Today I will tell you about the pain associated with the lumbar spine.
Shortcuts:
- What could be causing back pain?
- What are the symptoms of a sick lumbar spine?
- How long can pain in the lumbar spine last?
- In what position to sleep when the lumbar spine hurts?
- Exercises for a sore back.
You can view the full article on back pain in the lumbar region in the video below.
What could be causing back pain?
When thinking about the causes of pain in the lumbar spine, it should be mentioned that these causes are divided into sudden, dynamic and static causes.
Sudden back pain.
The most common sudden causes, in fact, relate to the so-called protuberance, the disc. disc causes, where the disc protrusion presses on the nerve root and it causes pain in this pressure area or according to the course of a given nerve. Most often we meet patients who tell us about a situation where they bent down to pick something up, where they twisted their torso and stayed in this position, unable to get out of the situation. These are disk causes, sudden, acute.
Acute pain in the spine.

Another cause of acute pain in the lumbar spine may be blockage of the unovertebral joints. It is then a sharp pain, as if someone stuck a pin in our back or a knife. The pain is local, it does not radiate, and that is how we can distinguish between this and the disc’s cause.
Back pain – sedentary work.
Another cause of pain in the lumbar region is static overload. It is most often associated with a static lifestyle, sedentary work and little sports activity. Then there is tension in the lumbar region. I am thinking of tense muscles and the so-called peculiar-lumbar fascia. This causes stiffness and pain, most often at the end of the day.
What are the symptoms of a sick lumbar spine?
Back pain after sleeping.
Disc-type ailments are most severe, usually in the morning, depending on how these symptoms, our pain ailments, appeared. This is what we will do to heal it.
Sudden back pain after bending down.
If we think about such sudden ailments that appeared during an activity, for example a tilt, we should seek contact with an osteopath or physiotherapist. These are people qualified in such a way as to help us in this emergency.
A sore back while sitting.
If our ailments are of a static nature, with the nature of such static overload, we should think about activity and appropriate exercises. Of course, our muscles are also tense then, we have a taut thoracic-lumbar fascia, and this is a situation in which, of course, an osteopath and a physiotherapist are able to help us. They will propose appropriate manual therapy, but also, of course, exercises that will enable us to avoid recurring ailments in the future.

If we are talking about ailments in the lumbar spine, these symptoms can be different, because we can actually ache in a sharp, stinging way in the lumbar spine. This pain can also radiate, for example, down the leg or into the buttock.
Sitting work and back pain.
But if we are talking about symptoms resulting from such a static overload, resulting from too much muscle tension in the lumbar section and from the tension of the thoracic-lumbar fascia, then our ailments will appear, rather at the end of the day, i.e. after this static muscle overload, after how we sat at work, after we sat in the car again on our way home. And at home we sat on the armchair again. There is actually this inactivity, the fact that our muscles are tense in a similar way for a long time, keeping us sitting is the pain trigger.
How long can pain in the lumbar spine last?
The most common patients of our clinic are people with disc pain. There are by far the most of such cases. Symptoms resulting from such static overload of the lumbar region are usually long-term and chronic. They appear as long as the pectoral-lumbar fascia and the muscles in the lumbar region regain their elasticity, are not adequately supplied with blood, and are not really stretched. Here, a classic method of treating this type of ailments will certainly include an element of exercise.
Hernia of the spine.
If we are talking about the duration of pain in the lumbar region. This is where it actually depends on the level of damage, on the level of the displacement of the bulge in our disc hernia.

If we think about what this pain looks like, in fact, the greater the bulge we have, the greater our protuberance, the more it presses on the nerve root, the greater these ailments and most often radiate along the lower limb, i.e. along the leg. Now, the greater the pressure, the pressure on the nerve, the lower these symptoms are, i.e. in the patient undergoing treatment, if we observe that he has pain along his leg up to the heel, but after the therapy he comes and says that he still hurts, but this pain ends in the middle of the thigh, I no longer feel these ailments around the knee, calf area, and also the heels. We then say that this condition improves because there is a so-called centralization of symptoms. The treatment time depends on the level of disc damage, the level of bulging and pressure on the nerve root.
Effect of exercise on pain in sitting work.
If we are talking about the duration of the ailments, about the nature of such a stable overload. Actually, the duration depends to a large extent on the patient, because if the patient comes to see a physiotherapist or an osteopath and they work on the muscle tension, on the tension of the thoracic-lumbar fascia, then if the patient performs the appropriate number of exercises at home recommended by this specialist. It is actually within a few days that he is able to get rid of his pain ailments.
Long-lasting back pain.
If we are talking about such an acute disc, in fact, the ailments can last up to several months if it is not treated properly. After visiting a physiotherapist, an osteopath, the patient should feel the progress in this treatment, so it should be better. After one, two or three visits, the patient should notice the effects. In addition, the exercises that he gets home should maintain these effects, and thanks to this the patient should move forward in his pain, these ailments should be reduced.

In what position to sleep when the lumbar spine hurts?
An important aspect in the case of such disc-type ailments is the sleeping position. Some of our patients, arriving at the control visit, tell us that there was an improvement after the visit, but when the patient woke up in the morning, he felt pain in the lumbar spine again or radiating pain to the leg. And now we know that this sleep position needs to be modified in some way.
The patient receives information on how to arrange himself in order to relieve this area as much as possible, to really help reduce this bulging and help, so to speak, his back to get out of this painful situation.
Lying on the stomach.
In the case of disc protrusion, we often use lying on the stomach, on a pillow, in such a way that the patient bends the lumbar section, opens the back part of the spine a bit so that such a disc protrusion has a chance to decrease.
Sleeping position.
Thinking about the pain caused by such a protrusion, we usually recommend that the patient lie down, sleep, on a non-painful side or on the stomach. These are positions of a certain relief, supporting the treatment, accelerating the reduction of this disc herniation.
Exercises for a sore back.
Exercise is an important element of treatment in the case of disc-like ailments and in the case of static-overload ailments. The patient also shows a certain commitment to make these ailments go away.
In the next material. We will show you exercises for patients with acute disc pain, but also for patients suffering from pain in the nature of static overload.