Low back pain is the second most common reason that people go to see physicians and it is a natural consequence of being a human. One of the things that happens over time is that people get into postural habits that can lead to poor biomechanics. Those poor biomechanics are what then lead to structural deficits.
Traditionally, when we focus on back pain, one concept people like to focus on is what the pain generator is; what structure in the back is affecting them? It can very commonly be things like lumbar discs. It can also be different joints in the back. I think the pain generator concept is useful, but I think it is even more useful getting into why do those pain generators get damaged in the first place. And the main reason is always going to be related to some type of postural problem, or biomechanical issue.
Even in people who have trauma, we may think trauma is what is causing it. But when a 20-year-old gets into a car accident, and a 45-year-old gets into a car accident, they sometimes respond differently. And it is sometimes a set up. I know from myself personally, I injured my back and it happened after a long plane ride. I was stuck in turbulence, couldn’t get out of my seat for six hours, and in the next day when I did weight training was when I felt my back have problems. So while the weight training I was doing that morning was an issue, I was really set up to have a back problem given the fact that I was having poor postural mechanics the day before.
It would be really helpful if you could have a little physician sitting on your shoulder reminding you ‘Hey, maintain your posture’ and that’s really what the philosophy is behind ActivAided.
One of the common patterns we see is that when people are sitting, they’re kind of slumped and they’re not activating any of their muscles. Where what we want to do is to have people curved in what we call maintaining lower lordosis, or maintaining the curvature of the back. Now this is something that is very hard to remember to do. I’ll often have patients sitting in the room and I will remind them a few times and as soon as I stop talking to them about it, they have to get another reminder. So it would be really helpful if you could have a little physician sitting on your shoulder reminding you “Hey, maintain your posture,” and that’s really what the philosophy is behind the ActivAided brace.