📍 Rehab N Run Physiotherapy | Liverpool, Sydney NSW
📸 @abdullaphysio | 🌐 rehabnrun.com.au | 📞 0430 425 374
🚨 Most people treat the wrong thing. Lower back pain has at least 5 distinct causes, each with a different fix. Guessing is why it keeps coming back.
| Type | Where it hurts | Key signs |
|---|---|---|
| 💪 Muscle strain | Across the lower back, both sides | Stiff in the morning, eases with movement |
| 💿 Disc injury | Central or one-sided, deep ache | Worse sitting, better walking |
| ⚡ Nerve / sciatica | Shoots into glute, leg, or foot | Tingling, numbness, sharp electric pain |
| 🔩 Facet joint | One-sided, stiff and achy | Worse rotating or bending backward |
| 🦴 SI joint | One-sided, near the tailbone | Worse standing on one leg, stiff in morning |
Keep moving, gently. Bed rest makes it worse. Short walks, avoid provocative positions. Heat for muscle and joint pain, ice for acute nerve flare.
Spinal mobility work. Core activation (not crunches). Hip flexor and glute strengthening. Find your pain-free range and work from there.
Progressive loading through hinge, squat, and carry patterns. Deadlifts done correctly are therapy for the lower back, not a cause of injury.
Return to sport, running, or heavy lifting. Address the movement pattern that caused the original injury to prevent recurrence.