What Can Cause A Tight Lower Back
Sports injuries, overtraining, and accidents can cause your back to feel tight. Even everyday activities such as sitting can cause tightness.
Often you develop tightness in the lower back to compensate for an issue in another part of the body. Tight hamstrings and gluteus muscles can also contribute to this tightness. Having poor posture or using incorrect form while lifting weights or having weak core muscles can also play a part.
There are several other factors that can lead to or complicate a tight lower back. These include:
- sprains and strains
Youll typically see improvements within two to six weeks of doing daily exercises. You should see a doctor if:
- your pain doesnt improve within a few weeks
- you have intense pain while doing the exercises
- the pain spreads to your legs
Also see a doctor if you experience any numbness, swelling, or severe pain. Your doctor can help to determine if any pain or tightness is being caused by an underlying condition.
There are many lifestyle changes you can practice to help prevent lower back pain. Here are a few guidelines and tips:
- Adopt a balanced, healthy diet.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
Why Are My Back Muscles Always So Tight
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Diffuse Idiopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis
Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis is calcification or a bony hardening of ligaments in areas where they attach to the spine. Ligaments are supposed to be flexible, so DISH can cause symptoms such as pain, stiffness, and restricted movement.
You should visit your primary care physician who will be able to confirm the diagnosis with X-ray, and localize the problem to specific areas in your spine. This disease is managed with pain medication, physiotherapy, and, in rare cases, surgery.
Rarity: Rare
Top Symptoms: joint pain, upper back pain, stiff neck, stiff back, trouble swallowing
Urgency: Primary care doctor
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Lower Back Stretch: Plan A
If youre able to do so comfortably, you can also draw both knees toward your chest at once for a slightly deeper stretch.
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Why Do I Have Tight Muscles In My Legs And How Do I Ease It
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Date: 2022-02-23
Youâre in the middle of your training session and your clientâs leg muscles tighten up. Or maybe theyâve skipped their workout altogether. The tightness in their legs was just too much. Getting to the root cause of your clientâs leg muscle tension is critical to getting them in the gym. Easing the tightness is the next step. Letâs start with some of the reasons people experience tight leg muscles.
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Stretches To Help Alleviate A Tight Lower Back
Here are some simple exercises and stretches you can do to increase your back’s flexibility and loosen up lower back tension, from hips to hamstrings and more. It’s important to help straighten the hips and the spine, and strengthen the legs as well, so we’ve covered all the bases when it comes to tight lower back pain relief.
Dehydration And Shrinkage Of Your Spinal Discs
Your spinal discs are shock-absorbing pads between your vertebrae that distribute loads within your spine. Age-related changes can cause degeneration in these discs, altering their biomechanics.6Newell N, Little J, Christou A, Adams M, Adam C, Masouros S. Biomechanics of the human intervertebral disc: A review of testing techniques and results. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials. 2017 69:420-434. doi:10.1016/j.jmbbm.2017.01.037
When a disc degenerates, there is a breakdown in its fibrocartilage component, loss of water, and a decrease in its height. These changes can cause spinal stiffness, especially during bending movements.7Zirbel SA, Stolworthy DK, Howell LL, Bowden AE. Intervertebral disc degeneration alters lumbar spine segmental stiffness in all modes of loading under a compressive follower load. The Spine Journal. 2013 13:1134-1147. doi:10.1016/j.spinee.2013.02.010
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Strain And Improperly Healed Injury
Some people use their lower back far more than the rest of the populace. If you’re a mover or warehouse worker, you probably already know to wear a back brace and lift with your knees, but some injuries will surprise you regardless. If you’re a medic, rescue worker, or homecare nurse, you may be called on to lift another person out of a dangerous position . And what about athletes who have to quickly contort their bodies in reaction to the games they engage in? Some careers and activities make your lower back more susceptible to injury than others.
One tweak or muscle strain can linger if you don’t have time to rest the injury properly, and reinjury on top of that becomes more and more likely with each day. While not everyone can take the recommended time off to heal and rest, proper stretching can help a sprain heal faster and loosen the area so that reinjury is less likely to occur.
Dont Wait To Get Relief: Learn More About Your Chronic Back Pain Treatment Options
If you have chronic back pain, chances are youre experiencing more than aching discomfort.
Youre not able to pick up your kids or grandkids. Youre missing out on your favorite activities. Youre not living your best life. And an active physical therapy program can help you get you back to it.
To learn more about the TRIA Neck and Back Strengthening Program, schedule an in-person or video visit consultation.
Ready to heal your chronic back pain? Get started by scheduling a consultation appointment.
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Four Common Reasons For A Stiff Back
We live busy, active lives. In our average day we deal with stress and anxiety that can live in our muscles and make us feel tense. But when is a stiff back caused by an underlying condition beyond tension? Knowing some of the possible causes for back stiffness can help you and your doctor determine the best treatment for you.
While its true that sometimes back stiffness can be caused by a disc disorder, chronic condition, or aging process, the stiffness could also be rooted in a muscular issue that may not even be in your actual back. Here are some muscular conditions that may cause back stiffness:
Why Are My Muscles So Tight After Working Out
If you are struggling with muscle tightness after working out, it might be because of something called delayed onset muscle soreness . This typically happens about 24-72 hours later after exercising. Working out, especially when doing eccentric contractions , causes small ruptures within the muscle. If youre experiencing this, you may need to take a more gradual approach to increase the intensity of your workout. In other words, you might be lifting too much weight or working out harder than your body is used to, causing more soreness. The excellent news is that stretching, nutrition, hydration, and physical therapy can help with this type of soreness.
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Sitting With Your Spine Curved Forward
When you sit for a long time, the following changes occur in your spine:
- Increased pressure within each spinal segment3
- Reduced strength in the muscles of your upper and lower back3,4
- Decreased nutrient supply to the spinal tissues3
When you sit on the edge of your chair or hunch towards your computer, the strain on your spine is moreand can cause stiffness and pain.
See Identifying Incorrect Posture
A sedentary lifestyle can exacerbate these changes, causing spinal stiffness to develop within an hour of sitting.4
To avoid back stiffness, use an upright sitting posture. Roll your shoulders back with the ears over the shoulders and the upper arms parallel to your torso. While sitting in an office chair try to avoid constant use of the backrest and sit upright to activate your core muscles.
Tight Lower Back Symptoms
You may recognize a tight lower back by these tell-tale symptoms.
- Lower back pain
- Stiffness, tension, or a contracted sensation in the back
- A tightness in your hips, pelvis, or legs
Some soreness after working out or doing some heavy lifting is to be expected, but if the pain doesn’t subside after a few days, you may be looking at a more persistent injury that needs to be handled with care lest it gets worse.
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Tightness Elsewhere In The Body
Tight hamstrings, due to a sedentary lifestyle or poor stretching, can cause excessive spinal flexion when bending down. Excessive flexion from the spine can leave the lower back tense and sore.
Hip flexors allow you to walk, bend, and turn your hips. Tight tips can cause the tissues around the lumbar spine to become inflamed and tender.
Heat And Cold Therapy
For temporary relief from back pain, try using a heating pad or cold compress. Cold reduces inflammation and constricts blood flow, while heat relaxes muscles and dilates blood vessels. Both can treat back pain depending on the cause. A good rule of thumb to remember is that heat works best for soreness and cold works best for injuries.
TENS units like the Omron Avail can temporarily relieve chronic pain.
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How Can Tight Muscles Result In Back Pain
Tensing muscles are the bodys way to prevent further damage and signal to us that we should take steps to help these muscles loosen up. If the necessary precautions arent taken, the condition of these muscles can worsen and lead to more serious issues.
These issues can impact our ability to move and cause chronic pain throughout the body, including the lower back. Back muscle tension expresses itself throughout our lower body and can even impact the muscles of the pelvis, hips, and upper legs.
Often, tight lower back muscles come with a range of symptoms such as spasms, cramps, stiffness, and pain. These pains can range from constant, minor aches, to full-on incapacitating discomfort.
Tight back muscles can stem from a range of possible causal factors. Strenuous bouts of physical activity, dehydration, awkward posture, or a poor mattress can all impact how tight our lower back muscles are and may cause the symptoms mentioned above.
While it is normal to feel tension after such activities, if it does not subside within a few days, it is important to take precautionary measures to ensure good muscular health.
Forward Head And Neck
If youre wondering what muscles cause neck pain, these are some of the culprits. Forward head posture and shoulders rounded forward are common signs of this set of muscle imbalances.
For every inch your head moves forward out of alignment from your shoulders, your neck effectively carries an additional ten pounds of weight. Forward head and neck postural dysfunction is a frequent cause of neck and upper back pain, not to mention headaches, shoulder pain and more.
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Why Your Back Muscles Hurt
This may sound suspiciously like common sense, but your back muscles hurt when you pull them too far or place them under too much strain.
But contrary to common misperception, the underlying cause of this back muscle pain is not poor posture, how much you exercise or even your genetic history.
Instead, poor posture can be strong evidence of the real cause. Exercise of the wrong kind can make it worse . And the good news is you can do something about this underlying cause of back pain regardless of your genetics.
The root cause of virtually all non-trauma related back muscle pain and a major contributor to many back conditions like herniated discs are muscle imbalances.
One way to visualize muscle imbalances and how they cause back pain is to think of your car. If the wheels are out of alignment, the tires will wear unevenly, making them more susceptible to an early blowout.
Imbalanced muscles do the same thing to your back. Muscle pain results when one muscle or group of muscles overpowers an opposing set of muscles that get stretched out of shape.
And heres the kicker many of the muscles affecting your back pain arent in your back!
For example, sitting all day long leads to weak abs, glutes, and hamstrings which go unused much of the day. In the meanwhile, your hip flexors, quadriceps and lumbar muscles remain tight to keep you in an upright position.
This video explains how muscle imbalances affect your pain, and how to fix them.
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Tight Leg Musclesa Perpetuating Factor For Lower Back Pain
Tight leg muscles not only contribute to the onset of back pain but can be a powerful perpetuating factor.
When the long muscles of the legs the hamstrings, the adductors, the quadriceps, and the hip flexors are tight and short the result can be to fix the pelvis in place rather than allowing freedom of movement.
This can exert significant pressure on the lower back resulting in lower back pain.
For example, if your hamstrings are short and chronically tight, your pelvis can become fixed in a posterior rotation. This will tend to decrease the natural lordotic curve of your lumbar spine.
When you bend forward at the waist, your lower back will be forced to absorb the work of bending. Instead of the pivot of rotation being at your hip joints, it will move up to the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebra. This puts a heavy asymmetrical load on the lumbars.
The anterior portion of the intervertebral disc gets squashed, while the posterior portion gets overly stretched. Over time, the disc can become weakened, eventually resulting in herniation.
A simple program of stretches for the hamstrings and the other long leg muscles performed at night before going to bed, and then again in the morning upon waking, can go a long way to relieving lower back pain in many individuals.
In addition, a simple set of stretches for the lower back, done in combination with stretches for the legs, can prove even more effective.
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Common Causes Of Stiff Back And How To Get Relief
80% of the population will experience a back problem at some point in their lives. Low back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the Global Burden of Disease 2010. Fortunately, most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic, meaning they are not caused by serious conditions, such as inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture, or cancer. There are many who have pulled a back muscle in their lifetime by simply doing a daily activity. The back is a complicated structure of bones, joints, ligaments, and muscles. You can sprain ligaments, strain muscles, rupture discs, compress nerves, and irritate joints all of which can lead to back pain. While sports injuries or accidents can cause back pain, sometimes the simplest of movements can have painful results. In addition, risk factors such as arthritis, poor posture, sleeping position, obesity, and psychological stress can cause or complicate back pain.
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Causes Of A Tight Lower Back
Sports injuries, overtraining, and accidents can make your back feel tight. Even day-to-day tasks such as sitting can cause tightness.
You also experience tightness in the lower back to compensate for a problem in another part of the body. Strong hamstrings and gluteal muscles can also contribute to this tightness.
Having poor posture or improper shape when lifting weights or having weak core muscles may also play a role.
Many other factors may lead to or complicate a tight lower back. These include the following sprains and strains, prolonged sitting times, ruptured disks, and obesity.
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Tight Lower Back Discomfort: What Causes It Plus 10 Stretches To Relieve Low Back Pain
Having a tight lower back isn’t just a matter of discomfort: if your muscles are tensed and kinked, it means they aren’t working properly to keep your bones and balance in line. Not only does alleviating lower back tension help increase your comfort, but it can also help prevent debilitating back injuries before they occur. Read on to find out what causes tightness in your lower back, plus 10 safe lower back stretches you can utilize to ease the tension and find pain relief.
Stiff Lower Back: Causes And Treatments
Dr. Bhavik Sheth, PT, DPT, CSCS, SFMA
Dr. Bhavik Sheth, PT, DPT, CSCS, SFMA is a physical therapist and the co-founder of the Elite Movement Initiative, a physical therapy group. He earned his D
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Amid our busy, active lives, most adults experience a stiff lower back at some point. In fact, a 2017 study found that about one-quarter of US adults experienced lower back pain at least once in the last three months. Plus, low back pain is one of the most common reasons for a doctors visit in the US.
Lower back pain ranges from acute to chronic, meaning it can last less than 4 weeks or sometimes up to 12 weeks. Chronic pain is often associated with arthritis and gradually becomes worse over time. Acute back pain lasts for a shorter period of time and is typically a result of strain or trauma to the area, which can cause the muscles in the back to seize up and spasm. In both cases, lower back tightness limits mobility and causes debilitating pain.
Throughout this article, we outline some of the most common causes of lower back stiffness and simple ways you can find relief. We also highlight some more serious symptoms associated with low back pain and suggest when it is best to seek medical attention.
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