Cause of Low Back Pain

Most low back pain originates in the soft tissues.It makes sense to begin with the least risky, least invasive treatment available, then escalate if necessary. And that treatment is medical massage therapy. If it isn’t effective, the other treatments are still available. But if it is effective, a lot of time and pain and risk and money have been saved. Low back pain caused by soft-tissue problems is likely to originate in one (or more) of three different locations:

1) Quadratus lumborum and its neighbors. Quadratus lumborum is the muscle between the bottom rib and the top of the pelvis; it is a key muscle in coordinating upper and lower body movements. It is a deep muscle, and is situated underneath (deep to) the lumbar paraspinal muscles. If there are problems in quadratus lumborum, there are also likely to be problems in those thick muscles near the surface on either side of the spine. In addition, muscle problems are invariably accompanied by connective tissue problems. This area, unprotected as it is by any skeletal structures, is thick with connective tissue: the thoracolumbar fascia, the gluteal aponeurosis, and other tough connective tissue cover and surround these muscles.

2) The buttock muscles. These include the three gluteal muscles (gluteus maximus, medius and minimus), and the deep lateral rotators of the hip, especially piriformis.

3) Iliopsoas. This is the primary hip flexor (its chief assistant being rectus femoris), running down through the abdominal cavity and the groin to the lesser trochanter. But its origins, meaning in this case its anchor points, are the inner surface of the ilium (iliacus muscle) and the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae — which means that every lifting of the leg pulls on the pelvis and the lumbar spine.

Certainly other muscles can and do get into the low back pain act, but these three muscle groups, all very heavily involved in the day-to-day demands we make on our bodies, are the chief sources. Careful examination by a skilled and knowledgeable clinical massage therapist can find the trouble spots, and appropriate treatment can yield relief that many people had despaired of finding.