How Can Tight Muscles Result In Back Pain?

If you’re dealing with chronic back pain, you know how difficult it can be to manage. It can make even simple daily tasks seemingly impossible.

Back pain is often a result of tight muscles, which can stem from various issues.

We’ll explore how tight muscles can result in back pain and some solutions you can try to relieve tightness, stiffness, inflammation, and pain.

How Do Tight Muscles Cause Back Pain?

To understand how tight muscles result in back pain, let’s look into how the muscles in our back work.

Our lower back consists of two primary muscle groups:

Paraspinal muscles that include the transverse abdominis and erector spinae. Together, these muscles support and stabilize your spine.
Deep core muscles provide strength and stability to your lower back, including your diaphragm, multifidus, abs, and pelvic floor muscles.

When these muscles get tight, they can’t provide the support your spine needs, resulting in increased pressure that results in back pain.

In addition, tight muscles can cause imbalances in other muscle groups, causing a decreased range of motion and aggravating back pain even more. They can also lead to poor posture, which is a cause of back pain — it’s a vicious cycle.

What Causes Tight Muscles That Result In Back Pain?

Several factors can cause your muscles to tighten up over time, resulting in back pain. The most common include:

Overuse: One of the most common causes of tight muscles that results in back pain is overuse. Using your muscles too often and performing the same motions multiple times puts a significant amount of strain on them. If you work out often, play sports, or have a job requiring repetitive movements, you might have tight muscles due to overuse.

Dehydration: Your muscles need fluid to perform optimally; dehydration results in tight muscles that can cause back pain. It also can cause muscle cramping in addition to tightness. So, if you notice cramps that come with your back pain, the solution might be as simple as drinking more water.

Inactivity: On the opposite side of overuse is inactivity. Your muscles are meant to work regularly — if you don’t move them as much as you should, they can get tight due to inactivity, ultimately ending in back pain. While you don’t want to overuse and strain your muscles, you also don’t want to let them go to waste.

Stress: Another common cause of tight muscles and back pain is stress; stress can seriously mess with our physical health in addition to our mental health. If you feel anxious or stressed, whether it’s a chronic issue or from a current life event, your muscle tightness might be a result of your mental state.

Think stress might be the cause of your tight muscles and back pain? Try CBD for natural anxiety, stress, and pain relief.

Other Causes of Tight Muscles and Back Pain

While those listed above are the most common reasons why your tight muscles result in back pain, there are some other possible causes, including:

Exercise: Similar to blaming overuse for muscle tightness, starting a new exercise routine can cause stiffness. That stiffness happens because your muscles aren’t used to working that hard, causing small tears in your muscle fibers that result in tightness. Staying hydrated and not going too hard too fast can help reduce the chances of injuring your muscles.
Strains and sprains: If you strain or sprain your muscles or ligaments, you’ll likely experience stiffness and pain that radiates to your back. Strains can happen through repetitive motions or lifting heavy objects. Poor posture can also strain your back muscles, resulting in tightness and pain.
Arthritis: Osteoarthritis and arthritis can also cause muscle tightness and back pain. These conditions cause joint inflammation due to accumulated damage from wear and tear on your muscles over time. Rheumatoid arthritis can also cause muscle tightness because of its effects on the immune system, causing it to attack normal body tissue.

5 Treatments for Back Pain Caused By Tight Muscles

There are various treatments you can try to relieve back pain caused by tight muscles. Our top picks include:

Work On Your Posture

This is the third time we’ve mentioned posture, so it must be important, right? Improving your posture is a fantastic way to reduce tight muscles and back pain.

When sitting:

Align your spine with the back of your chair
Keep your feet flat on the ground
Don’t cross your legs
Keep your computer at eye level
Use a lumbar support pillow
Keep your shoulders relaxed
Don’t hunch over or slouch
Invest in an ergonomic chair

When standing:

Keep your spine straight
Engage your core muscles
Don’t lock your knees
Relax your shoulders
Keep your feet shoulder-width apart

Learn Yoga Stretches

Yoga is an excellent way to increase your strength and flexibility. It’s also amazing for stress relief, and stress commonly causes tight, stiff muscles.

Some of the best yoga stretches include:

The child’s pose
The cat pose
The cobra pose
The knee-to-chest pose

Get a Massage

Physiotherapy massages and acupuncture can help loosen tight muscles and relieve tension in your back. Deep tissue massages can also help increase blood flow, removing stiffness and tightness.

Acupuncture helps restore your body’s balance and can help relieve pain and inflammation, reducing back pain and its causes.

Strengthen and Stabilize Your Muscles

A weak core results in sore muscles and back pain. If you work on strengthening your core, you can help loosen your muscles, improving your range of motion. The yoga stretches we mentioned are also fantastic for building core strength.

In addition, weak hip and leg muscles can make your back muscles stiff and painful. Exercises like squats or lunges are great for improving these muscles.

Try CBD for Back Pain

We mentioned how stress is a major cause of muscle tightness and back pain — something that CBD can help relieve. In addition to stress relief, CBD can help those with lower back pain experience significant improvements in their pain scores and their overall quality of life.

Unless there’s an underlying cause for your muscle tightness and back pain, working on your posture, strengthening your muscles, and taking a daily CBD supplement can significantly improve your pain levels and overall well-being.

Say goodbye to tight muscles and back pain. Say hello to CBD.

Related: Calming Anxiety With CBD