Sitting on a chair. Reaching down to pick something up.
These are two examples of what brain and spinal neurosurgeon Dr. David Johnson calls “minor or major bending tasks,” which he estimates the average person performs up to 5,000 times a day. But more important than how often we perform them is how we perform them.
“There is a good way and a bad way to do it,” Johnson says.
The good way leads to long-term mobility and functionality. The bad way? An increased “risk of developing musculoskeletal pain, and over time, an increased risk for the requirement of musculoskeletal surgery.” Both are results of what Johnson calls “movement dysfunction.”
In 2018, low-back pain was the leading cause of disability on the planet, according to the World Health Organization, and from 1990-2015, low-back pain prevalence increased by 54%, The Lancet reported.
“If the disease burden is globally epidemic, then movement quality is critically important,” Johnson says.
The problem, he continues, is how movement dysfunction is usually treated: with extended rest, analgesics (painkillers), and surgery.
“What do you notice about all of these first-line interventions?” Johnson says. “None of them have the power to address the cause. They are all symptom-focused interventions.”
“Even surgery, … the most powerful symptom- and structure-focused treatment of all, cannot address the cause of why you needed surgery in the first place,” he continues.
So what does? Functional movement.
Described by Johnson as “inherently powerful and intense,” functional movement triggers the release of hormones that drive physiological adaptation.
In other words, if you want to actually fix the problem, movement matters.
“Without that physiological stimulus, you won’t recover from your musculoskeletal pain,” Johnson says.
Additional reading: Science: Rest When You’re Dead.
Movement Matters