Recovery from back pain Case Study

A lovely lady in her 60s called me with acute lower back pain. It hurt whenever she moved especially bending forward, getting up from sitting, and sitting for any length of time.  She attributed her pain to having gained weight during the pandemic from little or no exercise and her previous job of lifting and carrying children and equipment. She also had a car accident in her 20s which likely precipitated the problem.

The first assessment evaluated her standing posture and observed squat and slight forward bending in a way that did not aggravate the pain.  It was found that she had a number of twists, shifts and compressions in her body which are terms describing mal-alignment mainly in her neck, ribs, pelvis, hips and knees.  The twisting in her pelvis in standing, during forward bending and squat was obviously causing the back pain. Her knee cap was not centered. It was pulled to the outside by tight outer thigh muscles.  When corrected, this appeared to straighten out the pelvis and improve other areas of her body.