Low Back Debilitating Injuries Sample from Unraveling the Mystery of Low Back Pain

Here is a sample from the online course "Unraveling the Mystery of Low Back Pain" with Dr. Ben Benjamin - available through the Benjamin Institute.

The goal of this course is to explore the anatomy, effective assessment techniques, and the treatment of one of the most common low back injuries. Many theories of low back pain have come and gone. At one time it was thought that most back pain was caused by injuries to the intervertebral discs; at another time it was thought to be the quadratus lumborum or psoas muscle; in the 1940s it was thought to originate mainly in the sacroiliac joint region. Over the years I've come to understand that all of those theories and several more were correct some of the time but only one was correct most of the time.

There are three layers of sacroiliac ligaments: the posterior sacroiliac ligaments, underneath those the Interosseous sacroiliac ligaments, and deeper still are the anterior sacroiliac ligaments. Let me show you the posterior fibers in more detail, they are the only ones our fingers can reach and where most injured fibers occur. The posterior sacroiliac ligaments are located in the deep depression between the sacrum and ilium; and they are very strong - they form the chief connection between the sacrum and iliac bones. They consist of numerous fasciculi or bundles of fibers, which pass between the two bones in various directions...