by Dr. Marv
Back pain is a huge problem in modern society
Eighty percent of the population will have low back in their lifetime. Obviously, that is a huge number. This alone results in up to a $200 billion annual cost to the U.S. economy, with almost two thirds of that figure coming from lost wages and productivity.
An often-overlooked cause of low back is either immobile or weak hips.
We recently paired up with the folks from SNAP Fitness Seabrook and did a deep dive into this topic and how to improve your hip mobility and strength to potentially prevent low back pain.
Beyond the workplace impact, immobile and weak hips can negatively influence the performance of your average gym goer, weekend warrior, and athlete more than they know. The good news is that this is often correctable with targeted mobility drills and strength exercises.
But why would immobile hips cause low back?
Good question!
When you think about it, your body is an alternating series of joints that switch between either mobility or stability as their main function. For example, our ankles are mobile, knees stable, hips are mobile, low back is stable and so on.
When a normally mobile joint loses that ability, the body tries to make up for that lost movement elsewhere and it usually comes from the surrounding joints. This is exactly why immobile hips can absolutely cause somebody to have low back pain, even while living a sedentary lifestyle. Throw some exercise and activity in there, and you’ve got a recipe for an aching low back.
Now of course, there can be an actual pathology (i.e. named health condition) causing your low back pain. Anyone can do a quick Google search for causes of low back pain…and then quickly have to reach for a paper bag to hyperventilate into (trust us, don’t do it!). The good news is that often it’s a joint restriction at what’s called our sacroiliac (SI) joint of the pelvis and sacrum, weak and/or immobile hips, or poor core control causing someone’s low back pain.
However, there are a few signs and symptoms that you shouldn’t ignore. These include:
· pain levels greater than 6/10
· shooting pain or numbness down into your legs
· difficulty using the restroom
· sudden dysfunction in the bedroom
If you have any of those symptoms, PLEASE do not ignore them and go get evaluated by a qualified medical professional as soon as possible – this can be your medical doctor, chiropractor, physical therapist, osteopath, etc.
If you’ve come to our office, then you know we treat the body as a whole instead of just looking at the site of pain. If you recall the conversation above about alternating mobile and stable joints, you can see why pain in one area may actually be the result from an entirely different part of the body not functioning properly.
Similarly, we often treat back pain via several different approaches, with a chiropractic adjustment being just one of the tools in our toolbelt.
Typically, an adjustment of the pelvis or sacrum as shown in the video above will help restore hip extension primarily, as well as flexion. These are two key movements of your hips regardless of your activity level which may take pressure off your low back trying to compensate for those previously restricted motions.
Where immobile hips really rear their ugly head is with a loss of rotation, which can be either internal or external rotation. This loss of rotation will limit proper hip function and puts a lot of pressure on our low back.
How come?
Let’s take a squat for instance.
From the time you go from standing straight up to where your hips are flexed 60 degrees as you squat down, external rotation is happening at the hip joint. As you progress down further into the squat from 60-120 degrees of hip flexion (i.e. a deep squat), internal rotation of the hip is required. And, if you are a very gifted A2G squatter, then anything beyond 120 degrees of hip flexion once again calls for external rotation of the hip.
That’s right, to properly flex your hips to get into a deep squat (or more importantly to simply sit down and stand up from your dining room chair or car seat) you need access to both internal or external rotation at your hip.
So, how do we know if you have access to adequate internal and external rotation of your hips?
We’ll show you just how to assess your hip range of motion on your own in part two of this blog series as well as what mobility drills to perform based on your findings for your possibly tight hips to reduce your low back pain and improve your performance.
In the meantime, if you gained value from this post we would be honored if you would share this with any friends or family members you feel this may benefit too.
