QuestionMy daughter, Brooke, age 15, has several knots in the lower back. She is in constant pain, always asking for someone to pop her back and massage them out. What can be done to alleviate this pain and at the same time these knots? Thanks.
AnswerHi Brooke (and Brooke's mom),
Yay, someone finally asked this. Everyone gets the problem, no-one knows how to deal with it!
Short-term symptom management:
The problem is muscular misuse due to poor posture. Even for people who practice good posture, it sneaks in because we all sit at bad desks, slouch at the computer, etc.
1. Heat. Do a GREAT help to yourself - ask for a GOOD heating pad from Santa. Make it big - no, not the electric blankets for the whole bed, but one that will cover across your shoulders or down your back. The best, pro ones are $100 from Battle Creek equipment (thermophore.com). Mmmmm, luxury. The heat dilates blood vessels, which will give those poor overworked muscles a much-needed break.
2. Correct your posture. (see below.)
3. Take breaks. Lie flat, stretch backward. (see below.)
4. Use massage or those massage balls (about 5" across) to rub the stiff muscles.
The problem starts with mismanagement of 'centres of gravity' in your body. Let's pretend your head has a balancing point on your neck - if everything is lined up correctly, you can completely release all muscular tension and your head stays still, it doesn't fall.
OK, test this. Sit or stand where you think is 'straight', and release ALL tension keeping you upright.
Did your head hit the keyboard? (Sorry, I should have warned you.)
Of course you fell forwards.
Humans are designed upright, but our spine is at the back. The spine is the support beam, the flagpole. Keep your centres of gravity lined up right over it, and your back muscles are happy critters. If not, you're holding your body up with your muscles. The muscles along your back are the main responsibility takers - in fact, the very muscles that are SCCCCRRREEEAAMMMINNNNGG at you are the ones that you're making do the work. How unfair. They do all this work, then get pain from it afterward.
The muscles will give no limit to pain, and the problem gets worse through life. Chiropractors and Massage Therapists LOVE stuff like this; we fix it for a while, people are too lazy to fix the original problem, and you come back and keep paying us!! Yippee!
Don't fund your chiropractor's new car. Fix the problem yourself.
1. Check your posture. Get others to check your posture, because they won't lie to you. From the side, your ear lobes should line up with your shoulders (when they're fairly far back) and the bony bits on the side of your thighs (the greater tuberosity, if you're looking it up on Wikipedia). This allows the spine its natural curves but puts the centres in line.
2. Ouch? Uncomfortable? You bet. For 12 of your 15 years you've been building bad posture, so you have to work to get it back. Your homework: learn about some muscle anatomy. Check wikipedia.org for muscles: levator scapula, splenius capitis, , erector spinae, sternocleidomastoid, pectoral (major and minor). You need to know some of the structre of this stuff to become your own doctor. The first three are muscles that have been elongated and overworked; the last two are shortened.
3. Lengthen the shortened muscles. Get creative in making some stretches. Ask around. Bodybuilders are GREAT for showing stretches, as are therapists if you know any. You can find pics on the net; it's 1000 words to describe each so I'll leave that part up to you....
...but I'll hint: one stretch you won't find is the Yoga Ball Stretch:
-find a yoga ball 65 or 75cm across (about mid-thigh height). Lie face-up on it, put the top of the ball at mid-shoulderblade height. This is the apex of your upper back curve, the thing we're trying to reeeeallllly stretch the other way since it's TOO far into a hunch. Even when you stretch upright it's TOO HUNCHY.
Don't feel bad, everyone gets this cr*ppy posture from too much desk work, driving, sitting on the sofa, etc. The key is to act NOW before it gets 'fibrosed' - cemented more and more into your body structure. Muscles complain when they have a problem; when the complaining stops, it means either the problem is solved or it's getting worse, deeper, and will come back in the future as a nastier problem that will take more to correct. (Many middle-agers see this come back up as chronic back soreness that progresses to prolapsed (slipped) discs and pinched nerves.) Be glad you can act on it now!
This is getting long. To shorten,
The keys that you have to keep in mind are:
1. Be vigilant. Build AMAZING posture by stretching, strengthening and KEEPING good posture ALL THE TIME. Never, ever slouch. You're retraining yourself; the more time you stay in good posture, the faster it will progress. The beginning 2 months are the hardest. One day you wake up and are amazed that your posture is perfect, and your body feels amazing. Have confidence, it happens.
2. Build muscle. When you're on that yoga ball, have some light weights in your hands and do some 'fly' lifts to lengthen and strengthen your pectoral muscles. (Aag, more homework, to look these up!!)
3. The pain is in the back, but the problem is the tightness in the front. Stretch the front and the back pain will disappear on its own. All the massage and heat in the world won't cure the problem till you release the postural stress caused by tight muscles on your front, which don't even hurt - this is from, for instance, the sternocleidomastoid and pectoral muscles, as well as too much forward hunch for too long.
3. Email me to let me know how it is going!
--: )
Glenn Kukkee, RMT
