How To: Hip Hinge for Low Back Pain Relief

How To: Hip Hinge for Low Back Pain Relief

by | Aug 23, 2023 | low back pain

If you are struggling to find some low back pain relief, determining what your painful triggers are and avoiding them can be really helpful in your recovery. It’s important to stay active doing the things that don’t trigger symptoms while avoiding problem activities. This allows your injured back structures a chance to heal.
For many, bending is a major trigger for low back pain. You may have pain with a small bend like brushing your teeth, a long duration bend like when you are washing dishes, or a loaded bend picking up your laundry.
Replacing your painful bending with hip hinging can allow you to stay functional with less low back pain. And by avoiding the pain of bending by hinging instead, you give your injured structures a chance to heal. Good hinging also helps develop good hip and back strength.
If you are struggling to do a proper, pain free hinge, don’t be surprised. It’s hard to learn a new activity when you are in pain. And if your low back muscles are really tense and guarding from injury, they may not like the new workload that hinging creates.
If you are having trouble learning to hinge for low back pain relief, give me a call at 802-489-7842, I’d love to help!
For more videos on injury prevention and recovery, check out my YouTube channel here!
This video is intended for education and demonstration only and is not meant to take the place of guidance from your Primary Care Provider (PCP). Don’t use this post/video to avoid going to your PCP or to replace the advice they give you. Get clearance from YOUR PCP before using the information in this video. Use at your own risk.
How to relieve low back pain when reaching

How to relieve low back pain when reaching

by | Jan 18, 2023 | low back pain

 

Experiencing low back pain when reaching overhead is a common problem. Sometimes it can occur while you are reaching overhead and then quickly resolve. Other times it can cause a flare up that you have to manage for several days. This can be easy to relieve if you understand why it is happening.

As you reach overhead, your low back may bend backwards to allow you to reach as far as possible. This forces your lower back into extension, usually through the lower segments of the lumbar spine, L4-5, L5-S1. Unfortunately, these levels tend to be a problem area for many spines. Extension can be irritating to these segments if they are trying to heal from injury or are stiff. 

Fortunately, there are 3 easy strategies for alleviating low back pain when reaching overhead. First, you can avoid this pain by avoiding activities that put you in this position. If you have pain reaching overhead then painting a ceiling, hanging drapes, or dusting your ceiling fan may not be a good idea until you master the next two strategies.

Second, roll your pelvis backwards and hold it there as you reach overhead. By holding this position, you prevent your lumbar spine from extending as you reach and therefore prevent pain. You can see a demonstration of this in the video above. 

Finally, oftentimes you overextend through your low back when reaching as a compensation for tight shoulders or a stiff upper back. If you spend time stretching those areas so they move better, then the reach will come from these appropriate areas instead of being forced through our low back where it is painful. Here is a video to help you learn how to loosen your upper back for better reaching as referred to in the video above.

It can be challenging to learn how to roll your pelvis backwards while reaching overhead, especially if you are in pain. And applying appropriate stretching to your shoulders and upper back without aggravating your low back can be tricky. If you’d like help with this, please give me a call! I’d love to work with you!

This post is intended for education and demonstration only and is not meant to take the place of guidance from your Primary Care Provider (PCP). Don’t use this post to avoid going to your PCP or to replace the advice they give you. Get clearance from YOUR PCP before using the information in this post. Use at your own risk. 

 

 

 

 

How to: exercise to prevent low back pain?

How to: exercise to prevent low back pain?

by | Dec 7, 2022 | low back pain

 

When you are struggling with low back pain, it is common to seek relief with stretching and strengthening exercises. This approach is an important part of your recovery and healing. However, your time will be better spent, especially initially, learning to avoid the most common triggers of low back pain. By avoiding common triggers, your low back is no longer sustaining the damage caused by these triggers, often resulting in an immediate reduction in pain. Appropriate strengthening and stretching exercises are then less painful to perform and more effective at maintaining improvement. 

So how do you avoid the most common triggers for low back pain? There are many activities that can cause low back pain depending on what structures in your back are injured. Repeated or prolonged bending, twisting, and combining bending and twisting is particularly damaging to the disks in your low back. These actions pull on the outer layer of the disc and eventually cause painful damage to that layer. If you can prevent this damage, or stop it from continuing, you can significantly reduce the frequency and intensity of your low back pain. Replacing your bending with a good hip hinge, squat, and golf lift is an effective way to stop pulling on the outside of your disc and allow it to heal and feel better!

Relieving low back pain by replacing bending with hip hinging and squatting can be challenging for two reasons. First, learning how to properly hip hinge and squat can be difficult, especially when you are in pain. Pain is a muscle inhibitor which reduces our coordination and strength with tasks. So it’s hard to learn something new when your body isn’t moving as it should because you are in pain! Second, hip hinging and squatting in the gym can feel much different than hip hinging and squatting at home. Can you hinge when you brush your teeth? Can you squat properly with your heels down and your bum back when you lift your laundry? Applying these movements to your home and work activities is an important step in eliminating bending and low back pain.

It’s not unusual to need help in this process. 

Working with me provides the information and coaching you need to move with less pain. You’ll learn what structures in your back are acting up and why. Through treatment and coaching you’ll learn how to hip hinge and squat safely to keep your low back calm and painfree. You’ll also learn exercises that reinforce and strengthen these healthy movements. As a Physical Therapist, I can also help you correct any joint stiffness, muscle spasm, or nerve issues that are hindering your recovery. I’d love to work with you! Please call today!

This post is intended for education and demonstration only and is not meant to take the place of guidance from your Primary Care Provider (PCP). Don’t use this post to avoid going to your PCP or to replace the advice they give you. Get clearance from YOUR PCP before using the information in this post. Use at your own risk.