Hospital for Special Surgery and WPM Editors

How Common Is Low Back Pain?

By: Hospital for Special Surgery

Two out of every three adults suffer from low back pain at some time. Back pain is the #2 reason adults visit a doctor, and the #1 reason for orthopedic visits. It keeps people home from work and interferes with routine daily activities, recreation, and exercise. The good news is that for 9 out of 10 patients with low back pain, the pain is acute, meaning it is short-term and goes away within a few days or weeks. There are cases of low back pain, however, that take much longer to improve, and some that need evaluation for a possible cause other than muscle strain or arthritis.

Symptoms may range from muscle ache to shooting or stabbing pain, limited flexibility and/or range of motion, or an inability to stand straight.

What do about it?

Assuming your medical practitioner and/or care provider has approved you for therapeutic exercise, flexibility should be an important part of your program. Most often pain in the lower back, especially chronic lower back pain classified as more than 90 days, is coming from the area above or below your area of discomfort. Developing flexibility in your middle back and hips is paramount for alleviating undue stress on the lower back.

For your viewing and therapeutic pleasure, PDI Director William Smith has assembled a flexibility circuit addressing the hips, middle back, and other important areas. Please click on the link below…Have Fun, Train Smart!

Best,

Will

Resources:

Flexibility Circuit by William J. Smith

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnC3iKzx30g

Full Link: Hospital for Special Surgery

http://www.hss.edu/conditions_14134.asp