Let’s face it, back pain affects almost everyone at one time or another. There are very few adults that can say they have never had pain of any kind in their back. This is true for a couple of reasons. First, your back is a complicated anatomical structure, housing your spine, discs, spinal cord and nerve branches, ligaments, tendons and muscles—any of which can have issues that can cause you pain, especially as you age. Second, your back is an important part of your core and is the foundation for everything else in your body. For example, nerve pain as far away as your hands or feet is often coming from a problem in your spine. Didn’t engage your legs when lifting that heavy box? Your back took the brunt of the lift and is going to be telling you about it with pain in muscles you didn’t even know you had.
While there are many structures that can cause pain in your back, your muscles are often the source of some of the worst pain, and can be the culprit with pain that takes you to your knees or leaves you unable to get up out of bed. There’s a good reason for that. When you’ve overdone it with yard work or pulled a muscle twisting and reaching for that thing on the high shelf, your back has a mechanism to protect you from causing further injury. It’s called a muscle spasm, which is a strong and involuntary contraction of one or more muscles. And anyone who has ever had back muscle spasms will tell you that it’s excruciatingly painful. It can feel like a nonstop muscle cramp or sharp pain that kicks in every time you move. Muscle spasms are your body’s way of making sure you’re done overdoing it for a while.
Your back has layers of muscles – from deep to superficial with a layer in between. All of your back muscles work together to support not only the movement in your spine and back, but also your limbs. There’s a great deal of information available about keeping your core abdominal muscles strong as a way to avoid back pain. While this is true, there are also muscles located in your back that when weak or strained, can be a source of back pain. They are:
- Your quadratus lumborum, a deep muscle found between the bottom of your ribs in the back and your pelvis. Pain from this muscle is worse bending from side to side and may feel like a kidney-related issue.
- Your iliacus and psoas muscles. These two together are called the iliopsoas muscle, which runs from the top of your thigh bone and attaches to the inside of your pelvis and the lower vertebrae. Running from front to back and deep, it’s often hard to put your finger on when this muscle is causing back pain, but when strained, it often produces deep lower back pain.
- Your gluteal muscles. These butt muscles are the largest in your body and are composed of three layers. Your glutes are in play with every step you take, as well as everything else you do. Gluteal pain often begins in your buttocks, lower back or the side of your butt. Tight or spasming glutes can also compress your sciatic nerve which can cause pain that radiates down the back or side of your leg.
- Your multifidus muscles run the entire length of your spine at the deepest layer, providing stability to your back. Pain in these muscles will show up along your spine.
In addition to these common offenders, there are also a number of other muscles that can be injured, strained or go into spasm. A muscle strain is caused by overuse or trauma that causes a muscle to be pulled beyond its normal range.
Treating Muscular Back Pain with Acupuncture
When it comes to relieving muscular back pain, many people have turned to acupuncture and found it to be an incredibly effective treatment. In fact, acupuncture is well-known for successfully treating back pain, and research supports this. That’s because acupuncture works in a number of ways:
- It decreases inflammation
- Acupuncture increases the flow of blood and healing nutrients in the area being treated
- It ramps up the circulation of neurotransmitters in your body that relieve pain and produce a calming sense of well-being
- Acupuncture can also help relax tight and spasming muscles. Through a technique called trigger point acupuncture, your acupuncturist can target and release tight and painful points in these muscles, helping them to calm down, and relieving painful spasms.
- Acupuncture treatments may be enhanced through the use of heat therapy to calm muscle pain, as well as other therapies, such as cupping or a kind of bodywork called TuiNa.
There’s no doubt that strained, injured or spasming back muscles can cause pain severe enough to disrupt your life. However, acupuncture offers a safe, natural and drug-free way to effectively relieve your pain. If you’re suffering from back pain and want more information about how acupuncture can help you, give our clinic a call.
Cindy Chamberlain is an acupuncturist in Overland Park, KS and the founder of Eastern Healing Solutions, LLC. She is licensed in Kansas and Missouri and has been practicing traditional Chinese medicine since 1996.
