BACK PAIN and POSTURE

 

        Back pain is amongst the most common presenting complaint to health care practitioners. Nearly everyone (80-90%) will suffer from some kind of back pain at some point in their lives.

        The spine is a dynamic structure made of 24 individual vertebrae plus the sacrum and coccyx at the base. It is rigid enough to absorb gravity and keep us upright, whilst being limber enough to allow us to flex, extend, rotate and sidebend.

        The spinal column's sturdiness and movement are optimised in a certain posture. When we repetatively or chronically find ourselves outside this optimised posture (for ex. in people working at desk jobs), we strain the articulations between the vertebrae and overload the muscles tasked with moving them. This often leads to the pain of joint locking or muscle spasms. In the long term the stress on these joints can cause irreversible damage to the vertebrae and their connective discs.