Optimal Loading – Part 1

Current research suggests that there isn’t a proven connection between daily postures and risk of lower back pain (personally I think they’re asking the question in the wrong way).  However, given what we know about cumulative loading, and the experience of thousands of sufferers, it makes sense to optimise and vary your posture, thereby reducing strain on tissues, and reducing the risk of tissue failure and nociception.

In our own review of over a thousand lower back pain and sciatica sufferers, sitting is cited by 72% of them as aggravating their lower back pain, whether this is due to the way we sit or the fact that we do it for long periods repeatedly is unclear – or perhaps it’s because we become fearful of sitting and so we start to associate sitting with pain which is a never-ending loop.

So, at the very least, daily postures are aggravating factors preventing us from getting better, and maintaining painful experiences.  If you haven’t started on the foundation activities, now would be a good time. But remember, we don’t want anything to be off limits – the more you exclude activities, the more fearful that suggests you are, and the more that will increase the sensitivity of your nervous system, turning up the volume on your pain.

Click here for Lesson 14 in the online course for lower back pain and sciatica.

Click here for Lesson 16 in the online course for lower back pain and sciatica.