Relieve Low Back Pain | Reduce Low Back Pain | Canada's Leading Authority in Human Movement | Dev Chengkalath

Yesterday I wrote about abdominal bracing. 

Today,  we’ll continue with fixing your aberrant movement patterns.

If you haven’t checked out my post on mobility issues, you’ll definitely want to check it out here before reading further.

That’s because the two, mobility and movement, are so intertwined. Along with posture. And Muscles.

Each of these areas has to be addressed independently and collectively.  

The big issue related to low back pain is still altered biomechanics at the hips and lumbar spine. 

Here’s how to fix it: The Bridge

When executed properly, the bridge (and its variations) will teach you how to mobilize your hips, stabilize your spine, activate your glutes and brace your core. 

All at once.

Now that’s efficient.

To your bridging.

Dev Chengkalath

If you stop and break down every type of movement you do throughout your day, you’ll notice that they can be broken down into a few patterns or combinations thereof.

Dr. Stuart McGill, one of the world’s premier spine researchers, describes them as follows:

• Squat/Lift
• Lunge
• Twist
• Push/Pull
• Gait
• Balance

Now what if you did one of these, or a few of these, incorrectly?

What if you repeated that over and over again, day in, day out, day after day, week after week, year after year?

What if your compensation movement just so happened to be in your low back?

Perhaps every time you squat down to sit in a chair?

Or every time you bend down to tie your shoe laces?

Or every morning when you brush your teeth or wash your face?

Gold star for you if you’ve come to the conclusion that your bad movement pattern is probably making your low back pain worse.

Be nice to your spine.

How do you fix it?

Because we’re dealing with low back pain, one of the most important movement pattern skills to learn is abdominal bracing. This simple (not easy) skill can help you accomplish all the patterns listed above more efficiently and effectively, while protecting and stabilizing your spine.

As well, abdominal bracing can be an important factor for improving your posture, fixing those muscle related issues, and optimizing mobility.

Here’s how you do it:

Start by standing up tall.

Place your thumbs in the small of your back, with your fingers wrapped around your abdomen.
Slowly start to lean forward at the hips until you feel the muscles in your back and under you thumb start to tighten up.

As soon as you feel them tighten up, slowly come back up to an upright position, feeling for the muscles under you thumb to go slack again.

Once they’ve gone slack, tighten up your stomach muscles until you feel that same tightness develop in the muscles of your back under your thumb.

There you have it, the abdominal brace.

This is the first part of my exploration of bad movement patterns and how to fix them.

Join me tomorrow for the next episode.

Yours in movement,

Dev Chengkalath

I realize I’ve already posted today.

While this blurb will only vaguely follow along the theme of relieving your low back pain, I feel this is something that needs to be addressed. 

About an hour ago I was at the gym. Tucked away in the back corner is the “leg” workout area. This is where all the power rack, squat cages and other various implements of leg training sit.

As I was working away on my front squats today, there was a young guy, possibly in his early 20s who was in the power rack behind me.

What I saw next actually made me feel ill. 

He proceeded to load up a fairly significant amount of weight onto the bar, about 315 lbs give or take. 

Here’s where it all went downhill.

With that amount of load, he started to complete his version of squats. Unfortunately, these looked like a standing version of a very loaded sit up and then a back extension from a flexed spine position with a 2 inch knee bend.

He should not be squatting!

Basically, imagine Gumby trying to do heavier squats. 

I honestly felt like I would have to dodge his vertebral discs as they shot out of his back. And then dodge some more as they bounced around the walls of the room.

Where am I going with this?

Please, please, please, always use a load you can handle safely and keep your form clean. If you don’t know what you’re doing, invest in the expertise of a coach or trainer. 

You only have one back. Take care of it.

Dev Chengkalath