Quote Originally Posted by gcoe View Post
You may be prone to joint pain - some people are.



AS this is a chronic problem I think you would be wasting your money going to someone such as a chiropractor for manipulation. There is absolutely no evidence that manipulation helps in the long term - may be for short term episodes - even then it depends on the person.

It sounds like you have lost mobility in the arching movement of your back and possibly too much movement in bending movements. However that is just based on what you describe and this could well be wrong.

Thinking about strengthening may in theory be a good idea but you may have problems with muscle imbalance - that is one group of muscles are too weak or too flexible and the opposing group is too strong or too shortened. These sorts of muscle imbalances promote abnormal wear on your joints tendons and ligaments. Yoga, pole dancing and Pilates can in theory be good but sometimes these can actually be detrimental if the wrong muscles are getting strengthened or stretched.

I would suggest you get some help from a physio who takes a "Movement Impairment Syndrome" approach - Shirley Sahrmann is the lady who invented this approach and many physios around the world may practice this approach. It involves a detailed assessment of your posture and movement, diagonosing imbalances and faulty movement patterns and prescribing specific exercises. This is approach addresses things in the long term so you don't always get immediate relief - however usually start to feel better after a few weeks of diligent exercise.

Alternatively you could consider trying a somatic education approach. Both the Feldenkrais method or the Alexander Method may help with the latter showing evidence for helping chronic low back pain. these methods are gentle, and subtle but are more educative than therapeutic. They teach you how to use your body better through specific types of improvement in body awareness.

I would definitely get some help rather than soldiering on with these different types of exercise regimes, particularly as you aren't really feeling better form practising them
Additional Comment I forgot:
You may be prone to joint pain - some people are.



AS this is a chronic problem I think you would be wasting your money going to someone such as a chiropractor for manipulation. There is absolutely no evidence that manipulation helps in the long term - may be for short term episodes - even then it depends on the person.

It sounds like you have lost mobility in the arching movement of your back and possibly too much movement in bending movements. However that is just based on what you describe and this could well be wrong.

Thinking about strengthening may in theory be a good idea but you may have to problems with muscle imbalance - that is one group of muscles are too weak or too flexible and the opposing group is too strong or too shortened. These sorts of muscle imbalances promote abnormal wear on your joints tendons and ligaments. Yoga, pole dancing and Pilates can in theory be good but sometimes these can actually be detrimental if the wrong muscles are getting strengthened or stretched.

I would suggest you get some help from a physio who takes a "Movement Impairment Syndrome" - Shirley Sahrmann is the lady who invented this approach and many physios around the world may practice this approach. It involves a detailed assessment of your posture and movement, diagonosing imbalances and faulty movement patterns and prescribing specific exercises. This is approach addresses things in the long term so you don't always get immediate relief - however usually start to feel better after a few weeks of diligent exercise.

Alternatively you could consider trying are somatic education approach. Both the Feldenkrais method or the Alexander Method may help with the latter showing evidence for helping chronic low back pain. these methods are gentle, and subtle but are more educative than therapeutic. They teach you how to use your body better through specific types of improvement in body awareness.

I would definitely get some help rather than soldiering on with these different types of exercise regimes, particularly as you aren't really feeling better form practising them. All three approaches I have suggested are wholistic in nature so may look at all the problems you are having.
hi there

thanks for your response. and you have really given me a lot to think about.

i will first of all mention that i do not perform any movements / exercises that do result in that much pain. i would then ask for an alternative exercise that would have a similar result. i am aware of the damage it may cause in the long run, so i generally stay away from the excessive back stretches / exercises.

another factor that may affect all this is an injury i had when i was just starting school. i was on a see-saw with a much older child, this child decided to get off while i'm in mid-air. i was leaning slightly backwards at the time and i came crashing to the ground and landed straight on my coccyx. however, xrays don't reveal any fractures there at all.

movements in specific that i have trememdous difficulty with is stretching my hamstrings. whether my legs are in front of me and closed or stretched open and i lean forward, this causes pain more in my lower back and in the tendons, i think it is, behind my knees and to the inside of the leg (pretty much in the hollow part of the knee), and more so in my left leg than the right, which is the same leg that had the torn ligament, than anywhere else. i can't seem to get to the point where it stretches my hamstrings significantly enough. when i then try and get up, i literally need to do in stages. this is when my vertibrae feel "dry" in my lower back and this is when mobility is rather low around any kind of back movements for at least 5min or so. co-incidentally, it was coming up from positions like that, for example picking up a shoe from the ground, that i often had shoots of pain running along my spine, which one day became a week long spasm.

i've not had blood tests done for anything, but have been told to just stay away from any movements that cause pain. and that's all i've really done since childhood (mostly since my parents couldn't afford any extensive therapy at the time).

research i have done till now, has given me the inclination to believe that the ligament injury i had in my ankle (torn the major ligament in my ankle while climbing off a merry-go-round and stepping skew while it was still moving) shouldn't cause any signifant damage to any muscles higher up the leg. however, i am just a member of the general public so there may be bits that i am not aware of.

with regards to treatments i've had thus far, i've had physio for quite some time while i was still swimming. here the physio concentrated mostly on keeping the lower back as mobile as possible concentrating on the vertibrae themselves by gently pressing on each one then massaging the muscles afterwards. i have also had accupunture done, when i was suffering from the said spasms, and this worked wonders, at the time, but i fear that the spasms may be returning soon as the muscles are feel rather stiff lately.

thanks again for all the comments i have received so far. and for the most poart, it seems that physio is the way to again...