80% of adults experience low back pain sometime in their lives.
According to physical therapist, Dr. Tim Sobie, the most common treatments include prescription medicines, chiropractic treatments, or physical therapy with a focus on what is called “core stabilization.”
The “theory” behind core stabilization is that if you focus on strengthening your deep trunk muscles, you will be able to utilize your “core” more, and put less strain on your back.
But Dr. Sobie says that more often than not, these exercises don’t work because they are “one size fits all.” Each person’s history and reason for low back pain come from a unique set of variables.
He explains that these “core stabilization” exercises are designed to assume a “specific correction” for an assumed “specific cause.”
He goes on to say that “statistics have shown that 9 out of ten people who experience back pain never find out the primary cause of their back pain, despite going to from doctor to doctor, and getting varied opinions, while also getting various treatments. Among these opinions, the idea of ‘deficient core strength’ remains most common.”
But, strengthening the core muscles does not mean you can use them efficiently.
In fact, over strengthening the muscles of the abdomen can actually have negative consequences if the muscles don’t “know” how to coordinate with the rest of a persons’ body.
I experienced this myself as a 6-day/week vigorous yoga practitioner with a 6-pack that was basically useless in terms of functionality.
It’s the relationship of all of the muscles together that allows us to function efficiently and without pain, not the strength of one muscle or muscle group.
Muscles need to move and bend, and be flexible, and this can’t happen when one muscle group is in a tense and contracted state.
When we get into the habit of over-contracting in one area like the abdomen, it interferes with our true, coordinated strength.
Simply strengthening abdominal muscles will not improve motor skills.
The Brain is the control center of muscular tension
The brain will always find a way for a person to be functional.
If someone has had an injury, then the brain goes to work to create homeostasis throughout the entire person, including the musculoskeletal system. We adapt to these compensation patterns and they feel “normal” to us. As time goes on, these compensation patterns begin to cause discomfort.
What is needed at this point — when there’s discomfort in the form of chronic muscle tension or pain — is a way to reorganize from unhealthy unconscious muscle contraction patterns to new, healthier muscular patterns.
Feldenkrais is a method to reorganize neuromuscular patterns— or release the unconsciously held muscular contractions that the brain has put in place to stabilize an entire person when it perceived instability.
“If you’re looking for a viable alternative to core stabilization, a recent clinical study by my research facility has shed light on perhaps a more effective option: The Feldenkrais Method®,” writes Dr. Sobie.
“Our study’s results revealed that a novel eight-week Feldenkrais Method-based treatment approach demonstrated greater effectiveness across all relevant outcome measures for:
1. decreasing pain,
2. decreasing perceived disability,
3. increasing function, and
4. increasing endurance”
In conclusion, the accepted common treatments for back pain include strengthening the core. We, as a society, seem to blindly accept this view. But upon looking more closely, a “strong core” may not deserve as much merit as it’s been given across the board. Muscle tension and pain is a symptom of overall imbalance in the system and the brain — the controller of the entire body — is the link to the source of this tension.
If you’d like to experience for yourself how it feels to release muscle tension and improve flexibility in your spine effortlessly, gently, and quickly, I invite you to try this audio lesson. All you need is a chair with a firm surface, and minimal distractions. You’ll be twisting and turning effortlessly, without using your muscles, in 15 minutes or less.
Source: https://www.feldenkraisguild.com/article_content.asp?edition=§ion=&article=478&page=2#comments