*This article is inspired by ‘How Simple Exercises May Save Your Lower Back’ (Rachel Fairbank, The New York Times, 2022).
Anyone, young or old, can, and probably will develop back pain at some point in their lives. This, dare I say, pervasive illness, is plaguing anyone with a back. So what can we do about it?
What Causes Lower Back Pain?
To understand how to help prevent it, it is important to understand what causes it.
Acute lower back pain is most commonly caused by the straining of a muscle that is weak or stiff. For example, if you are sitting at a desk for long periods of time, over time the muscles used to stabilise your spine, may weaken. This can be to the likes of not using your favourite pen. After a long time, the ink will eventually dry up. You may need to press harder, or it may not really work at all. Therefore, when you use it, it will not work effectively. In the body, this same concept can be applied to our muscles, only it would look like pain or even injury.
Therefore, the best line of action is to use your muscles!
A good line of prevention and treatment may involve a consistent mixture of cardio, strength, and Pilates that focuses on the core muscles.
While of course, pilates is no foolproof medicine, it is a complex and effective mode of exercise that targets three main components essential to breaking our bad back cycle: strengthening the core, promoting mind-muscle connection, and increasing overall muscle condition.
What Does the Core Have To Do With My Back?
The core is a collective term for the muscles in our trunk, and has the important role of stabilising and controlling the spine and pelvis.
Think of the core as our own personal back brace. It wraps around us like a corset and helps us stabilise the spine. Our body is as strong as our core. If the core is weak and ill-equipped for our daily tasks, it can manifest as lower back pain, poor posture, restlessness, and tightness of muscles.
So, a strong core is key to preventing and treating back pain.
The core is such a large and highly specialise focused group of muscle, with large obvious muscles (e.g., abdominals, or ‘abs’ that we associate with the glorified six-pack). However, the core also consists of a complex network of intricate deep muscles, such as the transverse abdominis; the deepest core muscle in our body that wraps around our entire trunk like a corset. (For more information about our core, please see our article ‘Your Core: More Than Just a Sexy Six Pack‘)
While any exercise more or less activate our entire core, few exercises consider to intentionally strengthen the deep core muscles.
How does Pilates Strengthen the Core?
This is where Pilates comes into play. Pilates involves slow and controlled intricate exercise movements that work to increase flexibility, mind-muscle connection, and muscular growth of even the tiniest of our core muscles.
For example, the ‘plank’ activates the entire core, down to the deepest of muscles. Pilates aims to efficiently combine slow controlled, and intentional movements rather than large uncontrolled movements. The effect – increased muscle connection, and helping us activate every single muscle in our core.
A strong core, means that the spine can be stabilised, and that the muscles will be equipped to move freely without back pain or strain. Pilates is more than growing muscle mass, following a strong philosophy over quality controlled movements and muscle activation. Effectively addressing our entire core, is just one approach to ensuring our backs remain pain free and healthy.
How do I start?
Anything from 5 to 10 minutes a day of core activation is enough to help your body strengthen its spine and get your back feeling better than ever. Good core exercises you can try are: plank, dead-bugs, V-ups, bird dog, and leg raises. (Not sure what they are? Ask us!)
Additionally, you may be wondering, ‘how do I know if I am targeting the right muscles?’ The best thing to do try is to intentionally tell yourself that you want to activate your core. Sometimes, particularly if you are more new to Pilates, it may feel like we are copying the movements, but feeling nothing. Try touching the muscle you want to activate to feel it tense up.
