Low Back Pain

Low back pain is unfortunately very common in this day and age of prolonged sitting. For the most part, pending any actual injury to your low back, the pain is caused from either tight quads (the muscles of the front thigh) or tight hamstrings (the muscles of the back of the thigh). Generally if one muscles set is tight, like your quads, you will have loose hamstrings or vice versa. This causes issues with your low back as it pulls your pelvis out of neutral alignment putting stress on the low back.

One way to figure out which set of muscles is causing you pain is to do a quick stretch to test the tightness of the quads or hamstrings. To check your hamstrings fold forward and notice the tension there. If you can get your hands or fingers to the floor it’s pretty safe to say that you have loose hamstrings. To test your quads, standing on one foot, grab your ankle of the other and bring the heel up towards your butt. Again check for the level of tension. If you can get your heel to your butt you have pretty flexible quads. Another way to figure it out is lay on your back. If you can slide your hand under your low back, meaning you have a significant arch in your low back, then you have tight quads. If your back is pressed to the floor (it is natural to have a slight curve here), then your hamstrings are tight.

 

It is possible to have tight hamstrings or quads on one side and loose on the other. This is pretty rare, but can happen. If this is the case, follow the same recomendations below, but just do what is appropriate for each side.

You can have flexible quads and hamstrings but if one muscle set is a bit tighter than the other then you can create an imbalance in the pelvis. Imbalance in muscles groups causes pain.

Once you have figured out which muscle is tight, the next step is to lengthen and stretch the tight muscles and strengthen the loose ones. Below are some exercises for strength and flexibility.

To strengthen the hamstrings try Bridge. To challenge your strength more lift up your toes or balls of your feet (not your heels). Even more extreme is lifting one leg up into the air. Word of caution, hamstrings are easy to pull so be mindful not push past your edge. If you feel  yourself straining, come out of the pose. Focus on lifting the hips and arching the back. Relax through the shoulders.

To strengthen your quads you can do chair pose or any of the various standing postures like warrior I & II, extended side angle, goddess or a standing lunge. Hold them for as long as you can.

To stretch your hamstrings intense side stretch or a simple forward fold will work. Focus on keeping your spine straight. If you can’t reach the floor, which you probably won’t since you are working on flexibility, use blocks, a table or chair to rest your hands on so you can focus on the stretch. Work on keeping your pelvis level, meaning don’t let one side of your pelvis, like the left hip, go up. You should be able to place a glass of water on your low back without it falling off.

To stretch your quads you can do a lunge with your back knee down on the mat, use padding here if needed to protect the knees. Pull the pelvis forward a bit to increase the stretch or grab the ankle of the knee that is down on the floor and pull it towards your butt  (You can use a strap here if your shoulders are tight and can't reach the ankle. Just wrap the strap around the ankle joint, not the top of the foot.). Make sure not to pull too hard as it can strain the knee. Dancer is another great stretch or just grabbing your ankle and bringing the heel towards your butt.

In order to make any progress on this you will have to do the stretches daily or when you feel your back starting to act up. If you are unsure of the poses I mentioned above you can go to http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/finder/browse_categories to view the various poses. A good way to start your day is to do your  set of stretches. It helps to prevent the back pain from happening in the first place.