How many times have you been awakened in the middle of the night with back pain, unable to get comfortable, tossing and turning, wishing there was something you could do to alleviate your sore back pain? If you’re reading this, you know what we mean.
It doesn’t matter if the problem stems from your upper body, shoulders or neck, or it’s a low back issue radiating into your hips and glutes, the effects of muscle strain/pain are there, and you want it GONE!
When it comes to low back pain, there is a common theme with my clients. Commonly, clients seek massage to treat pain along other parts of the spine including the neck, shoulder and mid back, which all can contribute to low back pain. All of these complaints certainly undermine a person’s ability to enjoy daily activities. How does low back pain impact and limit your ability to enjoy and participate in the activities in your life?
There can be many causes of low back pain including, accidents and injury, herniated/bulging discs, surgeries, and lifestyle challenges such as sport (weekend warriors), lack of movement, poor posture, alignment issues and challenges such as kyphosis (exaggerated, forward rounding of the upper back), lordosis (sway back) and forward head posture (FHP), excessive sitting, and other chronic postural patterns (like looking at your phone in your hand).
Neck and shoulder pain and tightness often limit range of motion, making it painful to turn your head in either direction, for example, shoulder checking when driving. A strain in the low back might come in the form of sciatic pain, a slight tingling or numbness in your upper leg or IT (Illiotibial) band, or, you might have problems bending down to pick up your kids, or just tying your shoes.
Either way, at this point you’re asking yourself, “what kind of treatments can I do to stop this back pain?” Consider therapeutic massage as the solution. If it’s soft tissue, then a massage will help to begin to alleviate your symptoms, as quick as the first session. That’s not saying that you’ll be pain free in one hour. No, you didn’t get here overnight and it will take a few finely tuned massage sessions to turn your sore back into soft, supple, happy muscles. A massage doesn’t have to be a deep tissue, elbow-in-the-back kind of session. Targeted massage will increase circulation and lymph flow, pushing out the pesky lactic acid buildup that can cause those big muscles of the back to tighten up and inhibit mobility and movement.
Another consideration that many people, especially the active athletic types that are typical to Boulder, tend to forget, is stretching. An effective therapeutic massage will warm up the muscle tissue, and will be a perfect complement to some simple stretches that will lengthen and stretch the fascia and get the muscles back to their full range of motion.
When you visit Rebecca Rice-Wilson at Integrative Massage of Boulder, you’ll receive more than a massage. You’ll get a treatment plan with exercises and stretches to follow at home. She’ll happily discuss a plan for you and how we’ll move forward together to alleviate the pain associated with your sore back.
Treatment
When you come in, we will begin with an assessment of your spinal alignment, gait and how you walk, sit, and stand as well as postural patterns. We need to understand what is causing the pain before we can begin treating the pattern(s) causing the low back pain. Treatment can consist of a multifaceted approach which can include manual therapy, myofascial therapy, neuromuscular therapy, activation with movement, and Rossiter Method treatment. In addition, we will work with you to come up with an at home, self-care plan that includes movement, stretching, exercises to promote strengthening (bandwork, loading and strengthening of tissue). Back pain, depending on how long it has been a part of your life, is a puzzle that takes time to resolve. It is usually more complicated than can be fully addressed in one session, but have faith, we at Integrative Massage of Boulder have had great success in finding the key to resolve low back pain.
5 ways to help with lower back pain — please follow these link that will explain each of the exercises.
