Suffering from back spasms? Understanding the reasons behind your back spasms is a crucial step toward getting rid of back spasms for good.

Are your back spasms acute, chronic, or a little of both?

Sometimes you know exactly what you did to hurt yourself. Too much weight on that deadlift, fender bender, skiing accident, etc. But sometimes back spasms can just creep up on you, and you aren’t sure why.

Figuring out the underlying cause of back spasms is as important as treating them, if you want them to go away for good.

If you are in pain and need immediate help with your back spasms, make an appointment with Dr Gina, your South Jordan Chiropractor, now.

Some causes of back spasms can be from underlying anatomical problems such as spondylolisthesis, spinal stenosis, osteoarthritis, malignancies, etc.

Your gnarly MRI finding about your back spasms may not even be the cause of your pain.

The tricky part here is that, even when you have one (or more) of these conditions, that still may not be the main reason for your back spasms and the pain that comes with them.

The number one cause of back spasms is muscles trying to do a job that they’re not quite able to do, until they reach the point of fatigue and failure.

When muscles are overworked they will keep trying to the point of failure. This can happen either through being asked to do too much at once, as in the case of lifting something that’s too heavy. Or it can happen over time through poor posture, bad ergonomics and repetitive movements, like a baseball swing or always leaning your left elbow on the car door when you drive.

Usually, though, back spasms are a combination of these. Your muscles will be deconditioned and weak from being under constant, low grade stress, and then you add the proverbial “last straw”. You bend over to tie your shoelace, and your back “goes out”.

It’s kind of like when you’ve had a really stressful day, and you hold it together, and you hold it together, until one silly little annoyance causes a meltdown.

Imagine holding a 5 pound dumbbell in your hand. At first, when your elbow is bent, it doesn’t feel like much. But as you straighten it out, it feels heavier and heavier.

Being stacked on our skeletal structure at our midline is the most stable position, because we get to rest on our strong bones. Any time we deviate from midline, our muscles have to engage to hold us up. And the further we deviate (slouch, lean, slump), the more we effectively weigh.

The average head weighs between 10-12 pounds. Every inch that the head is held forward doubles the amount of weight that is felt on the neck muscles. And that’s just your little head. Think about what your low back muscles have to do when they hold your entire upper body up for an hour while you work over a car engine, or weeding your garden.

To get relief from back spasms, think “stacked or stable.”

Whenever possible, you want your body to rest on it’s foundation. There’s no sense expending energy that doesn’t need to be used. That’s the wrong kind of workout. Save that energy for things like fighting off disease, and digesting your food.

Sitting, standing and lifting should all be done using as little muscle activity as needed. This means starting from the most stable position possible to give yourself the mechanical advantage. Stack yourself on your bones. Let your weight rest, instead of making your muscles work.

If you can’t be stacked, that’s when you stabilize to get relief from back spasms.

Put out an arm to hold yourself up when you’re doing something that requires leaning, like searching for a puzzle piece. Put out a foot if you’re doing something on the floor, so your strong leg muscles are stabilizing you, instead of your small, postural back muscles.

Next, to stop back spasms, be strong!

 

The more strength you have to work with, the more you will be able to endure without going into muscle failure and back spasm.

First, reduce unnecessary stress by remembering to be stacked or stable. Next, strengthen your core so that you can handle the rest of the stressors of life that just can’t be avoided.

Find whatever core strengthening exercises you like best, and incorporate them into your daily life. I promise that this is one life hack that is so much easier to do than it is not to do.

If you take into consideration all the pain and time off work and lost opportunity to go snowboarding or ________ (fill in the blank with your favorite hobby.), it’s really worth 5 minutes a day to feel good.

If you want a very efficient core exercise program, try the McGill Big 3 Routine. It’s the most thorough and most effective set of movements that you can do in 5 minutes, in my opinion.

It’s hard to balance on a crooked foundation.

If your body is imbalanced, it’s challenging for things to move smoothly. Schedule an appointment for an adjustment today with Dr Gina, your South Jordan Chiropractor, to align your joints, and remove the structural imbalances that are making you inefficient, and causing your muscles to go into back spasms.