By Zev M.Cohen & M.D.Julie Donnelly, L.M.T.
Do you wake up in pain? When you are trying to get out of bed the pain in your back takes your breath away…you move slowly…you make it into the shower and let the hot water run on your back…and finally you’re “almost ok”. And it’s still early in the day! As the day goes on it seems to improve a bit, until you get into the car and drive home. By the time you try to get out of the car the pain is back with a vengeance. This time it doesn’t seem to get any better, and you eventually go to bed – to repeat the cycle tomorrow.
Many people go to their chiropractor and it feels better for awhile, but the pain keeps returning. There is a very logical reason that it comes back. I’ve mentioned this in past newsletters, but it is so important that I believe it deserves to be repeated.
These conditions can all be the end result of muscle spasms! While it seems incredible that a simple thing like a spasm can cause so much trouble, it’s easy to understand when you take a close look at the body. There are 600 muscles in the body and 206 bones. The only reason that bones move is because muscles pull on them (unless you have a traumatic accident), and therein lies the problem. The muscle originates at a stationary point in the body; it then crosses over a joint and inserts onto another bone. When a muscle contracts it pulls the insertion point toward the origination point, and the joint bends.
Although we are discussing the back, I will use the muscles of the upper arm to explain how muscles move joints. Then we will move to the back muscles and bones. The upper arm has two primary muscles, the biceps and triceps. They both start at the top of your arm, near the shoulder, the biceps in the front of your shoulder, and the triceps from the back of your shoulder. The biceps and triceps are responsible for bending the elbow. If your arm is straight out and you contract the biceps muscle the elbow begins to bend. At the same time, in order for the arm to completely bend, the triceps muscle must fully stretch. If you then want to straighten your arm again the triceps must contract and the biceps must fully stretch. If you try this, slowly, with your own arm you will understand the concept easily.
If, for example, the triceps muscle in the back of your arm is contracted and shortened by a spasm, you will only be able to bend your arm as far as the triceps will stretch. People think that the biceps aren’t strong enough, so they try to strengthen the biceps muscle. They try lifting weights and other activities that use strength to bend the elbow, and the elbow gets more painful. Many people then think that they have a problem with the elbow, while the problem is actually less serious than it appears. All that needs to be done is to stretch the opposing muscle – the triceps.
It is the same with the back. There are many muscles that move the back – that is the reason that we have such a variety of movements that are possible with the trunks of our bodies. When one muscle contracts and pulls on the bone, the opposing muscle must fully relax and stretch. If the relaxing muscle stays contracted the joint will not move. You will feel stiff, and you will feel the pain where the muscle is pulling on the bone. In future newsletters we will discuss the muscles that move the spine. However the muscle that causes the greatest pain in the low back is one that originates on the lumbar vertebra. The muscle is called the iliopsoas (psoas for short) and is pronounced “so-as”.
Restating from a previous newsletter, remember that muscles originate in one place, cross over the joint and then insert in another place. Muscles always pull on the insertion point. Now, visualize pulling your hair at the end. You don’t feel it at the end where you are pulling, but you do feel it on the scalp where it inserts. Likewise, you rarely feel the pain in the part of the muscle that is being pulled, but you do feel it at the insertion. Going back to the biceps and triceps, pain is often felt at the elbow (where both of these muscles insert) even though the spasm is actually further up the arm in the bulk of the muscle (called the muscle belly). Since the pain is at the elbow you think you have a condition of the elbow, but you actually have a muscle spasm in the top of your arm which is pulling at the elbow.
