How To Reduce Back Pain When Running
Are you struggling with regular hip and pack pain with running? You are not alone. This is a common stubborn issue that many runners cannot find relief from.
Back pain is the most common orthopedic musculoskeletal impairment treated in western medicine and is the most expensive medical cost to society. While most low back pain is non-specific and non-malignant and will resolve on its own and has a favorable prognosis, about 20% becomes chronic. If you are struggling with back pain, it is important to see an orthopedic physical therapist for evaluation if symptoms do not resolve spontaneously within a week for best prognosis.
What is a Common Source of Hip & Back Pain?
One common source of back pain in runners is a tight iliacus muscle, which is one of the deepest hip flexors in the pelvis. The iliacus muscle flexes and internally rotates the femur or thigh bone, bringing it up and down when you run. This muscle can get tight with repetitive hip flexing such as running and cycling , and even from prolonged static positions such as sitting, driving, or sitting at a desk.
A tight iliacus muscle can limit a runner’s stride by decreasing the hip extension (when your following leg goes back). This can lead to hip or neck pain if there isn’t enough flexibility of this muscle to eccentricity load against gravity or lengthening. Decreased hip extension is a common cause of low back pain in runners, particularly older male runners.
When a runner has limited illiacus or other hip flexor length, they may compensate with a hopping type gait or shorter stride length. When the hip can’t extend well, then the lumbar spine often bears the load or increased extension.
Another common running gait compensation with tight illiacus and or other hip flexors includes increased forward trunk lean in an attempt to offload the length to the tight hip flexion and relieve excessive extension load to the lumbar spine.
All of these compensations can lead to back pain when running.
How to Eliminate Back Pain with Running
In term of back pain with running, it is it’s usually form related with various underlying musculoskeletal impairments contributing to the altered kinematics (running form). These impairments must be identified and addressed for that runner in order to develop a specific plan of care including:
Corrective exercises
Running form drills
Possible manual therapy
One tool that can help with your back pain when running is a hip hook, which releases the illiacus muscle and thus increasing hip extension and stride length running. This tool can be particularly important for master level runners. It was cleverly designed by a physical therapist to specifically target the illiacus based off of the expertise physical therapists have on anatomy, biomechanics, osteology, and kinesiology. To learn more and save 10% off a purchase of this tool click here.
Running is the highest demand and load a person can put on their body, so it will let you know if something is off. It’s time to stop ignoring your bodies subtle alerts and wake up calls. It will only improve your running. Contact Oregon Running Clinic today for a running form evaluation that will help you discover the source of your back pain when running.