Of Bird dogs and back pain

Most of the literature suggests that 80% of people will suffer from at least one episode of back pain sometime in their life. No matter what the underlying reason is that causes the pain, one of the muscles that is often involved is the multifidus or plural, multifidi. ​

The multifidi can be found running along the right and left sides of the spine. From the neck to the sacrum, each multifidus section spans three vertebral segments and helps to stabilize the spine, helping it work more efficiently and slows down degneration of the joints so often caused by the dreaded weak core, hip flexion and gravity. It might help you to think of it like a wobbly tent that becomes more stable when the lines are tightened. Because of the arrangement of the muscle on both sides of the spine, when both sides contract the multifidi help with spinal extension and fine-tuning of movements.  

During hunting season, I observe my dog’s movement patterns. She’s a natural athlete. When she points I watch her nose, spine and tail in perfect alignment as her multifidi and spinal muscles contract. Her strong core allows balance as her front leg is raised. And she can get into position immediately, without a second thought, with excellent balance, over all kinds of terrain, for hours. Amazing!
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Of course, it wasn’t just the dog’s multifidi that were contracted, but her other spinal muscles, and glutes too. I noticed that the dog was lengthened through the hip flexors –very important to have length here to avoid too much swaying of the low back. Anatomically, there was a lot going on. It got me thinking that perhaps muscles are only named and defined to ease our ability to describe sensation or one specific action. The thing is, I can’t think of any real-life action in which only one muscle moves. It makes more sense to think in terms of a kinetic chain-- the hip bone is connected to the back bone, the back bone is connected to the neck bone…

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  If you have performed any bodyweight exercises you may have done an exercise called bird-dog, in which you performed a movement similar to the pointer. Bird-dog can be a great exercise to strengthen the multifidi and other muscles that run along the spine, but there is more to it. Our muscles are connected to each other and organs by fascia, a strong, fibrous connective tissue. Our muscles and fascia work together to provide smooth movement along a kinetic chain. In a position like bird-dog, the lats on the arm-up side must be able to stretch, which requires the arm rotating muscles of the shoulder to have an acceptable range-of-motion. The (usually weak in everyone) glutes must be strong enough to extend the hip. Activation of the glutes can happen almost immediately, however, when the hip flexors are stretched. 
Bird Dog is a great exercise to use when you need to strengthen your back and glute muscles.. It is easy to do in your house on a towel on the floor. Use the picture below and think of your back and glutes  holding you up. Proper exercise and good massage can go a long way to help improve your back pain and help your muscles function better to reduce degeneration. Additionally, your own bird dog might recover faster and have greater muscular endurance if you spend a little time treating his or her muscles to massage.

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