When it comes to treating lower back pain, most of the medical community misses the mark. The crux of the problem is that Western medicine focuses on reducing inflammation and treating the symptoms. While this is very important, going in surgically to change the architecture of your body without addressing the root cause is not. The goal of surgery should be of last resort to take pressure off the lumbar spine. If a nerve is pinched or there is too much arthritis and the joints keep flaring up they fix the spine in position with plates. The problem with this approach is that the root cause of the dysfunction is still there… chronic muscle tension in the prime movers such as the hamstrings, hip flexors and glutes control the pelvis, which puts pressure on the spine. Often this approach results in subsequent surgeries down the line.
Alternatives to Surgery
While surgery may be necessary in a some cases, it is a very aggressive way to approach treating lower back pain. A natural intervention can, and should, be tried first. You can use flexibility, specifically resistance stretching, or DCT. These methods can be used to address the tension that has created the pressure in your spine. First you need to understand why traditional therapeutic approaches don’t get after the heart of the problem. Resistance stretching uses a muscle contraction. The contraction changes the natural resting length of a muscle. As a result changing your strength throughout a full range of motion in the muscles that are attaching to the spine itself.
There is one muscle in particular that DCT will show you how to identify, feel working, and then release using an eccentric contraction, also known in weight lifting as a negative repetition. That is the Psoas. The Psoas muscle is the only muscle in the human body that actually attaches to the front of your lumbar spine, that’s your lower back. It follows right down the front of your hip and attaches to the lower body by way of the back of your leg, at the Lesser Trochanter of the Femur.
Psoas is Key
The Psoas is the only muscle that connects the lower body to the spine or torso. That means that the psoas has a huge effect on the mobility of your spine. Imagine if I had a rope that went from my legs to my spine and was shortening. Then it kept shortening and shortening some more. Ultimately, it is going to pull me forward into an arch position and hold me there.
Then every time I move, I would move as though that part of . This causes a lot of force and stress compressing the spine. Creating wear and tear across the joints. If the Psoas were actually working properly you wouldn’t have that problem.
Fix it, Don’t Cover it Up
The DCT courses are unique in that we try and find the root of the problem. Then we correct that. As oppose to just doing palliative care or inflammation reducing techniques by themselves to get you out of pain. When treating lower back pain, the goal is not to just get out of pain. With back pain, it’s to actually change your posture and use techniques to mitigate pulling tension. In doing so you can not only get over this one injury, this one acute stage of pain in your back, but you can avoid getting another injury in the future.
We are very careful with how we educate you throughout the process with DCT. We want you to understand which muscles are the problem for you. A lot of times therapy techniques are very much that the therapist is going to work ON you. You are supposed to feel better by just receiving that work . In DCT, we involve our patients or clients in the process of learning how to help themselves and how to participate during a DCT exercise, especially when treating lower back pain. Making it not only more effective, but when it comes time to learn how to do these exercises on your own, you’re in a better spot to learn. Thus you are able to help yourself without constantly relying on a practitioner. To me, that’s the most important thing about DCT when compared to other techniques out there.
