Steve Lockhart

Back Pain & Sciatica - Feeling The Pain

Most pain is felt in the joints or the point where a muscle attaches to the bone. With the back for example, although the upper back is by no means excluded, it is the lower joints that seem to be much more susceptible to pain because this is the centre of our core.

Most pain is felt in the joints or the point where a muscle attaches to the bone. With the back for example, although the upper back is by no means excluded, it is the lower joints that seem to be much more susceptible to pain because this is the centre of our core.

The joints are the one place where an imbalance can manifest because they can be put out of alignment with a tilt or twist. What happens to the nerve, ligament, a muscle or disc as a result of that joint moving, is the back pain or sciatica you normally feel.

If the muscles that set up the imbalances (usually the deeper structural muscles) are worked on correctly, the pressure that causes the twist, tilt or tightness is released, along with the pain.

Using a 'hands on' form of bodywork is the most effective way of identifying and correcting these problem muscles but finding someone who can do that job quickly and effectively, at a reasonable cost is probably the most difficult part. The cheaper alternative is using specific self treatment techniques to target the right muscles, with a rubber or tennis ball, enough times so that the changes they produce start to hold.

When a back develops problems it is not normally something that has just happened but rather the result of a build up of tension and muscle problems over time. It tends to involve the whole body eventually and therefore requires a holistic approach and treating the whole body to get a lasting cure. This is especially true when dealing with conditions like back pain and sciatica.

Due to the repetitive nature of bodywork and the fact that the basic anatomy of the body never changes, a therapist is constantly learning how every different type of body feels, whether it be strong, healthy, weak, stressed, young or old. Believe it or not you can even get a clue to what a person eats and their personality from the feel of their tissue.

Any therapist who doesn’t get their hands onto the muscles and body regularly, which is most of them including, doctors, physiotherapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, Pilates or yoga instructors and personal trainers etc, is severely handicapped right from the start when it comes to successfully treating back pain or sciatica. There is no way, without the vital information you get from the feel of the body, they could confidently develop a treatment plan that best approaches a particular person’s back pain or sciatica. Even diagnosing it accurately without feeling the muscles would be extremely difficult.

Working with my hands on the body has taught me things I have never seen in the text books, just as it has taught me that some things I have seen in books are not correct. As most text books are written by academics with science backgrounds that doesn’t surprise me, but it is also bad news for the poor sciatica or back pain sufferer who is looking for a cure, or the therapist who’s looking to learn the right way to deliver that cure.

Part of my training included learning the points in the body that stimulate and revitalise weak flaccid muscles so that they start to function properly again. Plus the way to work to release built up tension or stress by helping the muscles to completely let go, in contrast to relaxing them which is only a temporary change.

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