Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Usually it is the hip flexor that pulls, not the spine — and sitting is the reason.
Also known as: hollow back · hyperlordosis · lumbar lordosis · anterior pelvic tilt · belly forward
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
An increased forward curve of the low back, mostly together with a pelvis tipped forward. A certain amount of it is normal and necessary — the low back is naturally curved forward, and the curve increases in pregnancy and with a growing waist, because the weight travels forward. It becomes a complaint when the small joints at the back of the spine are more heavily loaded by it: the pain then sits deep in the low back, gets worse with long standing and with bending backwards, and better with bending forward or sitting down. The commonest influenceable part is the pull of the hip flexor, which is held shortened for hours by much sitting and then pulls the pelvis forward when standing. It should be noted that the depth of the curve alone does not reliably predict later back pain.
More effective than stretching is interrupting: stand up before the sitting position is an hour old. Stretching works best in a lunge with the pelvis deliberately tucked under — otherwise the movement goes into the low back instead of the hip.
The pelvis is held from four sides. Below at the front the glutes pull, above at the front the abdomen — both tip the pelvis back and take the edge off the low back. Bridge and plank are the plainest exercises for it.
One foot on a low step or footrest tips the pelvis slightly back and takes load off the low back. An old trick from the hospitality trade — the foot rail at the bar serves exactly this purpose.
The increase in the curve is here an adaptation to the weight in front and not a fault. What helps is strengthening glutes and pelvic floor and deliberately changing position — not trying to press the curve away.
Low values over a long time cause a dull ache in bones and trunk-near muscles, morning stiffness and weakness when rising from a chair. This is often blamed on posture.
Less strength on stairs, a thigh gone soft, slower healing. In older age the most common silent deficiency — and the one posture shows first.
The deficiency itself causes no complaints — the body keeps blood levels tight and takes what is missing from bone. It only becomes noticeable through what it does.
A fixed rounded back in older age often goes with vertebral fractures nobody noticed. Vitamin D then belongs to the bone work-up — together with calcium and alkaline phosphatase.
The companion value to vitamin D. On its own it says little, because the body keeps blood calcium in a narrow range — even if it takes it from the bone to do so.
Rises with bone remodelling. After a fresh vertebral fracture it is often raised — that is healing, not an alarm.
Without vitamin D only a fraction of the calcium from food is absorbed. It is therefore not one nutrient among others but the doorman for the most important one.
The building material itself. What counts is not the single portion but the amount over years — bone is remodelled lifelong, with peak mass around thirty.
Activates the proteins that hold calcium in bone. It is in green leafy vegetables and fermented foods. On coumarin-type blood thinners the amount is kept steady rather than avoided.
Half the volume of bone is collagen — that is, protein. Eating too little in older age loses muscle and bone at once, and posture is the first thing you see of it.
Frequently recommended when the back cramps in the evening. Where it helps, it helps with a proven deficiency and via sleep. On the position of the pelvis it does not act — that hangs on the pull of the muscles and on the time they spend in one position.
Clearly worthwhile and well studied when deficient; fewer data for the wider uses. Fat-soluble — check blood levels at high doses.
After menopause bone loss speeds up markedly for some years. The fixed rounded back in older age is usually the sum of silent vertebral fractures from that time.
Keeps blood calcium constant — if need be by releasing calcium from bone. A persistently high PTH with low vitamin D is exactly that process.
In men too there is age-related bone loss, only slower and later. It is looked for less often and therefore missed more often.
The body takes up calcium better in smaller portions than in one large one. Dairy, sardines with bones, kale, broccoli, almonds and calcium-rich mineral water — spread out rather than all at once.
Utilisation declines with age. About a palm-sized portion per meal achieves more than the same amount once in the evening.
For everything to do with statics, the method with the most data. What matters is not the kind but that it happens at all, and regularly — the back holds what it does daily.
It is not the session that works but what continues at home afterwards. After four to six appointments you can judge whether anything is moving.
Combines strengthening, mobility and breathing in one practice. For a rounded back and a stiff ribcage that is a sensible combination — inversions and strong backbends are left out in osteoporosis.