Every day I hear someone talking about their back pain as “I don’t know what I’ve done, I don’t remember doing anything specifically to cause it.”

A visit to the docs, bit of rest, tons of painkillers and it’s still not gone away.  So, why’s that?

Because in this type of back pain, which is common amongst so many people, it’s UNDIAGNOSED BACK PAIN.  Does this sound like someone you know?

Meaning your medic can’t see some sort of break, a segment of your spine out of alignment or something to actually diagnose and give you specific help to rehabilitate.

But people love a label; they want to be diagnosed with something in order to fix it.  When actually in this case, the cause of your back pain is most likely to be poor posture, lack of stability, or lack of exercise.  The pain is your body’s response to the problem.  So you need to fix the cause, and not just treat the symptoms.

This type of “undiagnosed diagnosis” means you have to take responsibility for your own health, start taking action yourself and get yourself pain free.

One of the most common causes of undiagnosed back pain is muscular imbalances and poor bio-mechanics which often are from bad posture.  Once the initial pain has gone away, you need to start moving.  Carefully and more importantly, properly!  Specifically Pilates, because that’s exactly what it’s designed to do and back pain is exactly what it can help with!

So here are my 5 top tips to help you achieve your pain free balanced body.

* Building strength in your core to provide stability for your pelvis and spine. Your core is not just your belly!  It’s not pulling your belly button in as so many Pilates classes say.  Your core is made up of a load of muscles that all have to work together effectively to stabilise your spine, like a corset wrapping around you. They are:

a. Pelvic floor, supporting you from underneath

b. Transversus abdominis (Deep abdominals) supporting you from the front

c. Obliques (waist muscles) supporting you from the sides

d. Diaphragm, supporting you from above

e. Multifidus (muscles running up your spine) supporting from the back.

* Learning to differentiate between movement at the hip and movement at the spine.  Can you hinge forward at the hips without your back rounding and bending at the waist?  Making your legs and bum muscles work stronger and more flexibly means that instead of your back doing all the work when you sit down, stand up, walk, run, climb etc… your legs and bum will.  Weak bums and legs mean more strain on the back!

* Stretch out. If you haven’t got great strength or stability in the pelvis, if you run a lot, if you sit down all day; you’ve probably got overworked and tight muscles.  Daily stretches of the back muscles, hamstrings, hip flexors, IT band, quads will all help to keep things a little looser and in check!

* Maintaining a healthy weight means less work for your joints and your internal organs.

* Chill out! The stresses of life probably aren’t ever going to go away, but finding ways to manage them can help reduce your stress levels, sleep better, reduce your cortisol levels that can lead to ill health and weight gain and stop muscles becoming even tighter and harmful on the body.