Understanding your spine and back muscles

To understand why our backs hurt, it helps to investigate this area of our body in more detail. The back is made up of layers of interwoven muscles that wrap around the ‘S’ shape of the spine. The back is made up of 24 vertibrae that are joined together by discs that are filled with fluid and are designed to absorb shocks. When we are born, these discs contain 80% water, but as we age, this reduces in water content, making our backs much less flexible than before and more susceptible to back pain. This natural aging process combined with our chair bound lifestyles contributes to our increasing back pain epidemic. To combat these effects, it is important that we undertake lower back exercises so that we can increase our overall flexibility.