Ankles and Low Back Pain

Low back pain is 0% fun. Some might say 0% is actually being generous. A stat thrown around from time to time is that 80% of people will experience low back pain at some point in their life, but I'll be the first to tell you that when low back pain shows up, you couldn't care less about anything else. There is no sympathy for anyone else, because the pain can be debilitating. With 80% of people dealing with low back pain at some point in their life, you would think a simple economic theory would apply here: supply and demand. There is plenty of supply (the actual pain) and a huge demand (need for effective treatment) to warrant a bunch of really smart people to figure out how to fix it. However, low back pain continues to be a mystery to practitioners everywhere.

What I'd like to do over the next couple of weeks is pose a joint by joint approach to low back pain, because I am a firm believer that low back pain is the final straw in the cycle, and something else is the actual problem. Someone doesn't just wake up with low back pain that hangs around for 20 years because they slept in a strange position. Today, I want to focus on the ankle and how the mobility of the ankle can lead to movement patterns that can lead to a manifestation of low back pain. This is outside of the box thinking, because how exactly does a bum ankle cause your back to hurt? We'll get there, just hang with me.

A rolled ankle is a fairly common condition that happens to the vast majority of people at one time, or another. It can occur while playing basketball and landing on another player's foot, or it can occur simply by stepping of a curb. The point is, ankle sprains are very common and are often treated with ice, an ankle brace, and maybe some Tylenol. After the pain is gone, the issue seems to be clear. But, what you lose when your ankle is injured is range of motion. The body doesn't want the ankle to flex and extend like it did before the sprain because it hurts. We're programmed to avoid pain, and this situation is no different. When an injury occurs, the body floods the injured area with blood and an inflammatory response occurs. Pain is the result, and we do everything in our power to keep the pain at bay by not moving the area unless absolutely necessary. And when we do move it, we move it just enough to accomplish our goal, whether that be walking, running, or driving a car. When the pain subsides, our brain is re-programmed in the 'new' range of motion we created during the injury, and if not rehabilitated, we lose a little bit of the motion we had pre-injury. Now compound that with the concept that a previous injury is the greatest predictor of a future injury, and we're talking a bunch of ankle sprains adding up to a significant loss of motion in the ankle.

So what does that have to do with low back pain? Think about bending down to pick up a box or walking up a flight of stairs. What do they have in common? Your ankle is very much involved in both of these actions. If your ankle doesn't move well, the motion is going to come from another area of the body...maybe the knee, the hip, or the low back. Over time, the area doing extra work can just get tired of having to pull all the extra weight, and pain can surface. Your ankles are the foundation to all of your movement that involves the lower body, so it would be a smart thing to make sure both have equal range of motion. Have a look at these two pictures:



Clearly, the right ankle is more mobile than the left ankle. This patient has dealt with low back for about 12 years, and has a history of multiple left ankle sprains. Over time, you can see the accumulation of injuries to the left ankle have decreased the ability to flex significantly when compared to the right ankle. This patient also has a lateral shift to the right when doing a squat pattern, which in all likelihood is a result of the inability to move through the left ankle.

Think about all of the motions that require the ankle to flex and extend. Every time you walk, the ankle has to move. If it doesn't move well, some other joint or muscle is going to work that much harder to accomplish what you are doing. Again, this can lead to pain and dysfunction popping up in areas that, on the surface, don't appear to be related at all.




To check your ankle mobility, you can do the exact same thing as you see in the pictures, or measure four inches off the base of a wall. Get in the same position you see in the pictures above, place your big toe on the 4" mark and try to bend your knee forward while keeping your heel on the floor. Being able to touch the wall with the knee AND keeping the heel on the floor indicates good ankle mobility. If you're not quite there yet, there are plenty of resources to help you with it, and I will be putting together a youtube channel in the coming weeks to provide mobility help for all of those tight and painful areas of your body.

The take home message is that pain is a crazy thing, and can manifest in an area simply because another area doesn't function properly. If you're struggling with pain, I would love to help you get to the bottom of it.

Email me with any questions, and thanks for reading!
activechiromadison@gmail.com
www.actmadison.com
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Eating Humble Pie

What is your biggest fear? Snakes? Heights? Your in-laws?

For a ton of people, public speaking tops the list of biggest fears. Fortunately for me, I have always liked public speaking. My hands get a little clammy before delivering my message but overall, I enjoy educating people and speaking to small/medium sized groups is a great way to do that. Recently I began the process of becoming an SFMA instructor, and a speaking course through Thomas Plummer is one of the requirements to be considered for instructor status. After a lot of schedule balancing, I took the leap and attended a course in Rhode Island this past weekend.

Thom is a legend in the fitness world. He has spent over 30 years in the fitness business, providing consulting for gym owners and speaking all over the world on the ins and outs of the business. Before the course, I didn't know much about Thom which was probably a good thing, otherwise it would have been like playing basketball in front of Michael Jordan. 

Public speaking for me has always been one of those things I liked, but didn't really have any method for doing it. I had an idea of what I was going to talk about, stood up and spoke, said 'thank you', and hoped for applause. What I learned this past weekend was a speech is crafted over time and requires a lot of thought and practice to be effective. It's not some 'written at 3 am' term paper you put together and smile when the B+ comes back across your desk a week later. How many times have you listened to someone speak and thought, "this guy doesn't know what the hell he's talking about"? If you have, you've witnessed and ineffective and poorly designed speech.

So after a short intro presentation by Thom, we jumped in the deep end. I'll save you the blood and guts, but let's just say I learned things about my voice and appearance that I had never considered. I learned that facial hair is a no-no and that I need to lose some weight. I learned how my movement affects the crowd and how increasing or decreasing my voice speed can cause the crowd to come with me, or turn and run. But the biggest thing I learned had very little to do with the mechanics of speaking.

I learned that your message is the most vital thing you own. Not the content of your message, but the 'why' behind what you do and how you do it. If you don't have the 'why', you don't have anything. Your passion and desire to transform it into tangible results is the key. People buy your products or services because they bought your story, not the other way around. People gravitate towards stories and people that they resonate with. You might think your story is boring or too edgy for others. Trust me, it's not.

Your story counts, make sure you tell people about it.