With the cases of back pain at an all time high, it is the second leading cause of all doctor visits in the United States, there must be something glaringly obvious in the way we conduct our lives to produce this result? If only it was that easy, in a lot of cases of back pain the cause is never identified, but there is a pattern to most of the cases - over eighty percent of all back pain is caused by muscle imbalances! Muscle imbalances can be thought of as a tug of war between opposing muscles and unfortunately muscle imbalances are not dealt with properly by most medical professionals.
For example, if you suffer from Sciatica from Spinal Stenosis there is a good chance that your muscle imbalances are pulling your hip and spine into abnormal positions that are placing increased pressure on the spine joints and causing the nerve contact.
While your doctor may prescribe pain killers and anti-inflammatory's to control the symptoms, the cause of the problem remains until something is done about the imbalances.
So what can be done about the tug of war going on with your muscles? Unfortunately there is no magic bullet, no instant cure.
Regaining balance of your muscles first requires an accurate assessment of the areas in need of work.
You may have paid a visit to a physiotherapist or chiropractor in your quest to get rid of your pain and been given a set of 'generic' exercises or stretches to do.
With almost every case of back pain caused by muscle imbalances being unique how do you know that these exercises are right for you? They can't be right for everyone can they? That is where an accurate assessment of your individual muscle imbalances is vitally important to getting rid of your pain for good, and yes, this can be a self-assessment done at home when you know how.
Once the muscle imbalances are correctly identified it is then simply a case of doing the right exercises and stretches for your condition.
You might be thinking that the last thing you want to do while you are in pain is exercises or stretching, and rightly so, it is natural to want to get as comfortable as possible and stay there.
Unfortunately this is not going to improve your condition and believe it or not the right exercises and stretches done correctly should not increase your pain level.
The idea is to start off slow, doing as little or as much as you can each day even if you are limited to a couple of minutes of light stretching will see you improve over time.
The mental barrier is probably the hardest to overcome, but believe me if you can just push yourself that little bit each day you will see an improvement in both your flexibility and your pain levels which of course results in a much happier you!