The Cause of your Back Pain
Do You Suffer From Back Pain
If the answer is Yes, do you know the cause?
There can be many reasons for back pain. Firstly, this could be down to an injury but more often than not, that isn’t the case for most people.
Most people tend to have back pain from postural issues that can be helped by being aware of the cause and knowing how they can improve their posture.
So let’s explore a little further.
Do you have back pain when you wake up or does it develop throughout the day?
Back Pain on Waking
If you wake up with back pain it may be down to the way you sleep – for example, your sleeping position and how high you have your pillows.
Sleeping in the wrong position can cause or aggravate neck and back pain.
Here are a few examples:
Sleeping on your back may cause back pain and will definitely make an existing back condition worse.
Sleeping on your front tends to cause a lot of neck pain, as well as lower back pain due to the angle you hold your head while sleeping.
The side lying position is a popular one and can be a comfortable one for most people and can also be adapted by taking the knees out in front.
Looking at the picture below, the spine alignment seems good, the pillow seems at the right height and mattress seems to support the person well. If they were suffering with back pain placing a pillow between the knees may help as this will stop the pelvis tilting slightly which may cause lower back pain.
If you think your back pain is down to the way you sleep, firstly do the easy things like ensure your pillows are at the right height, analyse the way you sleep (check the positions you wake up in throughout the night), see if you can change this or adapt somehow and lastly invest in a new mattress/pillows.
This doesn’t always mean getting the most expensive mattress in the shop but it does need to support your body whilst sleeping. This can be a bit of a mind field, but you should be able to get some advice and many bed shops allow you to test out the mattresses, some even guaranteeing money back if unsuitable for a certain number of days.
Back Pain That Develops Through The Day
So what if you wake up OK, but your back pain starts later in the day! This could be due to something you are doing throughout the day. For example the job you do, your seated position if working from a desk, your driving position.
Firstly, discovering the cause is important. You can then do something about it. Start by analysing what you do throughout your day and maybe log down what you are doing, how long you do the thing you are doing, when does the pain start, level of pain and discomfort etc to see if there’s a pattern. Most people should be able to figure this out in a few days.
You Can Then Look At Improving This
Being mindful of your posture, standing or sitting up correctly and not slumpingCheck out our video’s on a Good Standing and Seated Posture
Ensuring your workstation is set up correctlyCheck out our blog on Correct Workstation Set Up
Strengthening your core and increasing your flexibility which can be done through PilatesJoin our 21 Day Pilates Programme