Lower back pain? 🙋

This one’s close to my heart… A footy career of rolling, triggering, stretching, de-loading, lumbar straps, treatments… Anything to stay on top of it.

This article from performance wizard Kelly Starrett gives us a really logical way to approach it.

First, we figure out what's causing the pain. Is it:

• 🛏 Environmental? Poor sleep (mattress, position), positions (sitting, slouching) or movement (not enough walking, stretching)?
• 🏃 Movement? Poor technique or posture?
• 🦵 Joint function? Stiff joints that are putting stress on the lower back?
• 💪 Muscle? Stiff muscles or poor blood flow?‍
• 🦾 Myofascial? Are our connective tissues no longer fluid (poor hydration, tightness)?
  

Improving one of these areas might help. But improving more or all of them is where the magic is (because there's usually a few moving parts).

Here's how (the treatment model):

• 😮💨 Desensitise with breathing techniques, simple movements and walking‍
• 🙆 Restore the function with stretching, rolling and triggering
• 😴 Prevent by improving our sleep quality, sleep environment and better habits (like more standing, walking and stretching).
  

If your lower back gives you grief, taking the time to read the article and watch the videos could be what you need.

And while we're on it. These are some habits and tools I've found to work for me:

• Stand-up desk – Sitting for long periods cooks me up. A stand-up desk has been a game changer for work.
• Lumbar strap – Sometimes sitting is unavoidable…Long car/plane rides etc. Not too tight though. Too tight and it’ll do all the work for you. Just enough to give you feedback. So you'll switch the right core muscles on to keep your back in a safe position.
• The bar hang
• Setting a neutral spine before sitting and moving
• Morning stretch – specifically the couch stretch and windmills for the back

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