What exactly is it when someone says they “threw out their back”? I’m so afraid of this bc I feel like once it happens, it keeps happening. Does the body give you a warning when this will happen that people end up avoiding or does it just happen all of a sudden? It always seems to happen with a very innocuous movement.
I’m convinced that the body tells you before most injuries except maybe very acute ones like an ACL tear when you do some aggressive lateral movement.
Guessing all these exercises would help with avoiding that. Do you suggest just incorporating all of these in a week?
I guess TLDR — how to avoid throwing out your back and will it keep happening if you do?
Great question! I explain this to patients all the time: "throwing out your back" is basically when your back muscles seize up/spasm and it causes severe acute back pain - often people feel they can't move or they need to be stuck in bed (which ironically is worse for the recovery).
It feels like it happens randomly out of nowhere - picking up a pen off the ground or twisting in a slightly weird way, often because people don't think about activating the right muscles for small movements like this, which is why I hear complaints from patients that they can squat and deadlift with no pain but then doing something minor causes their back to spasm. It's from muscle imbalances and asymmetries - your body can compensate for a while...until it can't. If you are very in tune with your body, you MAY feel a buildup of tension for a few days before the acute spasms, but you have to be paying close attention. If this keeps happening, it's a sign that one of these (or more commonly a combination) is majorly off: biomechanics, mobility, and core strength.
These exercises will help avoid since you'll be recruiting the right muscles when you move instead of overloading the back muscles (paraspinals). For strengthening I'd recommend 2-3 times a week max to allow your muscles recovery days (that's when the strength building actually happens), whereas mobility can be done as often as you like!
What exactly is it when someone says they “threw out their back”? I’m so afraid of this bc I feel like once it happens, it keeps happening. Does the body give you a warning when this will happen that people end up avoiding or does it just happen all of a sudden? It always seems to happen with a very innocuous movement.
I’m convinced that the body tells you before most injuries except maybe very acute ones like an ACL tear when you do some aggressive lateral movement.
Guessing all these exercises would help with avoiding that. Do you suggest just incorporating all of these in a week?
I guess TLDR — how to avoid throwing out your back and will it keep happening if you do?
Great question! I explain this to patients all the time: "throwing out your back" is basically when your back muscles seize up/spasm and it causes severe acute back pain - often people feel they can't move or they need to be stuck in bed (which ironically is worse for the recovery).
It feels like it happens randomly out of nowhere - picking up a pen off the ground or twisting in a slightly weird way, often because people don't think about activating the right muscles for small movements like this, which is why I hear complaints from patients that they can squat and deadlift with no pain but then doing something minor causes their back to spasm. It's from muscle imbalances and asymmetries - your body can compensate for a while...until it can't. If you are very in tune with your body, you MAY feel a buildup of tension for a few days before the acute spasms, but you have to be paying close attention. If this keeps happening, it's a sign that one of these (or more commonly a combination) is majorly off: biomechanics, mobility, and core strength.
These exercises will help avoid since you'll be recruiting the right muscles when you move instead of overloading the back muscles (paraspinals). For strengthening I'd recommend 2-3 times a week max to allow your muscles recovery days (that's when the strength building actually happens), whereas mobility can be done as often as you like!
Hope that helps!