I just realized as I started writing a few days ago, that many times people find it a little changing to follow the terminology I use when talking about back pain and the body. So, I decided to put together this short glossary of essential terms:

• Muscle Imbalance: For every muscle in the body, there is a counter muscle that performs the opposite function. This helps our bodies to stay upright, protect our joints, and provide stability. When muscles become imbalanced, it causes postural dysfunction and can be a major cause of back pain.
• “Chronic” Back Pain: This usually refers to back pain that persists over a period of time. Some consider pain to be chronic after 3 months.
• Pelvis: The pelvis includes the 2 bowl-like bones that connect to the sacrum, which is at the bottom of the spine.
• Anterior Pelvic Tilt: Anterior refers to the front of the body. If you imagine the pelvis as a bucket of water, anterior pelvic tilt would be when the bucket tips and pours water onto your toes. There is a normal amount of pelvic tilt in both women and men.
• Posterior Pelvic Tilt: Posterior refers to the backside of the body. If we use the analogy of the bucket of water as with the anterior pelvic tilt, then posterior pelvic tilt would be when the bucket of water tips backward and pours water down the back on your legs and heels.
• Sciatica: This commonly mis-diagnosed condition, is when the sciatic nerve is entrapped by either dysfunction in the spine, or by muscles through or around which the nerve passes.
• Spinal Stenosis: This is a condition where the spinal canal gets smaller and compresses the spinal cord and/or nerves exiting the spine. This can happen on either one or both sides.
• Disc Bulge/Herniation: This is a condition in which there is a tear in the outer layer of a spinal disc. Discs can create pressure on spinal nerves, thus causing radiating pain.