The cause of lower back pain and how to fix it.

Many of us experience pain in the lower back, neck and shoulders. Oftentimes we attribute these pains to growing older, working too hard, or eating too much junk food. While these reasons are somewhat valid and need to be addressed, many of our aches and pains are caused by muscle imbalances. These can be treated easily, as long as we’re aware of what’s causing them.

Muscle imbalances can affect almost everyone. A muscle imbalance occurs when one set of muscles is stronger or weaker than its muscular counterpart. For example, if your lats are strong and your shoulders are weak, you have a muscle imbalance that can cause pain in your arms and shoulders. If your back muscles and abs are not working together back pain can result.

Problems stemming from muscle imbalances range from fatigue, lack of performance in sports, shin splints, knee pain, back pain and neck/shoulder stiffness. Muscle imbalances are also the number one cause of osteoarthritis in the knee joint. Awareness of muscle imbalances is the first step to rectifying the painful symptoms. Doing the proper exercises to correct them is the second step.

Prevention is the key to health in every area, and muscle imbalances are no exception. One of the main areas where people experience pain is the lower back.

Lower back pain, in the majority of cases, is caused because the hip flexors and quads are too tight, while the abdominal muscles and glutes are weak. When your hips are in a forward pelvic tilt (this is where your belt buckle would be lower than the back of your belt), your spine is forced to compensate by curving upward unnaturally. When you can’t level your hips due to a muscle imbalance, your spine bends to compensate. This results in stress and tightness in the back muscles, which will lead to lower back pain.

To resolve this condition, the tight muscles need to be stretched (hips and quads) and the weak muscles need to be strengthened (abs and glutes). There are exercises that are specifically designed to help you with this. You can see how to remedy lower back pain here.

A simple exercise, like a two-legged floor bridge, can strengthen the glutes and abs, while stretching the hips, quads and lower back.

Lower back pain affects millions around the globe, who spend millions of dollars treating symptoms without addressing the causes of lower back pain.

Being aware of the causes is the first step. Prevention is second. Correction is the third. You don’t have to live with lower back pain.