Improve strength and flexibility to prevent back pain

Kenneth Gardner fitness club

Flexibility is a basic necessity for the health of our joints. If the muscles and other supporting tissues of our joints are tight, our joints will experience undesirable stress that compromises their function. Our activities of daily living are accomplished more easily as our flexibility improves. Regular physical activities that incorporate flexibility factors are essential to reducing the chronic aches and pains that make the lives of many of us so miserable.

Poor joint flexibility can cause abnormalities in joint lubrication and the subsequent deterioration of the cartilage that lines the joint, thus causing injury. Improved flexibility is tantamount to improved mobility, slowing down the ageing process of decreased muscle elasticity, stiffness of the joints and tendons.

Regular stretching exercises can delay the development of some lifestyle ailments. Flexibility is critical to the amount of force we can produce and ultimately our strength. Good posture thrives on good flexibility and allows us to generate and coordinate the forces, tension and pressures that act within as well as upon our body.

This facilitates the maintenance of the normal curvature of our spine and the prevention of back pain. The maintenance of good posture is fundamental to the reduction of mental tension, improved breathing, and the reduction of high blood pressure.

Basically, back pain is caused by strain or weakness in the muscles that align our back because our body and spine have been pulled out of their normal alignment. This affects the curves of our spine because of the imbalances among the different muscles groups.

muscle imbalance

Excess weight around our waistline will pull our pelvis and spine forward, thus increasing the risk of developing back pain. The curves of our spine are determined by the balance established in our posture by the muscle in our thighs, hips and trunk. Muscle imbalance pulls our spine and body out of alignment, which subjects our bones and joints to adverse stress that results in back pain. Muscle imbalance is created by our lifestyle, how active we are, the activities we do, etc. Muscle imbalance causes the stronger muscles to overpower the weaker muscles and pull our bones and joints out of their normal position and place them under constant adverse stress.

Back pain can be managed by identifying the underlying causes, then practising physical activities that strengthen, stretch and realign the relevant muscles. Specific strengthening and stretching exercises that target our specific dysfunctions are required to improve our balanced and flexibility. Therefore, to take the abnormal stress and strain off our back, hips or pelvis, a physical assessment of the muscles that stabilise and impact the flexibility our back, hip, pelvis and spine is needed.

We also need to know precisely how our muscles are out of balance in terms of strength and/or flexibility. Without these assessments, the exercises we do could put us at risk of strengthening or stretching muscles that could create even more imbalance.

Dr Kenneth Gardner is an exercise physiologist at Holiday Hills Research Center; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com