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

Doesn’t exist.

Because everybody is different and every body will respond differently to different treatment approaches.

But using the basic principles outlined in my post on the 3 most important steps to relieve low back pain will definitely give you a head start in solving your low back problems. 

Those principles are designed to take into consideration the root causes of your low back pain and not just mask the symptoms. 

Today, I just want to touch on an activity we do all the time yet take for granted. 

Sitting and Standing.

You do this when you wake up in the morning and roll out of bed.

You do this when you use the toilet.

If you eat breakfast, which you should be doing, there’s a good chance you sit then stand from the kitchen table.

If you drive or ride the bus or train to work, you more than likely sit then stand.

At your desk at work, sure enough, you sit and stand. Repeatedly.

Now if you are a low back pain sufferer, I can almost guarantee that you do this incorrectly.

Yes. You do.

I know…It hurts.

Sitting then standing seems like such a simple skill! I mean, after all these years of doing it, you should be a pro right?

Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, there’s a good change you picked up some pretty bad habits and developed a seemingly beneficial relationship with gravity.

I like to call this relationship the “plop”.  

Basically, this means you “plop” into you chair without any control; you let gravity do all the work and pull you into the chair. 

When’s the last time you thought about how you sit? Or how you stand from sitting?

If you spend a good part of your day sitting, you will end up inhibiting your buttocks, guaranteed.

When the glutes are turned off like that, it impacts how your pelvis functions, it impacts how your hips function and in the end, all of these changes will impact how your spine functions.

All these alterations in function affect the tissues up and down what we call the kinetic chain. This basically allows for a dysfunction in one part of the body to cause, through various compensations, dysfunction in another part of the body.

Think dominoes. You push one over and one by one, they all fall over in a chain reaction.

Now if your glutes don’t work properly, your low back has to pick up the slack.

Little muscles start doing the work of big muscles. Big muscles start doing the work of little muscles.

And some muscles just stop working altogether. 

Over the next few days I’ll be outlining some exercises you can add in to your daily routine to get your butt back in gear. 

As always, yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath

You’ve taken the first two steps.

You’re educated about your problem. You’re well versed in the causes of your low back pain. You have the knowledge bombs needed to make the right choices and decisions.

Cognitively, you are ready to go. 

You’re also aware of the control issues at stake. You know you have to get your motor control back under your control. You know you have to assess and fix your posture, you know you have to balance your muscle imbalances, you know you have to optimize your mobility and you know you have to improve your movement patterns and break those bad habits. 

So what’s left?

Getting fit. 

The many benefits of getting in shape.

This really means undoing all those years of de-conditioning that you may have heaped onto your body.

De-conditioned simply means you’re out of shape. 

Being in a state of de-conditioning makes it harder for your body to deal with the daily stresses that it must face. This can include simple activities such as climbing the stairs, changing positions, lifting things, walking and yes, even sitting. 

If you’re not in the kind of shape you should be in, chances are, you’re using poor posture, your muscular system is not working on all cylinders, you’re not as mobile as you should be, and most certainly you’re using faulty movement patterns through compensation or bad habit. 

In order to help you fix your de-conditioning and all the other causes of low back pain, I’m going to re-introduce you to GOYA therapy.   

I discussed GOYA therapy a while back, but I think it is fundamentally important, not only for relieving low back pain, but for any physical therapy intervention for almost every single type of injury or corrective exercise program. 

Apply the principles of GOYA therapy wisely and consistently and you’ll soon see fitness levels that will astound even yourself .

Yours in fitness.

Dev Chengkalath

Mornings can be a tough time for people with low back pain. 

Often, this morning stiffness can make it challenging to start your day and get the ball rolling.  

So if you find your back pain acting up in the mornings when you wake up, try this quick physical therapist approved spinal mobilization movement to get things loosened up.

Just aim for 6-10 reps and always work in a pain free range of motion. 

For a written description of the Cat and Camel exercise, check out the Exercise Video section of the blog. 

Yours in movement, 

Dev Chengkalath

In keeping with the theme of body weight exercises, I just wanted to touch on what I consider one of the best tools to enhance your core: The Ab Wheel. 

I’m sure many of you are familiar with this simple yet powerful piece of exercise equipment.

It’s pretty much a wheel with small handles poking out of each side. 

Marvel of modern engineering

This elegant design allows the ab wheel to outperform all those fancy ab-training devices that you may have been tempted to buy during those nights where your insomnia met those compelling fitness infomercials.

Now you’re probably wondering why the ab wheel is so special?

Well, for starters, this little device lets you target the core appropriately.

The core, as I’ve written about before on this blog, is not specifically designed to flex the torso as most people think.

If it were, the muscles would look a lot different than they do.

This is one of the reasons why exercises like sit-ups and crunches are not the best types of core exercises to prevent or relieve low back pain.

In fact, if the main purpose of the abs were to flex the torso, the stomach muscles would look more like the hamstrings and not the typical six-pack.

Hamstrings: long, straight bands of muscle

Abdominals: sectioned and multidirectional

Looking at functional anatomy, the core is designed to resist movement and to act as an energy transfer link between the upper and lower body. It essentially acts like your body’s own internal corset which protects your spine and keeps your back healthy.

And that’s just what the ab wheel does.

It forces you to hold your core tight and neutral while moving through the hips. As an added bonus, you’ll work on your shoulder stability and control as well.

In my experience as a physical therapist, shoulder injuries are the second most common type of injury I see at the clinic. 

So why not do yourself a favour and protect the two most often injured areas at once?

If you don’t already have one of these marvels of modern fitness engineering at home, you can pick one up HERE.

In my next post, I’ll go over a few of the top ab roller movements and give you beginner to more advanced exercises. 

To your abdominal rolling.

Dev Chengkalath

In the realm of injury rehab which includes low back pain prevention and treatment, there are many exercises that are extolled as imperative for proper function. Most of these are granted the high honour of being called “CORE” exercises.

Stabilize your core. Strengthen your core. Turn on your core. Activate your core. 

I’m sure all of these are very familiar statements that you’ve heard when dealing with your low back pain. 

The problem with many of these is that they don’t actually take into consideration the functional anatomy of the involved or recruited structures. 

Let’s take a closer look at some of the muscles that make up the abs…

The rectus abdominis or “six pack” muscle is essentially formed by two bands of muscles which are further sectioned into 8 “rectangles” by intersecting tendons. 

Separation of the abdominal muscle

So why is the structure so important?

For starters, the structure of anatomical body-bits is defined by the purpose of those body-bits. 

Form follows function.

According to Dr. Stuart McGill in Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance the “rectus, by virtue of its beaded architecture, is not made to create force over a range in length-yet it is currently popular to perform curl-ups over a gym ball for example.”

In even more basic words, by its design, the six pack muscle was not designed to perform sit-up type motions, if it were, it wouldn’t be sectioned the way it is.

Instead, it would be two long uninterrupted bands of tissue (much like the hamstrings muscle on the back of the thigh). 

So if it isn’t made to crunch, what’s it made to do?

Based on it’s elegant design, the abs were made to RESIST motion and transfer power from the hips.

One of the best exercises to train this quality is the front plank as demonstrated in the following short clip.

Yours in planking.

Dev Chengkalath