If you suffer from back pain, you may know all the reasons “why” – maybe you’re recovering from an injury, or maybe you sit for long hours every day, or maybe your exercise routine doesn’t include back-isolating movements.
Whatever the reason, strengthening your erector spinae muscles is a near-sure bet to relieve back pain and your ongoing aches and pains and eliminating back spasms or tightness in your hips.
What Is the Function of the Erector Spine?
The erector spine muscles — also referred to as the lumbar erectors, or sacrospinalis muscles — are the largest stabilizing muscles of your back. Stretching from your neck to your pelvis, the erector spinae muscles are in the intermediate layer of your deep intrinsic back muscles.
They attach along your spinal column, allowing you to extend, twist, and bend your body. The function of these important core muscles is not only to help you stand upright, but to help you move in pretty much every direction as well.
Erector Muscles Help You Stand
The spinal erector muscle group is sophisticated and complex. Each muscle group has its own subgroups with unique functions. As their name suggests, the erector spinae muscles help hold us upright and erect. We need strong back erectors to move through our daily life.
Erector Muscles Help You Move
The spinal cord serves as an essential link between the brain and body, and spinal stability is crucial. The erector spinae play a fundamental role in stabilizing the spine.
What’s Causing Your Back Pain
Most American adults sit for an average of 10 hours per day. Not only do many people sit for so long, but it’s common for people to slouch when they’re sitting, especially when on a couch or in a comfortable chair, or when working on a computer or looking at a phone.
When you slouch, your back rounds forward between the shoulders, your chest droops, and your neck and head are pulled forward and down.
Over time, your back muscles become weakened, and if you sit in such poor posture for many hours per day, you may not notice when you slip into an inactive, sedentary lifestyle.
Poor posture results in the muscles of your head and neck being pulled forward and out of alignment. which leads to lengthening the erectors.
Weakening of the erector spinae muscles contributes to lower back pain and tightness. That is why you may feel the need to “stretch” your back. However, improper stretches only worsen the problem.
Anatomy of the Back & Erector Spinae Muscles
The erector spinae muscle group is significantly responsible for your strength and core stability.
They attach along your spine from neck to pelvis, and because of their position in the deep layers of back muscle, erectors help you navigate through life comfortably.
They work together to extend, flex, and rotate the spine and move your entire torso.
The erector spinae is the middle layer of deep back muscle tissues, sandwiched between the superficial Intrinsic layer (spinotransversales) and the deep intrinsic (transversospinalis) layer.
Superficial Intrinsic Muscles: the top layer of the deep intrinsic back muscles that rotate and extend the spine.
Intermediate Intrinsic Muscles: including the erector spinae muscles
Deep Intrinsic Muscles: the innermost muscle layer of the back that mainly controls segmented spine motions.
The erector spine group has three subgroups:
Spinalis muscles
Longissimus muscles
Iliocostalis muscles
Spinalis Muscles
The spinalis muscles run alongside and lie closest to the spine, linking neighboring vertebrae to each other. They are the innermost erector muscles and assist with turning your head.
Longissimus Muscles
The longissimus muscles are the central back erectors and are the longest and thickest layer. The longissimus stabilize the central spine, stretch the lower back, and rotate the head and neck.
Iliocostalis Muscles
The iliocostalis muscles attach to the ribs and help the torso move comfortably. They are the farthest from the spine and assist with breathing, bending, and stretching the torso.
Common Back Pain Associated with Erectors Muscles
More than 31 million people experience back pain. It’s common to feel pain in the lower back (lumbar), middle back, upper back and shoulders, or all the areas at different times, depending on the muscle exertion you experience.
Because of the size and placement of the erectors muscles, (they are integral to so many day-to-day activities!) most back pain might be associated with weak or over tight spine erector muscles.
The good news is that strengthening the erectors will ease pretty much any type or level of chronic back pain.
The most common back pain symptoms include:
Aching and throbbing
Tight muscles
Straining with movement
Sharp or sudden pain
Muscle spasm
Sudden weakness
Symptoms of weak back erectors include:
Muscle pain or spasm on one side of the lower back.
Pain after twisting or bending.
Discomfort rotating your head and neck.
Low back pain that radiates to the buttocks or hips.
The most common causes for these symptoms are inflammation, muscle strain, and muscle tear.
Additionally, these muscles become tight if you live a sedentary lifestyle and your spinae erector muscles do the work to make up for weak abs, lats, and glutes.
When your exercise routines are not well balanced, or if you don’t make a regular point to engage the largest muscles in your core and legs, your back can end up taking on extra work, which pulls major joints in your hips and chest out of alignment, causing you pain.
These conditions contribute to a weak core, which leads to additional muscle imbalances.
Getting Help for Your Back Pain
An experienced musculoskeletal professional, such as a chiropractor, will help you identify the root cause of your back pain.
If it is your erectors muscle, there are a number of routine, simple, effective at-home stretches and exercises to help you experience immediate relief from back pain caused by problems with your spine erectors.
Don’t simply start stretching without proper guidance. We give some guidelines, but it’s best for you to speak with your chiropractor to create a personalised strength and resistance wellness program to strengthen your erectors and stabilise your spine.
In the case of your erector spine, a chiropractor can diagnose exactly which muscles are pulling your spine out of alignment, and whether the problem extends to your shoulders, hips, legs, and beyond.
They’ll discover what might be straining the muscles and analyse the points of highest and lowest pressure.
Then, in addition to discovering the sources of your problems, an experienced and knowledgeable chiropractor creates a customized treatment plan and enacts solutions, providing relief to your ailments.
Stabilise Your Spine While Stretching & Exercising
If you’re recovering from weakened erector spine muscles, you’ll want to begin a stretching and exercise routine to strengthen your back muscles, realign your posture, and increase your mobility.
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What Is the Function of the Erector Spine?
If you suffer from back pain, you may know all the reasons “why” – maybe you’re recovering from an injury, or maybe you sit for long hours every day, or maybe your exercise routine doesn’t include back-isolating movements.
Whatever the reason, strengthening your erector spinae muscles is a near-sure bet to relieve back pain and your ongoing aches and pains and eliminating back spasms or tightness in your hips.
What Is the Function of the Erector Spine?
The erector spine muscles — also referred to as the lumbar erectors, or sacrospinalis muscles — are the largest stabilizing muscles of your back. Stretching from your neck to your pelvis, the erector spinae muscles are in the intermediate layer of your deep intrinsic back muscles.
They attach along your spinal column, allowing you to extend, twist, and bend your body. The function of these important core muscles is not only to help you stand upright, but to help you move in pretty much every direction as well.
Erector Muscles Help You Stand
The spinal erector muscle group is sophisticated and complex. Each muscle group has its own subgroups with unique functions. As their name suggests, the erector spinae muscles help hold us upright and erect. We need strong back erectors to move through our daily life.
Erector Muscles Help You Move
The spinal cord serves as an essential link between the brain and body, and spinal stability is crucial. The erector spinae play a fundamental role in stabilizing the spine.
What’s Causing Your Back Pain
Most American adults sit for an average of 10 hours per day. Not only do many people sit for so long, but it’s common for people to slouch when they’re sitting, especially when on a couch or in a comfortable chair, or when working on a computer or looking at a phone.
When you slouch, your back rounds forward between the shoulders, your chest droops, and your neck and head are pulled forward and down.
Over time, your back muscles become weakened, and if you sit in such poor posture for many hours per day, you may not notice when you slip into an inactive, sedentary lifestyle.
Poor posture results in the muscles of your head and neck being pulled forward and out of alignment. which leads to lengthening the erectors.
Weakening of the erector spinae muscles contributes to lower back pain and tightness. That is why you may feel the need to “stretch” your back. However, improper stretches only worsen the problem.
Anatomy of the Back & Erector Spinae Muscles
The erector spinae muscle group is significantly responsible for your strength and core stability.
They attach along your spine from neck to pelvis, and because of their position in the deep layers of back muscle, erectors help you navigate through life comfortably.
They work together to extend, flex, and rotate the spine and move your entire torso.
The erector spinae is the middle layer of deep back muscle tissues, sandwiched between the superficial Intrinsic layer (spinotransversales) and the deep intrinsic (transversospinalis) layer.
The erector spine group has three subgroups:
Spinalis Muscles
The spinalis muscles run alongside and lie closest to the spine, linking neighboring vertebrae to each other. They are the innermost erector muscles and assist with turning your head.
Longissimus Muscles
The longissimus muscles are the central back erectors and are the longest and thickest layer. The longissimus stabilize the central spine, stretch the lower back, and rotate the head and neck.
Iliocostalis Muscles
The iliocostalis muscles attach to the ribs and help the torso move comfortably. They are the farthest from the spine and assist with breathing, bending, and stretching the torso.
Common Back Pain Associated with Erectors Muscles
More than 31 million people experience back pain. It’s common to feel pain in the lower back (lumbar), middle back, upper back and shoulders, or all the areas at different times, depending on the muscle exertion you experience.
Because of the size and placement of the erectors muscles, (they are integral to so many day-to-day activities!) most back pain might be associated with weak or over tight spine erector muscles.
The good news is that strengthening the erectors will ease pretty much any type or level of chronic back pain.
The most common back pain symptoms include:
Symptoms of weak back erectors include:
The most common causes for these symptoms are inflammation, muscle strain, and muscle tear.
Additionally, these muscles become tight if you live a sedentary lifestyle and your spinae erector muscles do the work to make up for weak abs, lats, and glutes.
When your exercise routines are not well balanced, or if you don’t make a regular point to engage the largest muscles in your core and legs, your back can end up taking on extra work, which pulls major joints in your hips and chest out of alignment, causing you pain.
These conditions contribute to a weak core, which leads to additional muscle imbalances.
Getting Help for Your Back Pain
An experienced musculoskeletal professional, such as a chiropractor, will help you identify the root cause of your back pain.
If it is your erectors muscle, there are a number of routine, simple, effective at-home stretches and exercises to help you experience immediate relief from back pain caused by problems with your spine erectors.
Don’t simply start stretching without proper guidance. We give some guidelines, but it’s best for you to speak with your chiropractor to create a personalised strength and resistance wellness program to strengthen your erectors and stabilise your spine.
In the case of your erector spine, a chiropractor can diagnose exactly which muscles are pulling your spine out of alignment, and whether the problem extends to your shoulders, hips, legs, and beyond.
They’ll discover what might be straining the muscles and analyse the points of highest and lowest pressure.
Then, in addition to discovering the sources of your problems, an experienced and knowledgeable chiropractor creates a customized treatment plan and enacts solutions, providing relief to your ailments.
Stabilise Your Spine While Stretching & Exercising
If you’re recovering from weakened erector spine muscles, you’ll want to begin a stretching and exercise routine to strengthen your back muscles, realign your posture, and increase your mobility.
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