Osteoarthritis or wear and tear has long been thought of as an ageing process. It seems this idea has gotten old! Muscular imbalance is behind that cartilage trouble known as wear and tear or osteoarthritis. Joint arthritis is therefore, a failure of coordinated muscle and bone movement over time and not an age related joint cartilage failure (1).
When forces of posture, movement, lifting, changing position, stretching and breathing are applied at a time that body components are not centred then body parts wont last as long as when they are symmetrical. Asymmetrical forces produced by muscles leads to a wonky skeleton. Luckily, back muscles that are not symmetrically contracting (2) can be felt (palpated).
In your consultation your back muscles will be felt to see how good they are functioning. Chiropractic Care looks to change the pattern of muscular activity within the spine, (3) Leading to improved coordination and strength (4). People with chronic back pain can have uneven spinal muscles (tropism). As a side note with tropism continuing to be physically active and or exercise can sometimes hinder rather than help. If you are regularly overdoing it, could this be you..?
The message here is don’t beat yourself up if despite your best efforts exercises aren’t working for you. Book in today to start your journey to a new normal at Fascia First Chiropractic. Don’t stick with the usual and expect a different outcome.
References:
- Yu et al (2017) Correlation of the Features of the Lumbar Multifidus Muscle with Facet Joint Osteoarthritis. Orthopedics 40 (5) e793-e800
- Herbert et al (2015) The Evaluation of Lumbar Multifidus Muscle Function with Palpation. Spine J 15(60 1196-1202
- Fritz JM et al (2018) Optimizing Treatment Protocols for Spinal Manipulative Therapy: Study Protocol for a Randomized Trial. Trials 19 Article Number 306.
- Brenner AK et al (2007) Improved Activation of Lumbar Multifidus Muscle Following Spinal Manipulation Applying Rehabilitative Ultrasound Imaging. J Orthop Sports Phys Therapy 37 (10) 613-19