Many people with chronic back pain tend to employ suboptimal movement strategies, and correcting these strategies may be useful for reducing pain.
A new study examined 26 patients with chronic low back pain. Prior to the intervention, the subjects with low back pain were exhibiting significantly greater early-phase lumbar excursion than the pain-free subjects. A motor skill session was used in hopes of teaching these patients how to reduce early-phase lumbar excursion. After the session, not only did this metric improve considerably, but the patients also experienced notably reduced levels of back pain.
Conclusions
Many people rely on their low back to compensate for an ability to use their hips, use their shoulders, or stabilize their core. By teaching patients how to let the proper muscles and joints do their job and limit lumbar contribution, this can go a long way towards preventing the back from being overloaded and hopefully reducing pain.
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