What’s up folks, its Patrick Lerouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. I help the super athlete eliminate pain for the long term all through self-care, with the belief system that the body can heal anything. All we have to do is work at it! What we are going to talk about is the wide web of the back, back pain, and back fascia. Fascial units are starting to become more popular and be more understood. So today, I want to give you more clarity on the back fascia.
On a diagram of the back, displaying the fascia and muscles, you will see a white area on the bottom. This is called the back fascia which runs the length of the lat and binds to areas underneath that. If the majority of the lower back does not want to move, in other words you experience low back tightness, your lats and erectors will not work very well. Your glutes will also not work very well. All these different areas are going to start locking up. So we have to help you learn how to start getting this fascial unit to open. What I want you to notice is the lat that has a curvature and the way you stretch that particular muscle will be crucial to managing your back fascial pain.
So we have to get you to learn that the back fascia is widespread and as it spreads open, it stops you from moving. You can start foam rolling, doing trigger point work, stretching, or using heating pads to focus on clean movement. It is important to have the intention of looking at it and seeing the fascia open. There are so many muscles that interact with that back fascia that you can easily catch on the next tightest thing, yet you want to focus solely on that. So when you are on your back and foam rolling, your core needs to be completely aligned and you have to be off of your spine, slightly lateral. If you are on your spine, your body is going to protect itself from you and you won’t be making any improvements. Even if your core is tight and rolling softly and slowly, your body is still going to protect itself.
When you are doing your trigger point work, it is all about contractile, so you’re going to be hitting muscle tissue that is correlating with that. You have to get the muscle tissue to contract properly so you can get it to move.
The stretch will utilize the rotation of your back as well as your lat. Yet you need all three components for a muscle to work properly. You need it to move, contract, and communicate. If you only stretch, the muscle will never fully work properly because you are not working on the other two things. The way you are going to stretch your lat is in a seated position where your elbow needs to touch the opposite knee. First you will slightly twist your torso, then align your elbow with your knee as you extend your arm and very slowly go down until your elbow is touching your knee. You will start to feel the fascia in your lower back to open up. For the length of the back, you can hold a door jam and just sit down. Once you think about getting your butt to hit the floor that is when your lower back starts opening length-wise. This is going to be key because calf pain will start to diminish along with upper back and shoulder issues. So if you have any questions, don’t forget to email me. If you aren’t part of the newsletter, get on because I am giving pain-free solutions and loving every second of it! See you next time! Bye.