Let’s talk about back pain! It’s the number one reason people come to see people like me. 

I can generally reduce the causes of people’s back issues to a few things:

The psoas. The psoas is a deep muscle that connects the lumbar spine to the femur (the thigh bone). It’s your major hip flexor, and plays a huge role in stabilizing the low back. When the psoas gets tight, short, constricted etc, it tilts your pelvis forward, thereby jamming the lumbar vertebrae. 90% of people’s low back issues are directly or indirectly caused by psoas issues. Releasing the psoas can provide immediate relief to a lumbar in distress.

Another group of muscles that can contribute to back pain are the hip flexors (the psoas is just one of them) These allow us to lift our legs, bend at the waist. Sitting for long periods of time can cause these to become tight or shortened, which often leads to lower back pain. 

Then there’s the ribcage, so often overlooked by most bodyworkers. (When was the last time a massage therapist spent a ton of time trying to loosen your ribs??) The ribs attach to the spine, give support for the upper body, and are extremely interconnected with the integrity of the spine. When the ribcage can’t fully expand, you will definitely feel it in your back; it’ll put pressure on the spine, pull it out of alignment, boom, pain. Ribcages are one of the things I work on most with people. 

Don’t forget the pelvis, a complex bony structure that provides the foundation for everything above it. And, what happens in the pelvis is largely predicated upon what happens underneath it: feet and legs. Your feet pointing outward or inward, or being flat footed or high arched, all create different chain responses above them, as do tight muscles in the legs (can you bend over and touch your toes? bring your foot to your butt easily? spread apart for even a half splits?)

Lastly and strangest of all, is the mind. Yup! Some people’s back pain is psychosomatic. That’s not to say it’s imaginary—far from it!—but rather that the tension and the pain loop in the back is sometimes related to some kind of feedback sequence that’s occurring in the mind. For this we want to turn to things like meditating and mindfulness to regulate the nervous system and calm the mind; and journaling or other forms of expression, to move the emotions that aren’t getting expressed and are winding their way back there. (An old mentor of mine even suggested the main emotional culprit for back pain is a sense of powerlessness. Are you expressing your will?) 

Come get bodywork from me and see which of these apply to you and walk out feeling better. Hope your new year is off to a great start so far.