(Colm Campbell – Founder of the Back Shop)
(The following may be somewhat repetitious, however, it is extremely important that you understand what causes back pain.)
I would guess that only a very small percentage of people are aware of the cause of back pain. I continually preach, “If you don’t know what causes back pain; you don’t know how to prevent it. Knowing what causes back pain gives you the information to do so.”
The spine is a vertical flexible column and a superb piece of electrical and mechanical engineering. However, it wasn’t designed for sitting (for extended periods) when it collapses from the vertical ‘S’ shape, into a forward ‘C’ shape. this creates huge pressure in the discs causing them to progressively swell backward and eventually touch a nearby nerve root.
A simple experiment to illustrate: Bend a wooden ruler or a ballpoint pen. This causes huge stress in the object, causing it to spring back when the stress is relieved. Similar stress occurs in the spine when you sit in ‘C’ shape.
The Structure of the Spine.
Very simply the spine consists of 24 bones (vertebrae) stacked one on top of the other and decreasing in size from the bottom (lumbar) to top (cervical). They are held together by the Disc Complex, which consists of (1) tight vertical layers of a tough fibrous flexible material known as the Annular Ligament. (2) Wrapped inside is the nucleus pulposus (the so-called Disc) which makes contact with the bottom and top of adjoining vertebrae and has a similar consistency to porridge. Bending the spine into a forward ‘C’ position in bad posture creates great pressure in the disc eventually stretching the annular ligament causing it to bulge, touch a nearby nerve root, and pain ensues.
“Touching a nerve causes back pain… breaking contact eliminates it.” Colm Campbell, 2016.
I will now attempt to draw a simple picture of what happens when a spine slumps into a forward ‘C’ position in bad posture. This will allow you to visualize exactly what is happening when you sit and how to prevent/eliminate pain. The hope is that when you sit, the primitive experiment below and its simplicity will flash across your mind and be a reminder to sit correctly.
The following experiment gives a picture of exactly how this occurs.
