Lower Back Injuries - the Cause

We have explored how our spinal-core complex acts as the foundation for all movement. When core muscles fail to properly stabilise the spine, performance and function suffer across every measure.

Building on this, we’ll now examine how poor core control can lead to the most common source of disability worldwide – lower back disorders. Illuminating the chain reaction from core weakness to injury can inspire us to rebuild this vital movement skill.

Introduction

When we fail to coordinate our spinal-core, my performance declines and we lose functional abilities - efficiency and ease of movement are the first casualties.

I previously shared five ways the core supports the spine through movement.

Without the system of core muscles, our spine cannot even bear its own weight. Moreover, the other four functions we discussed rely on and are an extension of, the load-bearing ability of my spine.

Thus, all our spine abilities crumble under a lack of core authority.

A spine which is unsupported or inappropriately supported by its core will buckle under load, at one or more of its joints.

Buckling Joints

The spine is composed of vertebrae, between our vertebrae are mobile joints made of intervertebral discs and ligaments.

On its own, the spine is an unstable stack of bones, held together from completely falling apart by a family of incredibly strong connective tissues (the discs and ligaments).

These connective tissues perform specific roles, based on their specific design. They are not active structures and cannot respond or adapt to movement activity.

If a spine, naked of its muscles, were stood upright with only its connective tissue to support it, it would flop over, like a noodle, until the collective limits of the connective tissues were reached.

These limits are the primary function of the connective tissues - allowing enough space for our movement, but forming a hard barrier or container. These structural tissues do not play much of a role in our movement beyond limiting it.

The discs or designed to act as hydraulic cushions to allow and withstand compressive forces, and the ligaments keep our bones’ fixed to one another, fixed enough to preserve their movement functions.

The spine itself has 24 joints allowing movement across 3 curvatures, curvatures which allow the spine to respond like a shock absorber, among other things. The complex of muscles which form our spine-supporting core, operate like a guide-wire system, stabilising and distributing load in many directions.

Within the limits set by the bony structures and connective tissues, our muscles are responsible for moving and stabilising the positions of our spine.

The design of our core musculature also distributes spinal loads in many directions and across many structures.

However, when this intricate system of muscles does not operate properly, usually because of poor coordination, the spine will buckle to its connective tissue limits, at one or more of its joints.

Stress Concentrations

When the muscles do not make an adequate or appropriate contribution, the spinal joints will collapse from a position within an optimal range to a position at the end of its range.

The result of this buckling is a transfer of load from the global core system to a local connective tissue, from distributed to concentrated, from dissipated to amplified.

You may think that the discs must bear some compressive load either way - whether the spine is being supported by muscles or not.

True, but their load bearing changes dramatically between mid-range and end-range spinal positions.

Discs have a gel-cushion center within a fibrous ring. In mid-range, load compresses the cushion and is redirected outwards into the fibrous ring.

Near end-range, load bypasses the cushion, acting directly on the ring, compressing the ring on the shortened side of the joint, stretching the ring on the lengthened side of the joint.

The fibrous ring is designed to withstand humungous horizontal loads from the cushion within it, but not the direct compressive or tensile loads from above and below.

Fortunately, these connective tissues are extremely resilient, right? Well, kind of. They are resilient enough for a few lifetimes, if used as they were intended.

But, if we stress them in inefficient ways, then they may only withstand the first several thousand insults - but not year after year for decades with no opportunity to recover.

Repetitive Stress

Remember, our spine is at the centre of all of our movement. And the main movement function of the spine is to bear load - it is expected to bear load all the time. Any bad habit our spine has when bearing load will be triggered continuously. It is the repetitiveness of stressors on specific spinal tissues that pose the real threat.

Professor Stuart McGill likens the breakdown of lower back structures to the common method of breaking a paper clip - you stand no chance trying to snap a fresh clip, but bend it back and forth enough times and it basically snaps on its own.

Our spinal connective tissues are extremely tough, and rightly so, they hold together our most important insides - so strong that the forces necessary to injure a healthy spine must equal those seen in car accidents or falling from a few stories high. Extremely tough.

However, with enough patience, even the steady flow of water can mold a rock. The steady and accumulating effect of repetitive stress can eventually wreak havoc on the most resilient structures.

The relentless onslaught of microtrauma, with little to no break to recover and heal, primes our spines for drama. So no, it’s not the final straw that breaks the camel’s back, it’s all the straws together. It’s not that 200kg deadlift or sneeze that ‘bursts discs’ in our backs, it’s all the reps over all the years, together.

One of the most important contributions of Professor Stuart McGill’s research on lower back disorders is this fact that, it is the accumulative insult which produces the structural breakdown of spinal structures, not one-off events.

Lower Back Disorders

We have now looked at the link between a lack of core coordination and spinal injuries. We have also discussed the central role of our spine in our movement. Thus, it is clear that poor core coordination leads to spinal injury by continuously stressing spinal structures in inefficient ways.

Thus, we have traversed the terrain from one extreme to the other. We have unpacked how our spinal-core is the single largest opportunity for us to upgrade all our movement. Now, we have made the connection between poor core development and the worlds most prevalent and debilitating injuries.

What we have not yet looked at, is why so many of us have such poor core coordination.

This will be where our journey takes us next.

If you want to get started with my protocols to prevent back pain and restore spinal performance, head over to craigvan.com/kinetickeystone .