-03617-3.
J D. Childs, S R. Piva, R E. Erhard, G Hicks, Side-to-side weight-bearing asymmetry in subjects with low back pain, Manual Therapy, Volume 8, Issue 3, 2003, Pages 166-169, ISSN 1356-689X,
Ranger, Tom A. BASc, MPhty; Teichtahl, Andrew J. MBBS, B.Physio, FRACP, PhD; Cicuttini, Flavia M. MBBS, FRACP, PhD; Wang, Yuanyuan MBBS, MD, PhD; Wluka, Anita E. MBBS, FRACP, PhD; O'Sullivan, Richard MBBS, FRANZCR; Jones, Graeme MD, MBBS, FRACP; Urquhart, Donna M. B.Physio, PhD Shorter Lumbar Paraspinal Fascia Is Associated With High Intensity Low Back Pain and Disability, SPINE: April 15, 2016 - Volume 41 - Issue 8 - p E489-E493 doi: 10.1097/BRS.0000000000001276