Should I be able to touch my toes??
While having good hamstring flexibility is not a bad thing, being able to touch your toes has NO correlation with your present or future episodes of back pain. There is no research that supports this hypothesis. In fact, repeated bending forward is usually a common aggravating factor for people suffering from low back pain & sciatica and is commonly avoided when you are dealing with an acute flare-up.
When asking you to bend forward, your MDT trained physical therapist looks for quality of motion at the lumbar spine, any pain or discomfort you experience while doing the movement & any limitations to this motion due to an underlying spinal issue.
So, next time if you are using “touching your toes” as a way to stretch for low back pain, think again. Stretching makes your muscles FEEL better but is not necessarily addressing the root cause of your symptoms. It is like taking a painkiller over the counter that will give you temporary relief with your pain but does not do much to resolve the underlying issue.
Always, address the source, not the symptoms!
Want to know more?
We also know not everyone is ready to commit to regular physical therapy appointments, and that’s why we offer our Free Information Guide! This Guide is for people in our community who want really valuable, expert information about their Back Pain or Sciatica problems. We know it’s confusing out there with all of the information floating around on Google and Facebook, and this is a valuable first step towards getting some real answers for your problem.
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