Is Poor Posture Causing Your Back Pain?

by: Manny Aragon

Recently a client came into my office with a common complaint: “my lower back hurts and its causing spasm in my buttocks”. “ At this point, ive tried everything and cant figure out whats actually going to help”. After looking at this clients body, it was pretty clear what was going on. Years of bicycling, sitting, and inactivity, had taken their toll- the clients lower back had flattened out- there was not much of a lumbar curve- causing the clients weight to stack on the vertebre and intervertebral discs – a situation that likely caused spinal nerve compression and the resultant pain and spasm.

So, whats a client to do?

Well, first things first- this type of problem is generally fixable and most folks who come in with this type of situation are able to resolve the problem and heal fully provided they put in the time and effort and follow the expert advice they are given.

In practice, there are couple of ways to address this particular problem- the first category of solutions require an extremely determined client and a biomechanics coach- these are whole body movement solutions such as specific exercises, running, weight lifiting, yoga and so on. The Second set of solutions involve the client and a “therapist” of sorts.

In general, both of these strategies intents is to help create or re-create a functioning lumbar (lower) spine in the client.

The rub here is the shape the client is in- body type, tissue quality, structural impediments like excessive body weight, general health, and so on. This will generally determine HOW LONG it will take for the client to heal.

Most folks come for pain relief with Structural Integration in mind so we generally start there.

I start the process with most clients by looking first at their body structure and posture while standing- then I have them move about the room and look at how their body functions while moving. Usually its pretty easy to see where the root of the problem lies- a functioning lumbar spine will be complimented by 3 dimensional pelvic movement while walking- lack of pelvic movement shows up as either a twisting or a side to side rocking movement while walking. Inevitably, in these types of cases, the client will be twisting or rocking while they walk instead of gracefully gliding across the floor.

Twisting and rocking while walking are the body’s compensation for lack of movement through the lumbar spine, an area generally held rigid in such cases  by spasm, and by the client not wanting to experience pain while moving.  Problem is, they reinforce the structural problem and thence the pain.

At this point, the body is working as a functionally separate set of structures connected by the joints- NOT ideal for a pain free existence. Both strategies- movement and SI- work to get the whole body working together in movement.

In fact, the fastest way I’ve found to resolve these cases is to combine the SI work with specific whole body movement- the SI work happens in my office- the whole body movement happens when the client does it at home.

The glue for this process is development of the clients kinesthetic awareness- or their internal sense of how their body feels the effects of the quality of their movement (in real time) on their body. This gives them a feedback loop to be able to tell if how they are moving correctly or if they are moving in a way that will cause further damage.

I have found that the combination of these three processes consistently works wonders for people who have otherwise been unable to find help. It takes SI work, time,  and dedication of the client to whole body movement exercises and to honing their kinesthetic awareness to produce an amazing transformation.