Lumbar Strain
If you fall into the 80 percent of the population that regularly suffers from back pain, take heart: One-third of aches due to a strain or a sprain improve in a week without medical intervention (the remainder may take up to eight weeks) - Jeannette Moninger
HWN Suggests
The Most Common Causes of Back Pain—Plus, How to Ease Your Aches ASAP
It began as a twinge. Then the pain started to radiate down my back when I biked. Bothersome became dangerous when it hurt to turn my head; do not try cycling with impaired neck mobility. I wondered: "Why does my back hurt?" Yet, I saw no reason to modify my fitness routine. I pedaled. I kickboxed. I lifted weights. And after about three weeks, I paid the price. One sleepless night, pain that felt like a knife in my back pinned me to the couch.
Featured
How Much Work Can the Back Do Without Strain?
About 80% of American adults complain of back pain and it is one of the most common reasons for calling in sick to work. Some $50 billion is spent on back-pain care in the U.S. each year. Still, it is difficult to know when we’re putting too much strain on the complicated mass of bones, nerves, muscles, joints and ligaments. One expert, Kee Kim, chief of spinal neurosurgery at University of California, Davis, explains what the back is capable of and how posture and core strength play a part in its job.
Articles of Interest
Is It a Lumbar Sprain or Herniated Disc? How Do I Know?
Back sprains are usually relegated to the back area, meaning they don’t cause pain elsewhere in the body. The pain also tends to lessen when bending forward and return when straightening from a forward bend. Herniated discs usually cause pain down the leg, and tend to hurt with any back movement. That said, it’s possible for a back sprain to hurt with any back movement as well. It’s simply not as common. Herniated discs don’t always cause pain, either.
Lumbar Strain
Lumbar strain is a stretching injury to muscles, ligaments, and tendons in the low back. It is characterized by non-radiating low back pain associated with a mechanical stress or creating an abnormal position that puts the muscle beyond its limit.
Lumbar Strain: A Different Kind of Back Pain
Some activity you’ve engaged in, whether it’s sports, a hobby, or your work, has stretched those muscles too far, to the point that they now may have tears in them. They now can’t hold your spinal column in place as they should. No wonder your back is hurting.
Lumbar Strain: Acute Versus Chronic Lower Back Pain
Before we go too much further into identifying different types of lower back pain, we need to have a good grasp of lumbar strain. Lumbar strain is muscle damage or injury to the lower back. Lumbar strain can be acute (sudden) or chronic (lingering), like most muscle injuries. Muscle spasms are one of the many symptoms of a lumbar strain.
Resources
Physiopedia
Mechanical back strain is a subtype of back pain where the aetiology is the spine, intervertebral discs, or the surrounding soft tissues. Lumbar strain accounts for 70% of mechanical low back pain.
StatPearls
Mechanical back strain is a prevalent disease in the medical field. Most patients who develop a mechanical back strain have a benign course; however, some will continue to have chronic, disabling symptoms. While evaluation and management are usually conservative for mechanical back strains, healthcare providers must differentiate between other causes of back pain and be aware of when to search for the other life-threatening etiologies.
