Are you suffering from bad posture back pain? Bad posture back pain as well as Pelvic Pain are the main conditions that majority of my clients complain when reaching out to us.
Simple activities like:
- Walking
- Dressing/undressing
- Lifting and carrying your own child
- In/out bed
- In/out car
- Turning in bed
- And even sleeping at night becomes almost impossible
But would you believe me if I said that majority of the bad posture back pain we endure, we are causing it ourselves? I confess that it is hard to admit it, but this is my own experience of 24 years in dealing with pain. In my defence (and yours), we don’t do it on purpose, we just don’t know any better.
Let me break down for you some of the causes of bad posture back pain.
Bad Posture Back Pain: the Causes
Table of Contents
Posture
We often carry our own body weight in ways that are straining our joints and tensing or weakening muscles overtime. Maybe poor posture is not the root cause of your back pain but imagine what your joints would feel like with less pressure? Your muscles would be able to activate correctly if you know how to position your body in a neutral and safe way. Would that contribute to improving your pain? Or is it better to just keep exercising the way you do?
Alignment
Is your body aligned? Your shoulders, your head and spine, pelvis, knees and your feet, are they aligned? If you hold the mobile phone between your left shoulder and your left ear constantly while working and multitasking, what will that neck / head alignment be like and what about the left shoulder? Could that strain on your shoulder cause you neck and shoulder pain and even headaches and migraines? What about the pelvis? Think 3D here. If the pelvis is misaligned, how does the back react to the pelvis? What is happening to the floor of the pelvis? And what about inside the pelvis, with the pelvic organs? Food for thought…
Muscle Tone
Staying in the same (poor) position and depending how we are carrying ourselves may cause our muscles to strain or not to be able to activate properly. A muscle should be able to fully contract and fully relax without causing us any pain or discomfort. If we slouch our upper back or we arch our lower back constantly what will the extra strain in our muscles cause overtime? Yes, you are right. It may lead to pain. Knowing how to stretch and exercise correctly is key for achieving a balanced muscle tone.
Bad Posture Back Pain: Some Thoughts
Our posture may be causing us more pain than we realise but then again what do we really know about our posture?
Is the current posture that I am holding causing me (more) pain? Am I using my back and core muscles the right way? Am I compensating and I don’t even realise it? Is my body aligned and functional?
More questions and even less answers you may say. But yes, your posture may be causing you (more) pain and the fact is, you need to learn what type of posture you are holding and how to position yourself in a safe way so that your main joints are pressure free and your muscles can work to support you, and this includes your pelvic floor muscles.
One must take responsibility for his / her own pain. You cannot expect to come for a Physiotherapy session and to be “fixed” with some exercises. If you have pain or discomfort, learn what your body is trying to tell you by listening to your body. Your body is trying to communicate with you by being in pain. Are you listening to your body?
Bad Posture Back Pain: Posture and Pelvic Floor Workshop
This is the reason why I developed this specific Posture & Pelvic Floor Workshop.
It is the first step of our Reduce Pain Programme to start understanding your bad posture back pain and to gain valuable tools to manage your pain.
This is a 3-hour full-on workshop with posture assessment, learning anatomy and processing a lot of practical information. For many of our patients this workshop was revolutionary, and it was the missing link between countless visits to the doctor or other healthcare professionals and endless pain medication that did not resolve the problem.
This workshop is also your pre-requisite to become a Physiofit Woman client. Without this workshop you will not be seen for Physiotherapy sessions and you will not be able to attend our Physio-Pilates classes. This is how important this workshop is, and this is how we operate our Physiotherapy services. If you are looking for the “quick fix”, apologies but we are not the right clinic for your needs.
For those who have already attended it, was the Posture & Pelvic Floor Workshop a game changer in reducing and preventing your bad posture back pain?
I would love to hear how important you think the Posture and Pelvic Floor Workshop was for you. Drop me a line and please share this blog post with those you think might benefit from attending our workshop.
We host monthly workshops in Dublin and Wexford.
Deborah xxx