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Back Pain From Sitting All Day?

People frequently experience back pain and every so often they’ll interpret SI (sacroiliac) joint pain as well.

 

By: Coach LeighAnn Clark

You of course always have the option of seeing a chiropractor or an orthopedic to try to set yourself straight again, but nine times out of ten, back pain and “SI joint” pain, or perceived SI joint pain, is caused by other muscles that have been affected around the area of pain. A lot of times the symptom and the cause are actually not the same things. If we are experiencing pain in the back, it is likely another muscle or muscle group that is tight. A lot of times, the piriformis is the culprit of this pain. The piriformis attaches to the sacrum, and if the muscle is tight or overactive, it can pull on the sacrum and cause discomfort in the back and potentially on that SI joint. I’ll show you how to address this tightness in the following video.

Having said that, tightness or overactivity in the piriformis needs to be addressed on the opposite side of things too because something is causing this to happen. Typically the hip complex is the culprit. Tight hips can come from a myriad of lifestyle aspects, but most often hip tightness occurs in people who sit all day. If we think about what happens when we sit, the hip flexor is constantly in a shortened state because we are keeping the hip at a 90-degree angle instead of keeping it straight. This can cause the muscles to shorten, and they can actually start to pull on the pelvic bone, which can potentially tilt the pelvis forward so we wind up with this hyperextension in our back where it looks like we are sticking our butt way out behind us, putting undue tension on things like the piriformis, and ta-da! we have come full circle.

Bottom line, everything is attached, and we have to acknowledge this whenever we go to work on solving a problem because the pain we are feeling may not be residing where we think it is. We also have to acknowledge that one or more muscles need to be addressed to relieve our discomfort. Check out my video on how we can address our piriformis. If you’re curious about hip stretches, check out any of our previous hip mobility videos and stay tuned for even more!

Back Pain from Sitting All Day?

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