If you are one of the 80% of the population who suffers with back pain, you know that it can just be a real pain. Back pain interferes with your life, making it difficult to bend and pick up your shoes, or complete all of your daily activities. It can make you irritable and affect your ability to participate in social activities with family, friends, or co-workers.
Did you know that poor thigh strength is often a big contributor to back pain? As we get older and spend more time sitting, our thigh and hip muscles, specifically the quadriceps, gluteus muscles, and external hip rotators, get weaker. Our hamstrings (the muscles that run along the back of the leg) get weaker but they also lose flexibility. This affects the support on the spine and makes one action, such as bending down to pick something up, more strenuous on your back. If you don’t have the correct strength and flexibility in the right places while performing these actions, the stress on your back increases and your potential for a back injury increases.
Try this…
- Face a mirror
- Keep your head looking forward and your spine straight.
- Squat down, sticking your buttocks out
Are you unable to squat and stick your buttocks out? Do you feel a lot of pressure or discomfort in your knees? Does one or both of your knees turn inwards? Do you have any pulling or tightness in your buttocks or the back of your thighs?
If you answered yes to any of the above, then you probably have issues with your pelvis, hip/thigh strength and flexibility. This could be causing your back or knee pain.
How Physical Therapy can help
A simple non-surgical solution to decreasing or preventing constant and recurring back pain is to strengthen the thigh and hip muscles while promoting improved flexibility. However, it is important to identify which particular muscles are weak and that is where our expertise comes in. By analyzing the way that you walk and the strength of your smaller hip and thigh muscles, the physical therapists at Loudoun Sports Therapy Center can pinpoint your trouble areas. Then, we will formulate a treatment plan specifically for your needs that will quickly improve your strength, flexibility, muscle coordination and spinal stability.
For more information on our spine program and how the physical therapists at Loudoun Sports Therapy Center can help you quickly relieve your back pain and improve your mobility, call us today at 703-450-4300!
If you know someone we can help get relief from pain, share this post so we can help them too! “Don’t let pain limit you. We Care. We Listen. We Get RESULTS!
