The Surprising Connection Between Back Pain and Your Pelvic Floor

If you have chronic low back pain, you have probably done the rounds. Stretching. Heat. Maybe massage, chiropractic, or a round of general physical therapy. Some of it helped for a while. Then the pain crept back.

There is a reason this happens so often, and it is one most people never hear about. Your low back and your pelvic floor are part of the same system.

Think of your core as a canister

The diaphragm is the lid on top. The deep abdominal muscles wrap around the front and sides. The small muscles along your spine make up the back. And the pelvic floor forms the floor of the whole structure. These muscles are meant to work together, coordinating pressure and stability with every breath and every movement.

What happens when the floor is not doing its share

When the pelvic floor is not doing its part, whether it is weak, too tight, or simply not coordinating well, the rest of the canister has to compensate. Often that compensation lands squarely in the low back. The muscles there overwork. They tighten and fatigue. And the pain you feel in your back is actually your body’s response to a problem happening at the floor.

This is why treating the back in isolation so often falls short. You can loosen the back muscles all day long, but if the foundation underneath is not stable, the pattern returns.

Assessing the whole system

At Body Motion, we assess the whole canister, including an internal pelvic floor evaluation when it is appropriate. Very often we find that the pelvic floor is a driving factor that no one had checked. When we address it directly with manual therapy and targeted retraining, and support the surrounding tissues with our regenerative modalities when needed, the back finally gets to relax because it is no longer doing someone else’s job.

If your low back pain keeps returning no matter what you try, the pelvic floor may be the piece that has been missing. Reach out to our team at Body Motion to find out.