'Merica, the land of the couch potato!
There is a well-cited study out there that 80% of Americans will have back pain at least once in their life. Those Americans could have been shoveling snow, lifting a heavy weight, chasing their kids, or decided to play a sport "like the good ol' days" and end up paying the price. While all of those activities are what they could have been doing went their back "went out" on them, there is one major contributor to why they ended up with back pain: sitting. Our bodies are built to move and have evolved to move on two feet since the first proto-human did 1.9 million years ago. Just in the last several generations technology has eased the burden of the work society must do to operate, leaving a whole bunch of us the gobs of free time. Without the necessity to move around all day to survive or simply make a living, most of us sit our butts in front of a TV (or computer) for hours on end per day. This sedentary lifestyle gives the body an uphill challenge to stay fully functional. Let's get to the bottom of this and fix it!
Lower crossed syndrome: Where big guts meet flabby butts
This is the "cross" of lower crossed syndrome. It is a mix of weak and irritated abdominal, gluteal and hamstring musculature paired with tight lower back and hip flexor muscles. When this special mix of under-developed muscles and overworked muscles happens it will cause your entire pelvis to rock forward, making your belly look larger than it actually is and your butt look stronger than it actually is (even though it is, in fact, very weak!). How does sitting fit in though?
When you sit, your thighs are in a "flexed" position even though nothing is actually "flexing". This causes there to be considerable slack in the muscle, which is a HUGE risk for injury if you had to suddenly move. Since your body has an innate ability to adapt to things like this, over time it will cause the hips to shorten (tighten) to take out that extra slack. When you stand up however, the hip flexors don't automatically relax. Your hips stay in that "flexed" position the rest of the day. This is partially because the abdominal, gluteal and hamstring muscles aren't strong enough to overcome the tightness (or the extra weight caused by a big belly) and partially because those hip flexors are supported by scar tissue. What? Scar tissue? What do you mean? Let me explain!
Scar tissue: Your body's nasty little "helper"
Every muscle in your body is covered by this stuff called fascia. This shrink wrap-like protective covering ensures that your muscles can easily slide between each other to move and, through connections to the fascia of other muscles, allows complex movements to take place efficiently like walking or throwing a ball. When everything is performing normally muscles slide and movements come easily. When your body senses a muscle is overworked and could fail (tear), your body will send scar tissue to the weakened area to support it. The same thing happens if it is overstretched: scar tissue comes to the rescue to make sure it doesn't fail. The thing about scar tissue though is that is doesn't stretch like fascia. It is firm, brittle and inelastic. So when you want to perform that movement, your body will be weaker, have less range of motion and possibly have pain. Those symptoms are your body's way of telling you to slow down and allow yourself to heal. Most of us just keep going, thinking "no pain, no gain" or simply because they cannot afford the time off of work. With one muscle going at half speed, this is where fascia comes in to the rescue. Since fascia is more of a system than just a muscle covering, the muscles it attaches to can help with the movement. This will act only as a buffer for a short period of time. After a while, those muscles will need help too!
It's not just the muscles!
If your body is always making up for these imbalances it will often lose the proper positioning it was meant to have. If you are sitting you will have the rotated hips. If you are at a computer you will have shoulders that round forward. This will put such stress on your body that your skeleton will shift--vertebra will rotate, your pelvis will shift, the arches of your feet will collapse-- leading to even more muscle tightness, immobility and pain. These shifted bones will often cause your nerves to become stressed due to tension from bones moving or scar tissue entrapping them. Poorly functioning nerves will lead to even more muscle weakness, pain or even loss of sensation.
What's the fix?
With lower crossed syndrome, your goal is to align the bones to their proper position. Some people will tell you to only worry about the bones, others will tell you only worry about the muscles. Since its one big system, couldn't we work on both fronts to achieve faster results?
The fix is simple to understand, but can be difficult to make happen. Eliminate scar tissue, get proper skeletal alignment and then focus on strengthen weak muscles and stretching tight ones to maintain the alignment. The first goal often requires a professional with extensive knowledge of how the body works. Sometimes pain shows up somewhere when the real issue is somewhere else. You could end up working on the wrong area for weeks or months with nothing to show for it. The second goal is to find somebody who knows how to fix the problems. Although checking out videos on youtube will likely give you some good information if you get it from the right source, often a face to face meeting with a professional to evaluate what you have going on will be far more time and cost effective (time IS money, right?). The third goal is the hardest of them all--maintaining your healthy body. It is MUCH easier to have somebody else do the work for you than to do it yourself.
To do list to get rid of lower crossed syndrome:
1. Remove scar tissue from all affected muscles: glutes, hamstrings, back musculature and hip flexors.
2. Properly align skeleton so that your nerves won't be stressed and muscles won't be as irritated.
3. Promote the proper positioning by strengthening your weak muscles (abs, glutes and hamstrings) while stretching the tight ones (low back, hip flexors)
Who can I speak with to help me?
Speaking with a local chiropractor would be an excellent choice! Chiropractors have the knowledge of what position the bones are meant to be in and how to get them back there. Finding a chiropractor who offers rehabilitation exercise would be ideal, since a two-pronged attack has proven to be the fastest route to recovery. If there isn't one near you that offers that service, teaming a chiropractor with a physical therapist will work as well. As health care providers our job is to make sure our patients get healthy as fast as they can and often a team approach is needed.
If you are looking to complete your to do list in the Milwaukee area in one place, I encourage you to click on the link below. Thanks for reading!
www.selectspineandsport.comLabels: back pain, chiropractic, lower crossed syndrome, milwaukee, tight hamstrings
