Spine Mobility

Spine Blog Post

Do you feel stiff when waking up, while working or at the end of the day? Does it feel like you might soon injure your spine?

This might be because your spine is not experiencing the movement at each vertebral level it requires. At Northern Sydney Rehab, we use current evidence-based literature and assessment tools to accurately diagnose and treat. 

To understand the complexity of the spine, it can be simplified into a group of regions working together to help achieve complex movements. Your spine, also known as the vertebral column is made up of 5 regions:

1. Cervical (neck)
2. Thoracic (connects to your rib cage)
3. Lumbar (Lower back)
4. Sacral
5. Coccyx (Tail Bone)

It is in our spine that the sophisticated movement we take for granted each day initiaes. Each vertebra within each spine region listed above works together to create movements like bending forward, crouching down, twisting and extending back while completing activities of daily living and any leisure or sports-related movements.  

When the spine does not experience movement at each of these regions for prolonged periods (for example when sitting for long periods while working at a desk) it begins to stiffen up, causing other spinal regions to overwork or compensate for the lack of movement at another spinal region. 

This results in certain overlying muscles becoming:

•  Overactive as they stay in a shortened position around the compensating spinal regions.
•  Other muscles that are less frequently used over time become weak and eventually experience atrophy (wasting away). 

Eventually, this causes symptoms such as aching and sometimes sharp pain around your spine both while moving or at rest. This is negative in both the short and long as it may eventually lead to injuries such as low-grade muscle tears or more serious injuries such as disc bulges as excessive stress are placed on certain regions of the spine (for example when lifting heavy objects). 

If you are experiencing back pain or suspect that this might be what is causing your back pain, come see our qualified and highly experienced Physiotherapist at Northern Sydney Rehab. They will conduct a thorough assessment to diagnose you accurately and use current evidence-based treatment to improve your spine mobility and return to your normal activities of daily living. 

– Aatthitthan Velauthapillai 

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