The Lumbar Spine: Poor Communication Equals Poor Spine

 
 

By Michael Rizk, CPT, ART  
 
Have you ever witnessed a relationship gone sour? The telltale signs are significant, but many  
times the root cause stems from poor communication. There is one particular area of the body  
that seems to get more press than a short‐lived Hollywood hook‐up. You’ve got it – the lumbar  
spine (LS) is likely the most injured, dysfunctional, and (supposedly) weakest link of the body.    
  In relation to the rest of the body, the LS is active in nearly every functional task performed … it  
resides at the crossroads of the body. For that reason, it is important for the rest of the body to  
communicate with the low back to let it know how important it is, how much it is needed, and  
how much it is appreciated for all it does.    
  What is meant by communication with the LS? Great question! Communication refers to the  
ability of all our joints to feed triplane motion to the LS creating triplane stability. A lack of  
triplane  mostability  (mobility  plus  stability)  can  shut  down  the  phone  lines  feeding  
proprioceptively rich information to the LS, thus creating undesirable chain reactions.  
  By design, the LS facilitates flexion and extension, allows lateral flexion, and almost inhibits  
transverse plane motion. The small amount of transverse plane motion may in fact be the most  
important motion allowing the LS to be the transverse plane transmitter of forces between the  
upper and lower extremities.   
  To simplify motion, we consider two phases: loading and unloading. Loading is the preparation  
of the task and unloading is the performance of the task. Using the golf swing as an example,  
the backswing is the load and the downswing / follow through is the unload. The moment of  
time between the load and unload is what we call the transformational zone (TZ). The TZ is  
where  motion  is  decelerated  and  transformed  into  a  concentric  production  of  force.  
Understanding what happens just as we enter and exit the TZ will allow us to effectively assess  
our patients and clients.  
  I  recently  assessed  a  57‐year‐young  right‐handed  golfer  with  [...]

The Hip: Power Source, Biggest Rock, Best Friend

 By Barbara Fuller PT, FAFS
The late-seventyish woman looked at me with a bit of skepticism mixed with a little fear. After I introduced myself to her she said, “Before we start, I want you to know that I would like for you to address my low back pain, but I don’t want you [...]

The Lumbar Spine: Unfairly Accused

 
Not that it could ever happen, but if given the opportunity to defend a body part in a court of law, without question I would choose to defend the lumbar spine. With mind boggling statistics such as 80% of all human beings will experience low back pain at some time during their life and that [...]

The Hips: The Monster Under the Bed

 
 
A few weeks ago, my six-year-old nephew was sleeping over at our house. I was awaken in the middle of the night by him exclaiming, “Uncle Joe, there’s a monster underneath my bed!” I went into his room and said, “Be nice to him and he’ll be your best friend. Give him a pop tart or [...]

More Tight Hip Flexor Compensations

In the previous hip flexor post we talked about how the tight hip flexor inhibits the gluteus maximus and increased lumbar extension and hamstring activity to compensate.  There are also several other compensatory problems that occur from the tight hip flexor.  Remember that most people have tight hip flexors due to sitting, driving, sleeping in [...]

The Real Life Function of the Hamstring

Most anatomy classes teach that the hamstrings flex the knee.  Based on this many people train and strengthen the hamstrings using a leg curl machine either sitting or laying on their stomach.  If we stop and look at the body function in various activity you will see that rarely ever are people sitting or laying [...]

Get Your Butt To “Bark”!

OK, since I enjoy talking about function and biomechanics lets talk about how to turn on your butt!  Thought that might get someones attention.  Any way, the Gluteal/hip/ butt muscles are the “powerhouse” muscles.  We call them the big house or the cannon.  The first thing to do before “shooting” the cannon is to “load” [...]

What They Fail to Teach You in Anatomy

Posterior Tibialis: Attaches proximally to post aspect of tibia and distally attaches to almost everything under the foot (cuboid, navicular, cuneiforms).  During pronation (loading phase) it eccentrically controls tibial advancement in the sagittal plane(SP), tibial internal rotation in the transverse plane(TP) and eccentrically controls lateral to medial loading of the foot in the frontal plane(FP).
Soleus: [...]

Oh, My Aching Back!

Many people are plagued by low back pain (LBP). It ranges from severe pain and disability to general achiness and stiffness. Many (not all) of today’s problems can be linked to one simple fact—we sit too much! In fact, technology has created a society that you don’t even have to move to be part of. [...]