29 Sep, 2008
Ask the Coach: Lower Back Pain
Question
I am footballer who was recently suffering from low back pain. My health-care practitioner has advised me to put a heel lift in my shoe because he says one of my legs is longer than the other. Should I wear this heel lift and will it take away my pain?
Answer
Our day to day activities mean that the majority of our 656 muscles are kept active. When a muscle is worked hard it shortens. These muscles attach onto bones and when they become tight they can pull a bone out of position and alter your posture. A simple example of this is the elderly who after dehydration, lack of movement and sitting down watching tv, their muscles become short and it pulls them into a rounded slumped posture.
As a soccer player you may predominantly kick the football with your stronger leg while using the other leg to stand on. There are 26 muscles that attach onto the pelvis and as you use the muscles on one side by kicking a ball, the muscles on the other hip either lengthen or they work to stabilise the hip. The shortening and lengthening of the muscles can alter the mechanics of the pelvis and lead to this apparent leg length difference. One side of the pelvis may rotate one way while the other side of the pelvis rotates the other way and hikes up the hip. If you use the heel lift you will only shorten already short muscles but your sudden short term gain will result in long-term pain for you.
Soccer players do not stretch as they perceive it as boring but you should address your muscular imbalances by stretching the short tight muscles. If you can’t figure out what is tight, seek the assistance of a good body-work therapist who can massage and stretch the muscles to correct your postural alignment and give you a stretching program. Flexibility can reduce the risk of injury and improve your performance by lengthening your running stride, improving the ability to tackle whilst also improving your back lift for shooting.