1. Poor Soft Tissue Quality: Your soft tissue is comprised of your muscle, tendons, ligaments and other connective tissue (including your skin.) In many people, the soft tissue is just a mess. Much of it is full of knots, adhesions, contractures, scar tissue and other restrictive mechanisms. In turn, these things can cause pain, loss of function, poor movement patterns, muscular weakness and a few other negative consequences. It is imperative that you clear up these restrictions as best as you can through quality, targeted soft tissue work. This can be in the form of frequent deep tissue massages, foam rolling, trigger point therapy, and some other outstanding modalities. My choice is a good foam roller. It is cheap and you can do it yourself and basically do your entire body with one. A few days of good foam rolling and much of your pain will disappear.
2. You are full of major imbalances – Most of us (me included) have major muscular imbalances throughout our entire body. What is worse, is we tend to add to these imbalances on a daily basis. We do this without knowing better in most cases, but in some incidences, we should know better. For example, many people hit the gym and perform exercises that only “add” to the imbalances going on. An example of this is how many guys like to perform numerous sets of bench press variations, and a bunch of other “chest” exercises. In reality, most of these guys should be focusing on the opposite instead. More ‘pulling’ and less pushing. Performing lopsided training programs causes joint and muscle problems and will cause a lot of chronic pain throughout the day. Balance your programs.
3. You have too many “bad habits.” – Habits are the things we do each day, without thinking too much about them. From the way we sit at our desks, perform exercises in the gym, or our horrible postures…these are all bad physical habits that will lead to knots, spasms, imbalances, pain and years of problems. Analyze your movement patterns. Become aware of how you sit, and how your posture is day to day. A lot of low back pain can be caused by poor postural patterns throughout the day. Clean these up and pain will start to disappear. Even the way we sit in front of the computer can cause a lot of pain and problems. Since many people are in front of a computer all day long its imperative that you teach yourself how to sit, and how to operate the computer without causing more problems. Make sure the computer screen is centered and not off to the side. This will help with neck problems. Take breaks, walk around and stretch. Make sure your chair height is correct and you are not straining to see the screen. Remember not to twist and reach. This is a major low back “no no.” Instead, turn your entire body and center yourself before your reach for something.
4. Your major joints are either too tight or too loose- Its amazes people when I do an assessment on them and tell them that their joints are a mess and because of this, a lot of the pain and problems they are having in other areas of their body can be blamed on these imbalances. For example, many people have tight ankles. This can cause issues in the knees, which in turn will cause issues in the hip…which will cause problems in the low back. We are all a very intricate chain. When one area is messed up, it will affect other areas. Clean up one area, and the other areas start to work better and feel better. Here is a quick guide:
- Ankles need to be mobile and not tight. In many people it is the opposite.
- Knees need to be tight and stable, not loose
- Hips need mobility. However, most people I assess have very tight hips
- Low Back should be stable not weak.
- Upper back needs more mobility. Again, most people have no mobility in their upper backs.
- Shoulders should be stable, not loose
5. No “Active Recovery” – What is active recovery? Active recovery is when we make a conscious decision to implement recovery into our daily lives. We do this by incorporating movements that will aide in recovery, pain management and needed rest. Most people skip right over this. Over time, no recovery equals pain and problems. Stretching, foam rolling, walking, yoga, etc…are all forms of active recovery. It is just as important as cardio, and strength training. It needs to be planned into your fitness program. By doing this, you will take care of a lot of the soft tissue problems and imbalances that we already covered. Make active recovery part of your routine and your pain will go away.
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