Here’s the short answer to why you keep getting back spasms. You keep doing activities that stress your back in a way that your body does not feel prepared to do.
Before I get into the meat and potatoes, I want to share a story of a client I was working with who had recurrent back spasms that were starting to affect his work and family life.
Recurring back spasms are really a pain in the… back.
I know this happens to many new parents, so read this article about how to bend over your crib and what you can do to reduce lower back pain from cropping up from this.
Why You Keep Getting Back Spasms
I’m going to share with you five different reasons you may be experiencing low back spasms that keep happening over and over again. This also applies to spasms of other muscle groups including your upper back.
Reason #1 You Keep Aggravating It Doing The Same Thing
If you read the story from above with Nic, he kept doing the same thing and then he kept aggravating.
He’d bend forward to pick up a case of water, or do a long case, or pick up a piece of furniture, and then experience that 10/10 twinge.
I always tell my patients, “identify if there is a pattern,” “If there is something that you do, a particular movement, or activity that after each time it causes the symptoms, we need to pay attention to that.”
Once you’ve identified the pattern, you can start implementing interventions to address it.
With back spasms there is almost always a pretty clear trigger.
It’s a little less so if you only have a sore low back which can sometimes come on gradually.
Reason #2 Your back muscles may not be strong enough or have enough endurance for the activities you are doing
I want to highlight that this is my opinion. When determining why something hurts, there is a lot of gray area as to the exact why.
And to be honest, I don’t know that we will ever get to a point to find the exact structure or molecule that is causing the pain in the majority of cases.
Maybe once we have technology that can assess in real-time and look into our DNA as we’re moving then we have a chance… but that’s probably 100s of years off, so until then, we are all guessing.
What I have found to be helpful for my clients who are struggling with this is to slowly and methodically working in exercises that build the strength and endurance of the lower back muscles (this applies to the upper back muscles too).
These exercises include bent-over rows, reverse flyes, deadlifts, goodmornings, and a variety of other types of exercises that will selectively strengthen the erector spinae muscle group and adjacent muscles.
I can think of 5 patients off the top of my head who benefitted dramatically from this approach.
Reason #3 Your back muscles are more sensitive to certain movements
Like we discussed above, if you keep having symptoms that go away and then come back a couple weeks or months later and you notice it’s after certain movements, you likely have some sensitivity to that motion.
It coule be from a previous injury, it could be that this has been happening so many times before that your body has created a feedback loop that’s not that helpful.
In any case, if this is happening, the same principles apply as I shared in reason #2.
Reason #4 You have an underlying medical condition that is causing it
While this is very rare, I have had patients who have had underlying medical conditions be the cause of their severe low back pain and spasms.
One of those reasons can be spinal cancer. Now, if you don’t have a history of cancer and there are movements or activities that make your symptoms better, there is a very high likelihood you do not have any form of cancer.
I needed to put this on this list though as it is a possibility.
I’ve had one patient in my career who was having severe spasms and it turned out he had an advanced form of leukemia with metastasis to the bone.
Again, probably not you, but just a heads up.
If you feel like there is something off and it’s not musculoskeletal, see your doctor.
Reason #5 Your medications
Medications are another reason why you might be having back spasms or cramping.
Certain medications have known side effects of cramping, which, can sometimes manifest in the lower back.
Usually cramping is in the legs or feet, but it’s worth noting that it could be the low back.
Make sure to double-check any new medications you’re taking.
Statins for example can cause myalgia or muscle pain in a small percentage of individuals. It’s important to know these things about your medications.
As suggested in reason #4, you’ll want to speak with your doctor about any side effects that your medication could have.
Treatment for Recurrent Back Spasms
I’m going to show you the destination first and then i’ll map out the path.
Here are the exercises I want people to be able to do if they keep getting back spasms from bending forwards, or backwards.
I’ve found that when I can get my patients doing these three exercises consistently and with minimal amounts of pain, they are usually able to most activities in their daily life.
These are the benchmarks I use.
Bent over rows
These are great, and all variations of them, because they really work on building back endurance when you do higher reps with them. It’s my hypothesis that if you have a job, are a parent to young kids, or you’re bending over often, that increasing low back muscle endurance is a good idea.
Deadlifts
These are great for another reason. If bent over rows are for endurance, deadlifts are for strength. This is a great way to teach your body how to lift heavier weights without fear and without pain.
Not everyone can start with these right away as they can be aggravating. However, some people start right away with them and everything feels better.
In any case, this is something that you will want to progress towards.
Supermans
I like supermans because they force you to get into a spinal extension position that can sometimes be uncomfortable.
This is a very functional movement too, especially if you are an active person. Even walking requires a small degree of spinal extension, which these help with.
Most importantly this teaches your erector spinae muscle groups to fire maximally or close to maximally and to tolerate it efficiently.
I don’t start people on these if they can’t tolerate it and there are many exercises to perform before this one.
What is the path to less recurrent low back spasms
Step 1
Identify which activities or movements are triggers to your symptoms.
Step 2
Choose weight or activities that are light and do not aggravate symptoms greater than they already are.
This step is important and where many people mess up. They keep doing the same things that continuously aggravate and make symptoms worse.
An important note; this step can take several months.
Step 3
Once you’ve found a routine that is working and is tolerable keep it going, be consistent, and increase intensity and volume over time.
An error that people make in this step is to increase intensity too quickly, or, they are not consistent.
If you’ve been doing something that is hard for greater than a couple months it’s easy to get burnt out.
This is why i’m not a fan of working hard. I’d rather work at an easy-moderate intensity level that I can sustain for a very long time as that will yield the best results.
For a bit more information on how to stop back spasms I’ve included this article you may want to check out.
Bonus step
This step is intertwined throughout the whole process. It involves identifying unhelpful beliefs, thought processes, and actions, and replacing them with healthier ones.
This is the part that most people struggle with. It’s hard to part with long-held beliefs, even if they are not true.
An awesome podcast if you’re interesting in learning how to do that, is “you are not so smart.” It’s very enjoyable and i’d highly recommend you check it out!!