back pain

Mar 07 2016

Lower Back Pain – The Pelvis, The Base Of Our Body

How Training The Pelvis Helps Lower Back Pain

Hello again,

It has been about a month since you have last heard from me through the blog page. Although, I already knew I wanted to write about the “base” of our body – the pelvis – and its importance for our daily functions, I wanted to wait until the end of my ELDOA-2 course.

With more insight and working knowledge of the body, I am hoping that this blog can give you a better understanding of why the trainers at SolCore Fitness focus so much on the pelvis ‘tucks’ during the warm-up in each session we teach.

You might have read or heard that I have been (and still want to be) very active in my sports ‘career’ and consider myself a fit individual. My cardio fitness level might be very good, and I appear to be physically fit, not everything is as it seems. During our hands-on ELDOA-training, I was informed that my spine looks like that of an old man. Really, it’s not just lower back pain, I also have a kyphosis in the thoracic spine and a forward lean in my cervical spine. (Chin tucks are really hard for me to do properly and maintain during an exercise) I had no idea, I was so out of whack …

Nevertheless, with daily ELDOA postures I can maintain the pain and even adjust the curvatures in my spine, so I can keep swimming, cycling, running, skiing, hiking and perform regular chores around the house.

Because, everything is connected in the body with ‘chains’, the cause of my back issues are likely muscle imbalances from repetitive motion and poor exercise-technique, resulting in a slight tilt of my pelvic floor, which effects the rest of the spine. When muscles become short and tight, the antagonist (opposite) muscle often becomes long and weak. This creates an imbalance in the body. The body learns faulty reoccurring patterns. So, with the proper technique and enough repetitions, you can re-learn your body to be in a better posture and go through life more comfortably.

Maintaining a neutral pelvis position is achieved via the opposing force-coupling between 4 major muscle groups that all have attachments to the pelvis. When these muscles demonstrate good balance, the pelvis holds an optimal position.

A few facts; Back pain in one of the most common reasons people miss work and visit the doctor. There are very few people who never experience back pain in their lifetime. Americans spend $50 billion every year on lower back pain, which is the most common. Second to the common cold, back pain is one of the leading causes of missed work and it causes more lost days of productivity in the workplace than any other medical condition. Unfortunately, the treatment and management of back pain can be ineffective.

Doing ELDOA is not a magic pill, but it does strengthen the postural system, by mobilizing the intrinsic muscles and normalizing the tensions throughout the body and spine. “Creating” space also increases blood flow, reduces disc pressure, spinal disc rehydration, better muscle tone and a sense of wellbeing and awareness.

So, if you don’t want a spine like mine, please, do your “homework”, especially the wall stretch, ELDOA for L5-S1.

Thank you,

Jo Van Cutsem

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Jul 28 2014

What is a corrective exercise?

Just because it is called a corrective exercises does not mean that it is doing you any good!

Corrective exercise has turned into a term that many people use to describe movements that they think are beneficial to them but in actuality, they are not. Corrective exercise is right up there with “functional training,” “yoga therapy,” and “restorative yoga.” It is not what you call something that produces you the results that you desire, it is how they affect the tensegrity (balance) and bio-mechanical (movements) motions of your body.

A real corrective exercise will normalize (correct) an area of your body that is in essence “not doing its job!”

Lets take for example, the exercise: the “prone cobra” also called the Mckenzie press. It has been used for years, and in the case of yoga A LOT of years, to mobilize and strengthen the spine. For those of you who are not familiar with this stretch, it is when you lay down, on your stomach (prone) and you come up to either your forearms or your hands pushing your upper body up leaving your lower body on the ground. There are some slight differences depending of those who you talk to as whether or not the hips stay on the ground. For this example, it’s not important. The idea is that when you push yourself up, it will open the anterior (front) of your spinal joints and the disc will slide forward. And if you have enough space in your spine, then this is true…

Now, let’s look at how the body reacts to a motion like this. In the prone cobra, when you push yourself up your spine goes into extension (like if you were standing up and you arched your back) and now based on spinal mechanics the posterior (back) part of the spine pinches together.

So how is this a corrective exercise?

In short, this is NOT a corrective exercise! Most people who are performing this exercise have back pain, and are thinking that this will help. Now there a lot of reason why one could have back pain but for this example, let’s stick to just one. Gravity is constantly compressing us, and combined with too much sitting and not enough proper movements, causes improper loading and our spine takes the brunt of it. Many individuals have disc compression and they may not have any symptoms….yet, and for those individuals over the age of 50- they can almost guarantee that they too have disk compression, some degree of bulge/herniation/prolapse.

Now while have some disc compression and doing the prone cobra exercise, your spine is forced into extension and the posterior (back) part of the vertabrae is going to pinch the posterior (back) part of your disc even more. This will lead to further bulging/herniation/prolapse and cause a lot more back issues and pain.

So what is actually a corrective exercise for this?

As I stated at the beginning, a corrective exercise will correct and normalize a problem. When it comes to back pain and spinal compression….The #1….hands down…. best corrective exercise are ELDOA‘s. They are “stretch exercises” that pull one vertebrata away from another, providing much needed space. This space now allows your body to start to function better within that area. This means that your discs will now be able to start to rehydrate and regain their form and volume. Without compression, you will have SIGNIFICANTLY less pain. This means that you can start to live you life with more confidence in your body and be able to do the activities that you want to do.