Avoiding lower back pain during the winter months is possible with proper spinal care. Warming up before exercising, practicing proper posture and lowering stress will reduce the risk of low back pain and allow for an enjoyable winter.
How do winter conditions like cold weather and snow contribute to an increase in lower back pain?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, great question, Liz. I view this as, it’s not necessarily what the cold weather is doing to the body, more what the cold weather environment does to us as people. I can speak on living in Chicago, summertime shy, everyone’s out on the lake, enjoying themselves, being active, and then the tundra rolls in, and people are just essentially confined to their homes, apartments, places of work. So, we get really sedentary, even more sedentary than we have been throughout the summer. Obviously, we have our work commitments where we’re sitting and standing. You should be standing if you’re listening to these podcasts throughout the workday, but essentially sedentary. And then instead of being able to get outside and ride a bike and enjoy the Lakeshore path, we’re back in our apartment, condo, house and we’re not moving.
Sedentary activity is a micro stress and micro stresses essentially break us down. Joints get locked up, muscles get weak and lazy. So, then we go outside to shovel some snow or be active and joints in the spine, the body that should be moving aren’t moving, muscles that should be working and engaging to create stability while we’re moving, aren’t doing their job. It’s just because our bodies are economical, and when we’re inactive, the muscles that are really important for stability or movement get weak and lazy. So, then we’re compensating and next thing you know, we’re throwing our back out shoveling snow. When we go out to shovel snow for example, or we need to be functional, bending, twisting, lifting, just those joints aren’t moving well and the muscles that should be creating stability while we’re moving just get weak and lazy from us just being inactive due to the cold weather. So yeah, it’s a consequence of our environment, particularly in a state where we’re at in the Midwest or on the East coast. That’s typically kind of what drives the pain and dysfunction.
What specific warm-up exercises do you recommend before engaging in winter sports or activities?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, great question. I feel like we should be doing these exercises proactively throughout the week, regardless if you’re going out and exercising, if you’re out enjoying your skiing, your snowboarding, your snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, ice skating, all those fun things we can do around the wintertime.
Essentially, we should be doing a couple of things. One, getting those joints moving, so motion is lotion. When the spine moves, it lubricates the joint, same with other joints, hips, knees, shoulders, et cetera. So, we should focus on moving those joints and specifically taking those joints through their intended range of motion. Your lower back, we should bend forwards, which is flexion, bend backwards, which is extension. We should do some lateral bending and some rotation. Just get the joints moving, stimulate the joints. And then we should be focusing on the muscles that create stability. When we sit all day, our diaphragm gets weak, our core gets weak, our glutes and our hamstrings get weak. So, we should be focusing on engaging those muscles through some pre-hab exercises. Do some diaphragmatic breathing, do some pelvic floor work, some core work, activating the glutes and the hamstrings.
It’s kind of like if you bought a Ferrari, you wouldn’t get in it and pin it, you’d blow the engine up. You’re going to warm that Ferrari up for a good 10, 15 minutes before you can really tap into its capability. Same with us when we’re getting outside and we’re exercising.
Really focus on the mobility of the joints you’re going to be using, so the spine and hips, knees, shoulders, and then focus on those rehab exercises that are going to create stability. If you’re wondering, “What exercise should I be doing,” jump on our YouTube channel, southloopchiropractor.com or South Loop Chiropractor on YouTube. We have a great rehab exercise library on there that we’ll be able to walk you through all these exercises I’m talking about.
How does stress which can increase during the holiday season, impact lower back pain?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, great question. Stress manifests in three forms. In our office we call them the three T’s. You’ve got thoughts, which is a really stressful work environment, poor work-life balance, family grievances. We have toxins, so patients who are overly medicated, have really poor dietary habits. And then we have trauma, trauma, so slipping and falling down the stairs on the ice or being pinned to your desk for 50 hours and not standing and not moving around during the day, that’s a micro stress.
Stress creates something called a subluxation. Essentially that means where a joint in the spine becomes stark, aberrant in its motion or it shifts out of alignment. Now this increases stress and tension within the joint, which requires the muscles, the ligaments, the tendons, everything anchored into that joint to work harder. So now if the joint’s stressed from being pinned to your desk for example, and we go to move and that joint’s not moving well, that just creates that compensation, so limits your range of motion.
Essentially over time, this is when idiopathic movement, things we’ve done a million times, tied our shoes, emptied the dishwasher, reached for our toothbrush, all of a sudden, your back goes out. It’s due to that compensation, the fact of that joint being subluxated, not moving and those muscles compensating.
People tend to stay indoors more, spend more time on the couch and be less physically active during the winter. How can this lifestyle lead to lower back pain?
Dr. Luke Stringer:
Yeah, great question. We kind of discussed this a little earlier on the podcast, but if we’re pinned inside and we work remote, for example, you’re going to be sitting. And typically, we’re going to be sitting in flexion, which means bent forward. Research is clear, if you are seated and you’re in flexion so you’re leaning forward, this increases pressure in the disc by 300%. Obviously, if you are doing that 40, 50 hours a week, weeks, months, years on end, that disc in your lower back acts like the shock absorber, is going to deteriorate and degenerate.
Now you’ve got less space between the bone, which means you’ve got less space for the nerve to work with. And then obviously you get up, you try and be active and you just don’t have enough of a cushion within the joint. And then that’s when you create nerve root compression and that leads to pain and dysfunction.
Also, we discussed in the podcast, there’s micro traumas from sedentary muscles that engage to create stability through movement, so your diaphragm, your core, your glutes, your hamstrings, they’re all muscles that pick up on movement. If we’re sedentary, we’re inactive or we’re not moving, they get weak and lazy. So then all of a sudden, we go to move, tie your shoe, empty the dishwasher, go shovel and those muscles aren’t engaging and then our lower back goes out. Yeah, sedentary activity is the leading cause of all cause morbidity. It’s really the number one stress which drives the number one disability in America, which is lower back pain.
How can chiropractic care help people manage or prevent lower back pain during the winter?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, that’s exactly what chiropractic does. Any chiropractor you see, a reputable chiropractor, we’re going to do a detailed consultation, history, orthopedic, neurological exam, take some X-rays and figure out exactly what’s driving the pain and dysfunction and obviously, go about correcting it.
In our office it’s kind of a four-pronged attack approach. Obviously, our bread and butter is the adjustment. Adjustments are going to get the joint moving. When the joint moves, it stimulates the disc, the tissue, make sure the joints moving well, which essentially keep stress and tension off the joint, tissue, and nerve. Unfortunately, adjustments aren’t home runs, kind of like getting in shape in the gym. We need adjustments in rhythm to get that joint moving, keep it moving.
Then we check your alignment. Alignment dictates how you physically load the spine. For example, your top bone should be on top of your bottom bone in your lower back with a 40 degree curve, that’s healthy normal, but due to working in corporate America for 10 years, all of a sudden you have a two shift inch forward and you have a 50% reduction of your curve, that increases disc pressure. So, we need to traction that back into alignment so when you are physically upright and loading the spine, exercising, enjoying all those winter sports, we’ve got good weight bearing activity in the spine, obviously that’s going to prevent pain and dysfunction.
Then you’ve got to evaluate all the muscles around the joints or the lumbopelvic spine that should be doing their job to create stability through movement. So physically perform an exam to see if we can pick up on any muscle imbalances. Misfiring the hamstring, poor glute activation, poor diaphragmatic control, which is usually typical of corporate America.
Then provide exercises and physical therapy to address those muscle imbalances. Then lastly, importantly, address muscle health. Muscles that have been damaged from trauma, car accidents or postural stresses get filled up with something called adhesion. Adhesion is like glue in a muscle, doesn’t allow things to move well. So obviously, you need to address the adhesion to clean out that adhesion so the joint physically moves well with stability and strength.
If you’re addressing those four things, there’s no reason why you can’t get out of dealing with pain in your lower back and/or you could be more proactive in your healthcare instead of reactive. We all make better decisions when we’re in a non-stressed environment. So instead of going in when you have pain, think about it proactively. You love to ski, snowboard, do all those cool things outside in the winter, go see a chiropractor, get your alignment checked. Are joints in alignment? Are they moving? Is your tissue healthy? Are those muscles engaging and creating stability through movement? And if they are, great. And if they’re not, address them proactively so we’re not necessarily going in for pain, we’re going in for function.
If you are interested in speaking with Dr. Luke Stringer visit www.southloopchiropractor.com or call (312) 987-4878 to schedule an appointment.
Click here to receive more information & to schedule your consultation.
