Low Back Pain Upon Walking

As seen in the video above the Trendelenburg gait seems very exaggerated. When us healthcare practitioners look at a persons body we are often looking for subtleties that allow us to deduce the cause of the patients problem. This can present as a slight Trendelenburg gait, where the patient has a slight tilt of one or both hips as they walk. This can cause the shearing as mentioned above, which leads to low back pain while walking. It can also lead to ankle problems, knee problems and hip problems. As mentioned earlier these problems manifest over time as we walk every day and even slight variations can eventually lead to pain. 

While this is explanation someone simplified and does not take into account suprasegmental (brain) origins or pain and dysfunction it does offer insight into why you're suffering and allows us practitioners to explain to you how we intend to help manage your complaint. 

How can we help?

Our practitioners are trained in the management and treatment of low back pain. When one has low back pain upon walking it is very important that we access their walking gait as well as the muscles in their back, hips and legs to get a better understanding of why they are experiencing discomfort. If the problem is the gluteal musculature our practitioners will access the pelvis and hips and decide how best to find a solution. Often this begins with soft tissue massage and techniques to release tight muscles and allow freedom of movement in the area. This is followed by stretching techniques to be sure the individual in able to perform the correct walking gait without restrictions due to being inflexible.

Once this stage is complete we move onto activation of the gluteal muscles. What we mean by activation goes back to the old term "use it or lose it". Since we spend so long sitting these days- sitting at a desk, sitting in the car, sitting on the couch ect- we tend to use our gluteal muscles less that we have historically. Therefore we naturally develop the tendency to lose proper function of these muscles. Since this is the case we need to retrain the muscles to be used during the walking gait. It will be up to the practitioner to decide how to strengthen and activate these target muscles. One we do this is by using an exercise called the clam (https://corewalking.com/gluteus-medius-exercise-clam-shell/). The linked website walks you through how to perform the clam hold. We do recommend seeking a doctors approval before beginning any kind of physical exercise.