Excess Weight and Back Pain
There are obviously many health problems associated with being over-weight and one is definitely back pain. Excess weight, especially if it around the abdomen will strain your back muscles and ligaments which in turn causes pain. One of the first solutions to curing your back pain is weight loss.
Correct posture ensures that the chest is out, the chin is slightly up, your abdomen is drawn in with a gentle curve in the lower back. This curvature in the lower back is designed to keep your hips straight. If you’re carrying excess weight it stands to reason that every part of your body becomes heavier and it is your spine that bears the burden of that weight.
Over time if left unchecked you upper spine will lose the ability to straighten out correctly and you will start to develop an unnatural curvature. This will force your head out over your chest instead of it being upright between the shoulder blades and your neck will continually be in a bent forward position. This will ultimately stress the cervical and thoracic region of your spine causing neck and shoulder issues and possibly TMJ dysfunction.
Unfortunately because this process happens over time, you may not even notice until you find yourself in a doctor’s office and you are looking at your X-rays.
If your weight gain falls specifically in your abdomen then you will be plagued with lower back pain. Excess weight in the abdomen forces your pelvis to slant forward due to the tremendous strain that this weight causes. Once the pelvis is pulled to the front then your lower back has to follow deepening the curve of the lumbar region of your spine. The graceful arch in a normal lower back becomes more rounded, which ultimately increases the pressure on the nerves, your lower back will feel tight and stiff and over time may lead to bulging discs and herniation to the lumbar vertebrae, then you really are in pain!
A normal back arches up from your pelvis and back, surrounding your vital organs, before curving inward again to your neck and extending up to your head, right between your shoulders. It’s balanced and structured to provide many years of pain-free support.
However, once your back is pulled out of it’s natural alignment due to weight gain, your muscles, ligaments and bones have to work even harder to carry the weight. They simply aren’t in the position they were designed to be and therefore muscles start losing their ability to function as nature intended, doing jobs that they weren’t intended to do and at this point even if the weight is lost the affected muscles will need a whole new muscular re-education. Let’s take a tennis racket as an example, if I pulled all the strings out of their original alignment I would still be able to hit the tennis ball but the racket would not work as it was designed to work and therefore it certainly wouldn’t be as efficient or accurate………. Let’s face it I wouldn’t be winning Wimbledon any time soon!!!!!
Your spine is no different, it will function but as a result of the excess weight, nerves exiting your spinal column will become constricted or a disc will bulge or herniate, and you will experience back pain.
The above processes will not happen all at once, but if you are overweight, it will happen eventually. It’s just a matter of time.
If you would be interested in a natural and proactive way to manage your back pain take a look at my Ultimate Back Pain Relief Program by clicking LEARN MORE