How to Determine the Cause of Chronic Back Pain

If you're affected with chronic back pain and you're unsure why, there are simple ways to determine what might be the cause. In fact, just living our lives can cause back pain. Maybe you'll make a doctor's appointment or maybe you won't. But with a couple of quick evaluations, you can help yourself before anyone else does.

As children, we're told "stand up straight" or "stop slouching." But has anyone ever said that to you in your adult life? Not likely. Well, we're not meant to stand as stiff as a statue; however, it's important to stand the way we were designed. Aligned, and with little to no pressure on your spine (also known as, your back).

Walking
Just watch a crowd of people and you'll see hundreds of walking styles. You'll see people walking on their toes, leading with their upper body, as stiff as a board, or dragging their feet. Proper alignment means to lead with your core muscles (the area from your breast bone to below your hips) People who always walk like this are ballerinas; the rest consciously pay attention to walking properly. When we took our first steps as toddlers, there were only two rules; one foot in front of the other and don't fall down. Other than that, habits accrue over time causing more pain than we're aware of.

So how do you know how you walk? Optimally, have someone video tape you and play it back. If a video camera isn't available, ask someone to observe you. Pick someone whom you're around for hours at a time, such as a co-worker or someone you live with. This is because your doctor may say "walk across the room" and it's not a true testament of how you walk through a normal day. Your muscles have memory and will easily retreat to old habits, good or bad. Suggestion: best to ask someone who doesn't creep you out to watch you.

What is this person looking for when you walk? Do your knees turning in ? Are your shoulders rounded thus pulling on your back muscles? Do you look like you are generally mis-aligned? This doesn't require a trained eye to do. We've been looking at each other our whole life.

Standing
This is a solo project to determine how you stand. Do this with each pair of shoes you wear on a regular basis. The next time you're filling your coffee mug or making breakfast, move your toes. Don't just "wiggle" them, that's easy. Pull your toes up towards the sky. Does that force you to shift your weight? If your answer is yes, you're standing with the weight on the front of your feet. What that does is pull all the muscles in your back to stretch longer than necessary. It puts unnecessary stress on your spine and thus, back pain. When this is done for a repetitive period of time, like your lifetime, these tight muscles can definitely make you groan the next time you bend over to pick something up. This is the same reason doctors warn of the dangers of wearing high heeled shoes, ladies.

Week stomach muscles
It makes sense to say that if you have weak stomach muscles, you'll likely be more hunched over. Any abdominal exercises will help this.

Sitting
If your job requires you to work on a computer or sit at a desk for the majority of the day it might be the cause. The continual flexing of your legs causes back pain. Shortened and tight muscles cause the pull forward effect. Likewise, where you have your computer monitor, the height of your keyboard and your arm placement will cause neck and shoulder pain. The neck and shoulder pain will cause slouching which ultimately equals...back pain. To make sure you're ergonomically correct, you should mimic the chair if someone were to take a silhouette picture of you. Your head facing straight as opposed to looking up or down and your legs should be parallel to your forearms.

Your car seat was designed more for style than ergonomics; a fine example is bucket seats. If you could capture a picture of someone sitting in a bucket seat (minus the seat) you'd see a radically curved body. Not to mention the back for bucket seats pushes your arms forward which pulls your shoulders forward and, once again...the neck and shoulder pain causes slouching which ultimately equals...back pain. Ah ha. We're seeing a trend here.

Tight leg muscles
Tight hamstrings (the muscle on the back of your leg) pull you backwards and cause an over extension of the back. It's best to stretch your hamstrings muscles on a daily basis even if you don't suffer from pain.

Try these free and easy ways to determine if you can alleviate some of your own back pain. By having strong posture and stretched muscles you can bet you'll be playing life a lot better.