Why is low back pain worse in the morning
Why you are having sharp low back pain in the morning?
hey guys it's Hina chef here at
rebalance physical therapy and wellness
in Center City Philadelphia as well as
on the main line in Narberth
Pennsylvania and I am a orthopedic and
pelvic floor physical therapist that
treats with a holistic kind of
integrative functional medicine kind of
background to help treat a lot of
complex spine hip and pelvic issues and
today I want to address something that I
had a patient recently call and ask
about because I think some of you might
be having the same questions if you're
watching this video so they basically
said you know all of a sudden I've
started developing this sharp pain in my
back
that kind of wakes me up in the morning
or it starts in the morning and then it
actually improves as the day goes on I
feel better by nighttime but then it
comes right back in the morning so you
know I've gone to my primary doctor or
family physician they've done x-rays
they don't really see a whole lot going
on so they gave me some medications
muscle relaxers and you know it improved
but as soon as I stopped the medication
my symptoms are starting to come back
and can you help me with this and what's
going on
so again if you're watching this video
this is more of an explanation video I
am gonna talk about what things can help
but it's not gonna be a demonstration
video okay so basically what is going on
and what can you potentially do about it
so basically first I gotta talk about
the spine so the spine is made up of
several several vertebra and what
vertebra are is they're like blocks in
your body okay so if you I'm gonna grab
an image
right over here okay if you basically
peel off all of the muscles take out all
the organs and things like that for the
body you're kind of left with the
skeletal structure now there's some
muscles still here but basically if you
look back right over here this is your
spine this is the back part it is the
front part but this is that lumbar or
the low back part of your spine and they
basically stack like blocks on top of
each other and those blocks can
basically move so again if you look at
the side of your spine so here it is
again this is your your vertebra or your
spine okay and then it comes down here
and eventually you get the tailbone down
here okay
you see that these are kind of stacked
on top of each other like blocks okay
and these blocks basically move on top
of each other and this is what's known
as your joints or your low back joints
so oftentimes sometimes that sharp pain
could be coming from these joints that
are kind of stacked on top of each other
but in order these bones are also held
together by tissue otherwise if there
wasn't any tissues that was holding
these guys together then you know the
blocks would just fall over so though
that tissue is called ligaments so
they're not shown here on this photo
right over here but you basically have
ligaments that stabilize or secure these
blocks in place but they're they're not
so sturdy that they can't move okay so
there's some nice shifting that happens
in between those joints and then on top
of those joints or muscles and that's
what basically you you know normally
think about when you think of your back
muscles is you got all these muscles
that basically layer on on top of your
back in various different layers so
you've got a deep layer you've got
what's called an intermediate or a
middle layer and you've got an outer
layer of musculature on top now sharp
pain can be coming from the joint
because it's either moving too much or
it's moving too little and that just
from that it can cause irritation within
the joint and then that can cause even
partially some of the ligaments okay
those are the tissue that holds those
blocks together to become irritated and
then on top when that's irritated it can
also get those must
tools to become spasmed okay so when you
think of this sharp pain in your back
sometimes yes it could be just you know
coming from the muscle or could you
speak umming from the joint but it could
be a combination of all three of those
things and we often see that in our
clinic that it's sometimes not the joint
so just going in and possibly having
some chiropractic adjustments you know
might not maybe I'll give you temporary
relief but it may not give you full
relief because there's still these
ligaments that might be irritated or the
musculature on top now I've also heard
that some people say well I went and had
massage therapy and I went and had
chiropractic and you know I had some
strengthening exercises as well maybe
I've already gone to physical therapy
and they did some strengthening well if
you had a lot of these things and it
seems like it gave you some relief but
not full relief or maybe I didn't give
you relief at all or maybe I did give
you full relief for a temporary period
of time but then it started to come back
well you have to understand the the back
works not just with the back muscles but
it works with a bunch of other muscles
as well and I'm gonna go back to this
picture right over here to show you
here's your low back okay but there is a
bunch of other muscles that connect on
deep inside to your spine and some of
them this right here okay is your
diaphragm it's actually the muscle that
you breathe with and then you've got
other deeper muscles further inside okay
I'm gonna go back to my first foot over
here that also connect up onto this bagg
so there's that diaphragm again and you
can see it's got little connections
there but then you've got other muscles
that actually start in the back and they
dive deep down in the front and that
could be influencing and causing issues
in your back okay and there's several
other muscles so these are just two I'm
gonna point out but know that there's
many other muscles that could be
problematic that is creating the
spasming in your back so sometimes you
have to not only address the back but
you have to address other muscles that
are also attached on to the spine and
oftentimes what we find at least when in
our clinic is sometimes we're treating
the ribcage
sometimes we're treating the hip
sometimes we're treating the pelvis
sometimes we're treating deeper inside
the pelvis sometimes we're even going
all the way up to head and neck
sometimes to balance a lot of these
muscles out because once the muscles are
balanced out then it takes the stress
off of the ligaments remember those are
the tissues that connect those blocks
together and when the stress comes off
of the ligaments cuz you know if they
feel like they have to work a lot then
they're gonna get irritated but once
they don't have to work as much then it
takes the stress off of the joint okay
which is where your problem may be
coming from but it's because of
potentially these imbalances between a
lot of the musculature and possibly a
stiff joint or a joint that moves too
much so sometimes you need a combination
of working on some of these muscles you
might need that strengthening but you
might need some stretching but you may
need release work of a lot of these
different muscles and the combination of
release work of these muscles
combination of addressing a lot of the
you know the ribcage the pelvis the hip
all of these things other muscles that
have connections on to the spine or
maybe sometimes even indirect
connections on to the spine may just
help balance the whole system okay the
system meaning the whole you know your
whole musculoskeletal system meaning
your bones and your muscles in the
fashio
in and around the trunk okay that then
comes just calms everything down and
then you may notice that hey my pain is
actually gone in the morning and it's
not due to that little arthritis that my
physician found on the x-ray or that
little disc bulge or even that moderate
disc bulge that I saw on my MRI or
something else because in reality you
know as you're kind of creeping into
your late 30s late 40s you're gonna have
changes in your spine it's kind of like
the normal wear and tear of a car you
use it you're going to end up breaking
certain things down we're not all
perfect
some of us are but we're not all perfect
so just realize don't be scared from
anything that you see on an x-ray or an
MRI these things could just be a big
imbalance of a lot of
musculature and you just need to have
that addressed addressed so so I hope
this video helps to kind of explain that
maybe it calms some of those who are
having some anxiety about their back
pain that there is help out there it's
just perhaps it's not being seen in this
holistic kind of integrated way and so
you know if you live in and around the
Philadelphia area or around the
surrounding suburbs or you can get to us
or you want to see us then great hop on
to our website it's rebalance PT calm
that's our e ba lan c e PT calm we have
lots of other helpful YouTube videos
that might help in conjunction with this
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treated by us no brainer come give us a
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consult if you are looking to have
treatment with us and so I hope that
this video helps and for all of you have
a wonderful day
