Lower Back Muscle Pain - Identify the Cause and Then Eliminate It

When you woke up this morning, how did your lower back feel? Did you feel ready to jump out of bed or was it a little more painful than that? Do you ever suffer from lower back muscle pain and cannot figure out how to make it go away? Then you are not alone, because almost everyone suffers from some kind of back pain at some point in their lives. To make matters worse, as people age, they can have chronic back pain, where they are suffering for several days a week with lower back muscle pain.

Can you identify what causes your back pain? Chances are, if you're like the many who suffer from this type of condition, you don't really know what's causing your back problems. So, you keep going and doing, without any idea of what's causing your lower back muscle pain to flare up time after time. Well, how can you fix it if you don't know why it's getting hurt in the first place? You have to identify it before you can eliminate it.

Are The Muscles That Support Your Back Strong?

There are a few things you should consider when it comes to causes of your lower back muscle pain. The first of which is pretty obvious, but often overlooked - your core. A strong healthy core or the deep abdominal muscles in the stomach region are the biggest supporters of the back. Without a strong core, your back muscles have to carry the brunt of controlling your body's movements, keeping you erect and serving as shock absorbers for the spine. Many people who suffer from muscle pain have found that they injure themselves because they add more work to the already tired back muscles by lifting and carrying things improperly. Now, you should know that the "things" don't necessarily matter. You could be carrying your groceries, your child or a small box, but if your core muscles are not strong, then you will likely injure your back.

With this cause of lower back muscle pain, the reason you feel it in this region is because the lower back muscles are the ones that do the extra work when lifting and carrying things. If you had a stronger core, however, you would feel the deep abdominal muscles engage when you properly lifted items and would be able to avoid lower back muscle pain.

Is Your Body Out Of Balance and Misaligned?

Another cause of lower back pain is your alignment and the balance of your muscles. Maybe this seems abstract, but, if you consider that you have two sides to your body - the left and right - and your spine is in the middle, then the idea might make more sense. We know that the spine is cushioned and supported by the muscles on either side of the back. This should mean that both sides work equally to keep the spine in its proper place and support it. Unfortunately, this isn't usually the case. In fact, many people are "mis-balanced", which will often result in lower back muscle pain.

Here's an example: if you are holding something up with both of your legs, you would want to "balance" the item so that your legs grew fatigued at equal times, but could hold the item up for twice as long. Now, as you hold the item, imagine that your weaker leg begins to tire more quickly, which leaves your stronger leg to do more work. Your stronger leg will eventually begin to ache because it is being forced to work more than the weaker one. This is what happens with many backs.

The best way to eliminate lower back muscle pain is to identify the cause of your pain and work to fix the cause. While it's important to get relief quickly, it's also essential to consider the long term health of your back in order to fully and completely get rid of lower back muscle pain forever.