Ankle Movement Linked to Back Pain
When assessing and treating back pain it is essential that you assess the whole body and not just the back.
One of the areas of the body I always assess when I am dealing with clients is their ankles. The ankle is the major connector between the ground and the body. In fact the foot is designed to respond to landing on the floor. The neurological system in the foot communicates with the hip telling the hip when the foot is about to strike the floor and to prepare for impact, stabilising the hip.
If you think of the ankle as an electrical switch that when turned on locks up the hip. So when a person’s ankle is locked up, through injury or dysfunction, it can switch on the neurological locking up the hip.
When this occurs over a prolonged period of time it can lead to dysfunction in the hip, locking it up; which can cause back pain through pelvic instability or sacral iliac joint problems.
Unfortunately this back pain will continue until such time that the ankle is released and the nervous system is allowed to relax and switch off.
