The #1 Thing to AVOID If You Have Sciatica, Back Pain, or Herniated Discs

Back pain is so common and so unrelenting that for many it’s akin to that pushy old “friend” who comes knocking on your door just a little too often, and at the most inopportune times. You try to ignore it at first, but, try as you may, its persistence gets the better of you.

Have you ever wondered why back pain is so common?

Our bodies have evolved, after all, to support our upright walking and our ability to run, and bend, and lift objects. Our backs, too, should be able to bear the burdens put upon them by our everyday lives, right?

Yes … and no.

If you were to spend your day the way nature intended you to – walking, bending, staying active and doing so in the correct posture – your back would most likely be in stellar health, with the only exception being an unexpected injury or accident. But most people do not live this way. We sit for extraordinarily long periods, often while hunched over in front of a computer or crammed behind the steering wheel of our cars. We neglect to get regular physical activity, the very thing that will help to strengthen and tone our core muscles, which are there, in part, to take some of the burden off of your spine.

Some of us do stay active, but often this is from manual labor at work, which involves repetitive lifting, pulling or pushing of heavy equipment, which your back is not designed for. Or, we push ourselves too hard, running 26-mile marathons or cycling for hours. Again, your back is not cut out for this, especially if it’s something you decide to do on a whim! Many are also overweight or obese, adding stress and strain to your spinal column so that when you go to pick up your toddler or stretch to clean your tall bay window, something in your back cracks and the pain begins (or returns).

What do all of these unnatural (but nonetheless widespread) circumstances have in common?

They cause or worsen muscle imbalances, and that, my friends, is the cause of an array of conditions commonly associated with lower back pain (herniated disc, sciatica and more). Physical dysfunctions develop over time and are the direct result of imbalances between various muscle groups, i.e. “muscle imbalances.” Your body is then forced to work each day with this dysfunction and eventually this creates a condition, like a herniated disc for example.

Here’s the thing …

Research suggests that in up to 85 percent of cases, lower back pain is not attributable to a specific disease (such as cancer) or spinal abnormality.[i] The truth is, it usually doesn’t matter if the pain in your back is from a herniated disc, sciatica (which often occurs when a herniated disc presses on your sciatic nerve), or the far more common “unspecified” lower back pain. This is all irrelevant because the causesand, as a result, the treatments are the same for virtually every type of back pain there is.

So, if you have back pain, sciatica or a herniated disc, the number one thing to avoid is … muscle imbalances! What causes muscle imbalances? The aforementioned lifestyle factors, things like:

• Lack of exercise
• Overweight or obesity
• Poor posture
• Sitting for too long (such as working a desk job or a long commute)
• Standing on your feet for too long
• Repetitive lifting, pulling or pushing

In an ideal world, you would simply avoid these strains and stresses to your back, your muscles would stay in harmonic balance, and you would be pain free.

In reality, doing so requires commitment (in the case of exercise or maintaining proper posture) and in some cases, such as sitting for hours or lifting while on the job, may not be easily avoidable.

This is where Muscle Balance Therapy, which can help generate balance and stability in your pelvis and spine, and minimize excessive wear and tear of the disc and other joints of your spine, can be invaluable.

Ultimately, though, if you have pain it’s important to recognize that this is your body’s way of alerting you to a problem that needs to be fixed …  and the solution starts at the foundational level with your original muscle imbalances.

With the Lose the Back Pain System, you’ll first identify the causes of your dysfunctions and imbalances, then implement proven strategies to help reduce and manage your pain so you can focus on correcting the dysfunction(s) that are responsible for your pain. Finally, you will work on treating the causes, which are the dysfunctions and the muscle imbalances that created it, and also implementing additional treatments and strategies that are specific to the condition you may have been diagnosed with.

Over 64,000 people have used the Lose the Back Pain System to get relief from back pain, sciatica and herniated discs, and improve their health and well-being. Pleasetake a minute to learn more now and start your journey to correcting your underlying muscle imbalances and becoming pain free…