Lower back pain Relief Stretching Exercises
Do you have low back pain?
Wonder whether the pain is due to trigger points (or commonly known as ‘muscle knots’)?
Looking for the best way to treat these problems, which can include myofascial pain syndrome (mps) pain therapy?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, this practical complete guide to treating lumbar myofascial pain is for you. Can myofascial pain syndrome be cured? With the right strategies, you'll be able to control myofascial pain disorder symptoms and take back your health.
Not only will you learn how to find and treat your own muscle knots coming from soft tissue pain syndrome pain, you'll be shown how to treat lower back pain and the lower back exercises for strengthening and stretching. These exercises have worked for my patients over the last 20 years, and may help avoid the use of myofascial pain syndrome treatment medication.
Finally, you'll be shown how to prevent lower back pain with specific prevention strategies that you can begin with today to help relieve your back pain. (Chronic myofascial pain syndrome diet is not included and beyond the scope of this article)
My patients often ask me, ‘why are trigger points so important in low back pain?’ The answer is, they’re one of the most common causes of low back pain (And most often don't require aggressive trigger shot injections).In fact, one study found that out of 126 chronic back pain patients that visited a pain center, 63.5% had what we call Myofascial Pain Syndrome. Myofascial Pain Syndrome is the diagnosis given by health professionals that is made up of trigger points. Since they’re so common, we’re going to show you exactly how to target them with myofascitis treatment for muscle or fascia back pain relief.
Note: Myofascial pain syndrome and fibromyalgia are two different conditions, yet they can sometimes overlap in pain and symptoms. It's not rare to have someone with myofascial pain syndrome disability and realize later that they have fibromyalgia instead. Treatments may be different.
Why Is The Lower Back Trigger Point Pain So Difficult To Treat?
There are a few reasons why these trigger points are so difficult to treat (and don't require any scary things like myofascial surgery!), even though they are so common:
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The source of pain is not always close to the painful area
Have you ever found yourself poking around trying to find the pain, but for some reason can’t seem to locate it? In our other article on neck pain for example, 'scalene' myofascial pain syndrome consists of pain going all the way down the arm and into the hands, yet the cause was in a small myofascial pain (mp) muscle in the front of the neck. That’s what trigger points do. In some cases, you’ll find that the muscle knot is right where the pain is. In other cases (sometimes called diffuse pain syndrome), the origin of pain is a short distance away. For example, your low back pain may come from the mid back, or even the buttock area. No wonder they’re difficult to treat! A patient with a dorsal myofascial strain in the back can actually send pain down to the back of the thigh. Here is a list of muscles that can cause low back pain. Don’t worry about the names of the muscles. Just look at where they are located. For example, a 'quadratus lumborum' muscle can be the cause of trigger points for hip pain:
Muscle
Location
Deep Spinal Muscles
low backSuperficial spinal muscles
low back
Quadratus Lumborum
Gluteus Medius
buttocks
Gluteus Maximus
Gluteus Minimus
Psoas and Iliacus Muscles
Front inner thigh
Rectus Abdominus Muscle
stomach area
Soleus Muscle
Pelvic Floor Muscles
lower leg
pelvic area
A 'diagnosis' label can make everyone overlook trigger points
Sometimes, the diagnosis is so focused on the structures in the area of pain, that we tend to forget about all these trigger points. Have you been given a diagnosis but still haven’t had any relief with your back pain? A patient of mine once mentioned that the last thing they cared about was the fancy names of trigger points in neck symptoms they were getting. They just wanted to know how to get rid of their trigger points in neck and shoulders, and less on overcomplicating things. Check out some of the following diagnosis that may have part or all of their pain coming from trigger points:
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Diagnosis |
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lumbar strain |
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facet syndrome |
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disc herniation |
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sacroiliac joint dysfunction |
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spondylolisthesis |
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spondylolysis |
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osteoarthritis |
These are all conditions that may be seen on x-ray, an MRI, or through a clinician’s examination. So why don’t health professionals look for a trigger release point? Well, I’d like to think that most do. However, if your doctor or therapist just diagnosed you with arthritis, they may be so focused on treating that ‘joint’ that they may not give muscle knots much thought. Whether it's trigger points legs pain, trigger points hip pain, or trigger points arm pain, there is hope. The good news is, muscle knots can have common signs and symptoms that may give you a clue that your pain has a trigger point component to it, whether it's low back, or a trigger point, neck and shoulder. That’s what we’re going to talk about next:
Common Lower Back Pain Symptoms
- Pain is fairly similar to neck muscle trigger points. The pain from trigger points in muscles is most commonly described as a dull or deep ache. However, the pain may also be sharp when you're moving. Patients and health professionals alike (even including me) tend to believe that sharp pain upon movement is a joint problem. We are just as guilty of jumping to conclusions on where the real pain is coming from if we're not careful.
- You may drop down on all fours when the pain becomes excruciating. Sometimes, people with low back trigger points (foot pain from the back being rare) tend to brace their back as they are standing, or standing from a sitting position. Trigger points in hip muscles can further complicate the issue.
