Bum out, Boobs out: Instagram back pain syndrome.
- Alex Miller
- Mar 26, 2018
- 3 min read
Guest blogger Alex Miller, Strength Coach at Collision & Combat... buddy of Team Clique.
I love Instagram.
It’s true, I admit it, I spend way, way too much time on it and achieve pretty much nothing accept seeing everyone else looking incredible.
This has ups and downs I guess. I can’t say I mind seeing the guys and girls looking hot but I also end up feeling a bit down that I don’t look like that. The guys are chiseled gods and the girls are butts and boobs everywhere.
This doesn’t just have an impact on me, or us, but on the girls I train too. Meta-analysis by Ward et al. (1) suggested that as early as 2008 social media was having an affect on women’s body image. This was followed up the next year by Dittmar stating the research has “moved beyond assessments of whether or not negative exposure effects occur“ (2). To put in context, it’s not even a case of does social media affect our own and everyone else’s image of themselves, this was decided 10 years ago, just a case of to what extent it’s having an effect.
I’m not saying social media has a solely negative affect at all.
Whilst it’s hard to dispute that things like Instagram expose us to images which potentially create a body issue it also has opened up the world to see how there are some incredible women out there smashing down barriers that most of us didn’t even know about. I mean, I’ve seen plenty of girls deadlifting 500 lbs now. That’s AMAZING, I mean that’s just downright strong, awesome and shows other women it can be done.
So 100% social media is not the devil.
But now we have to talk about women ending up sitting in this hyper-lordotic (including anterior pelvic tilt) position bum out boobs out to get this “social media look” which is praised through the power of likes (possibly the only power greater than peer-pressure and gravity). This is fine until we start having girls come in with back pain for “unknown” reasons.
It’s contentious but leaning towards validity that this excessive lower back arch is at least a component of lower back pain in the general population.
What do we do when we have girls coming in with these niggling lower back issues though? Or what same thing you do whenever we get any new person in through the door. We have to assess what’s going on, find out what is causing the pain (structurally and in terms of any pain causing activities), and then you can make a decision to if we are capable of addressing these causes or we are going to have to refer out to a specialist on it.
To give a brief overview of the testing I like to use on for back pain (4)
Steps
1. List what activities cause pain and what activities don’t.
2. Run through back pain questionnaire.
3. Evaluate pain with provocation and relieving tests
4. Test postures and position that lessen pain
5. Test loads, motions and standing postures which cause pain
6. From the above check out where you pain lays in the following zones
1. Flexion
2. Flexion with movement
3. Neck Flexion
4. Compression
5. Intermittent or On/Off Pain
6. Cumulative Load (after doing something for time)
7. Extension and Rotation
8. Specific to a single activity (the answer to this one should be obvious)
9. Other
7. Assess the assessment: this means you have to understand the results of all of this. That’ll go a huge way in to identifying the cause of the pain, forming a prescription and designing a recovery plan.
The next step for you and your coach is to actually do the recovery plan!
References
1. Grabe, S., Ward, L. M., & Hyde, J. S. (2008). The role of the media in body image concerns among women: A meta-analysis of experimental and correlational studies. Psychological Bulletin, 134(3), 460-476.
2. Helga Dittmar (2009). How Do “Body Perfect” Ideals in the Media Have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors? Factors and Processes Related to Self and Identity. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology: Vol. 28, Special Issue: Body Image and Eating Disorders, pp. 1-8.
3. Effects of Lumbosacral Angles on Development of Low Back Pain Mehmet Caglayan, Orhan Tacar, Ayda Demirant, Pelin Oktayoglu, Mehmet Karakoc, Abdurahman Cetin, Serda Em, Mehtap Bozkurt, Demet Ucar & Kemal Nas Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain Vol. 22 , Iss. 3,2014
4. Modified from – McGill, S. (2015). Back mechanic. Fitbackpro Inc..
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