Low Back Pain

With costs close to £6 billion/year low back pain (LBP) is becoming an increasing epidemic problem that will effect up to 80% of the population at some point in their lives.

Back Facts:

• Most LBP is not due to serious disease, pain does not equal damage;
• LBP usually improves within a few days/weeks
• The majority of LBP will re-occur within 2 years but this does not mean it is serious;
• Rarely do people actually have a slipped disc or trapped nerve, often it gets better with time and physio, and very few actually require surgery;
• X-rays and MRI scans can only detect serious spinal injury and often do not tell you the cause of the pain;
• Degeneration of the spine is not arthritis but normal changes with wear or age, like grey hair;
  Bed rest is BAD: Bed rest for more than 1-2 days actually prolongs pain and disability, stiffens the joints, weakens the muscles, and reduces fitness.
• Activity is GOOD: Best recovery is with those people who return to gentle activity and work sooner rather than later.

Spinal instability is an inability of your spine to maintain a neutral joint position mid way between flexion and extension, causing 1 joint to do too much movement resulting in overuse and pain. Research shows that this is becoming a major cause of LBP!! The abdominal and paraspinal muscles are designed to prevent this overuse or instability of the spine. However, subjects with LBP have significant delays in the recruitment and co-contraction of these core muscle groups.

The Back Stability Class is a Pilates based exercise class that is designed to improve the recruitment of these core abdominal muscles, running for an hour for 3 consecutive weeks, 2-3 people in the class and is covered by insurance.

If you have LBP and have tried many alternatives we highly recommend you give this a try. We have been having some brilliant results at significantly reducing chronic LBP pain levels and improving long term function.