Importance-of-Core-Strength

The Importance of Core Strength in Back Pain

It's been said that low back pain effects up to 80% of the general population at one point or another. While this seems like an astonishing number, it seems like everyone you talk to either has, or knows someone who has some sort of low back pain. As a Chiropractic clinic, low back pain is the most common condition seen in our office, and treating and preventing it is a critical role of ours as healthcare providers. Being a clinic that believes the muscular system has a lot to do with creating pain, on top of joint dysfunctions and other causes, we feel strength and endurance plays a huge role in preventing and diminishing low back pain. Because of this, most patients that leave our office leave with exercises and stretches to help that muscular aspect. When it comes to the low back, core strength is key in not only preventing future injuries, but also in aiding in recovery.

Core strength is important in preventing low back pain and helping with recovery because the stronger the muscles around the lumbar spine are, the less likely we are to get a sprain, strain, joint disorder or other injury that can cause localized pain. Let's say you're out doing yard work and gardening all afternoon. You're constantly transitioning from standing to bending over, putting strain on those muscles and joints every time we do so. If we have strong core muscles, and great endurance in those muscles, we can withstand that stress. However, if you have weak muscles and joints, and you decide to stand up after being on our knees for 20 minutes, you might get that sharp localized pain that shoots to the low back causing you to not be able to stand. The constant stress on those muscles caused a fatigue point, and they were no longer able to fire the way they should.

There are a number of low back and core exercises we do in the clinic that help at increasing the strength and endurance so that injures like the one discussed don't happen. bridging, planks, cross-crawl and others are all designed to target those core stabilizing muscles, and can be tailored to your ability and needs.