If you are, you are among the majority. That’s right, around 80% of the population deals with back pain at some point in their life. If you fall into this category, you know the annoyance that is caused by frequent back pain – it can interfere with every facet of life. It can make bending over difficult and cause you to become irritable, making it hard for you to participate as you once did in social activities. In essence, it takes away the life you once had and leaves you with one void of the joy you once experienced. The solution to this problem is to understand what causes back pain in the first place. Do you know the culprit could be your thighs and/or hips?
How Does Your Thigh or Hip Strength Correlate With Back Pain?
It might come as a surprise to you, but poor thigh and hip strength often leads to back pain. As you age, your thigh and hip muscles—more specifically the external hip rotators, gluteus muscles and the quadriceps– naturally weaken. This is caused by various factors, such as sitting for long periods of time, along with age. As a result of this weakness, the support your spine once enjoyed is lessened. This in turn makes it harder for you to do simple tasks, like bending over and picking something up. Put simply, it means you don’t have the correct amount of strength in the right places. Consequently, when you bend down repetitively on a daily basis in your weakened state, this will lead to more stress on your back, which causes your pain to worsen.
How to Know If Your Strength is Located in the Right Places:
First of all, do the following:
- Face a mirror.
- Make sure your head is facing forward and your spine remains straight.
- Squat down, by sticking your buttocks outward.
When completing these actions, notice the following:
- Are you able to squat as you stick out your buttocks?
- Do you feel discomfort or pressure in your knees?
- Does one or both of your knees turn inwards?
If you answered yes to the questions listed above, you likely have problems with the strength and mobility of your pelvis, hips and thighs. These issues could be the culprit behind not only your back pain, but any knee pain you might have as well.
How to Strengthen Your Hip and Thigh Muscles:
The simple solution to the problem of back pain would seem to be for you to strengthen your hip and thigh muscles. Of course, that’s easier said than done. That’s where SOL Physical Therapy can truly help. When you choose us for your treatment, we begin by thoroughly analyzing the way you bend and walk. We also make note of how strong your thighs and smaller hip muscles are at the present time. After this assessment, we can pinpoint the areas of your body that need work. The next step will be creating a treatment plan that is specifically designed to help you quickly build strength, and as a result, improve your spinal stability, muscle coordination and eliminate or reduce your back pain.
For more information on SOL Physical Therapy’s programs to relieve back pain, call us today. We are happy to create a treatment plan that will have you pain free as quickly as possible. Don’t despair; there is hope for life free of back pain.
