The National Institutes of Health (NHI) reports that studies on the incidence of chronic low back pain show that between 13% and 20% of people report suffering from chronic low back pain. 

Some chronic problems can be more easily managed than low back pain. If you suffer from shoulder or elbow pain you can more easily control how and how often you use the shoulder or elbow. 

Chronic low back pain interferes with your life as soon as you stand and start to walk and many people experience significant pain while sitting. This can have a devastating impact on your ability to enjoy many activities and the restrictions on movement and exercise can cause a range of problems from deconditioning to weight gain. 

Modern Life is to Blame!

How we live has changed dramatically over the last few hundred years. I could devote an entire series to the dramatic changes in how humans live but with respect to low back pain there are a couple of things that have a dramatic impact.

Modern life requires that we sit a great deal of time. Even if your work has you standing your entire work day you still sit for hours a day. A study comparing sedentary activity of hunter-gatherer populations with industrialized populations found the time spent in sedentary activity similar. What was different was hunter-gatherer sedentary activity was more likely to be in postures like squatting that require higher levels of muscle activity compared to sitting.  

According to Harvard sitting puts more pressure on the lower lumbar discs than does standing. We sit in the morning, sit while we drive, sit for meals, and sit in the evening as we relax. And, a large percentage of people sit all day during work. 

What Does Sitting Do?

As mentioned above sitting increases the pressure in the discs in the low back. This increased pressure over long repetitive periods of time can cause a degradation of the health of the discs. When this happens the fissures can develop in the outer rings of the discs causing bulging, protrusions, and herniations. This also results in a lower lumbar spine that loses its ability to move freely. 

This causes a cascade of reactions, adaptations, and compensations. The muscles of the lower back tighten up with loss of motion. The joints experience increased stress and over time this results in the development of degenerative arthritis. This results in greater loss of motion, more muscle tightness, reduced activity due to pain, and an acceleration of the arthritic changes. 

The Million Dollar Question:

How can you disrupt this process and restore as much function as possible, reducing pain and increasing physical activity?

3 Crucial Steps to Overcoming Chronic Low Back Pain

Let’s go over what I have found over the past 4 decades to be the most important steps to improving chronic low back pain. There are other things that you can do but these three steps form the foundation of a successful program to address chronic low back pain. 

#1 Corrective Chiropractic Care: this is different from traditional chiropractic care. Corrective care seeks to achieve 3 very critical outcomes. First, it restores balance to the pelvis and lower lumbar spine. This reduces stress on those joints. Second, it corrects misalignments in this area, further reducing the stress to the joints of the pelvis and lumbosacral area. And, it restores better joint motion to the area. 

Corrective Chiropractic is essential to restore vertebral position and remove pressure and stress from the discs. 

#2  Posterior Chain Activation: Sitting causes a series of effects on the muscles of the low back and pelvis. The critical muscles of the back of the legs, pelvis, and low back are called the posterior chain. These muscles are inhibited by sitting and if low back pain is restricting activity these muscles experience progressive weakness. This also causes tightness of the muscles in the front of the hips that puts additional pressure on the lower back. 

Simple yet profound exercises are used to activate and strengthen the muscles of the posterior chain. In my office, Life Chiropractic of Grass Valley, we implement these exercises after we return someone to balance. Otherwise we risk reinforcing the imbalances.

#3  Spinal Joint Mobility Exercises:  While chiropractic care is exceptional at restoring lost spinal and pelvic joint motion that cannot be achieved with exercise, stretching, or yoga, it is vital that any restored motion be retained. With chronic back pain we are dealing with a longstanding imbalance and this requires reinforcement so that the restored motion becomes your baseline and you don’t lose it. 

At Life Chiropractic we use a series of simple exercises for the low back, mid back, and neck that we call “Spinal Flossing”. The purpose is to reinforce healthy motion in the small facet joints of the spine. 

There are a number of other practices that can support your self-care for chronic low back pain. The 3-step process is one I’ve found essential. In addition many people benefit from regular massages as well as yoga, resistance training, and aerobic exercise. 

About Dr. Berkowitz  

Bringing more than 3 decades of practice experience, Dr. Bill Berkowitz focuses on balancing and corrective care, applying his expertise to provide patients with predictable, repeatable and measurable results.

Dr. Bill consistently strives to enhance the well-being of his patients by addressing the root imbalances of their problems and promoting optimal balance, alignment, and function of the spine and nervous system.  

Bill’s wealth of knowledge and experience has allowed him to develop a nuanced understanding of the human body and its intricate connections. With each adjustment, he supports the body in returning to a state of balance that goes beyond mere symptom relief, focusing instead on long-term correction for his patients’ well-being. 

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