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At our practice we have patients asking how can they prevent back pain. Many people think if I avoid lifting heavy things or strengthen my “core” then I will protect my back from injury. This statement is in fact the opposite of what someone should do to prevent back pain. Here are some things to consider if you want to prevent back pain or re-injury.1). Humans are made to lift loads. Lifting and squatting are some of the most basic primitive human movements. One of the most important things to prevent back pain is to maintain strength in your legs, especially as you age. The way to do this is by lifting and squatting. See pic 1 and 2 for correct ways to lift and squat.2) “THE FALSE CORE EPIDEMIC”. Yes, those are my words in quotes. Let me start with a story about the “core”. When I graduated PT school in 2002, it was all about the “core” for spinal stabilization. When The concept finally caught on, it infiltrated the fitness industry and healthcare.We were wrong....In the 80’s and 90’s a research group out of Australia, led by a physiotherapist named Peter O’Sullivan, were the primary research group on this concept of “core”.The research done by this group theorized that if we strengthen the core with our patients their spine will be protected.Around 2008, Peter O’Sullivan et al. went back to their research and discovered that the previous research wasn’t accurate, and consciously contracting the “core” isn’t what we should be doing at all. In fact, we should be trying to relax these muscles consciously instead of trying to have them on all the time. What the researchers found was that consciously contracting the “core” in a non functional way was in fact causing a co-contraction of the large global muscles in the back (erector spinae) and front (rectus abdominus). (See pics 3 & 4) This co-contraction of muscles creates a “stiffening” affect which increases compression in the spine. My back pain patients that have embraced this concept all got better, and have developed the tools to manage their pain without me.I think that if a PT can teach a patient to control their own pain it’s the most liberating tool you can provide a patient#backpain#prevention

A post shared by Anderson & Cattone PT (@andersoncattonept) on Sep 22, 2019 at 8:37am PDT