When suffering with low back pain or sciatica, the decision whether or not to use a back support or belt to help relieve some of the signs & symptoms can be a difficult one.
The most common concern I hear is the fear of it encouraging the muscles to 'switch off' or 'become lazy' which in the long run will only create instability and therefore more problems. I understand why people have this concern and to certain degree I concur with it. However, used correctly, back supports or belts can play an important role in the rehabilitation of low back pain & sciatica.
Before I go any further though, I feel I should say that I am not a great lover of these, as in the majority of cases they are not necessary and are consequently overused. If we correct our postures and activities as appropriate, along with a prescribed exercise programme, our own muscles and ligaments are more than capable of supporting our backs. Therefore, a back support is not needed.
However, there maybe times when your pain is that severe or you are unable to avoid certain aggravating activities, for example due to work, that your lower back needs some kind of extra support. In such circumstances I would not only say it is OK to use these, but I would likely encourage it.
So will it then make your back weak?
As long as the support is being used correctly, it will not make you back weak at all. Problems will only arise if a support is used inappropriately, say for example all day long just for the sake of it. Under these circumstances this could encourage the stabilising muscles of your back to become lazy and switch off a little.
However, if you were to wear it only during the activities with which you felt your back needed some extra support, yet outside of these activities not only did you remove the support but also performed some exercises to increase the stability of your lower back and pelvis, I would say this is fine to do. In actual fact I would go so far as to say it is a sensible thing to do.
The reason I say this, is because you would be preventing your back from being aggravated by providing it with the extra support (which is crucial in the rehabilitation of low back pain & sciatica). Yet you would also be actively exercising the stabilising muscles about your lower back & pelvis when not using the support, therefore encouraging the back to become stronger and reducing the need for the extra support in the long term.
Therefore, in summary, I feel that back supports may be overused as a form of treatment for low back pain & sciatica. However, they can play an important role if used correctly. If you can use the support to avoid your low back pain or sciatica becoming unnecessarily aggravated, I would actively encourage it. The important thing to remember is not to become too complacent and just rely on the belt for extra support. It is equally crucial you remove the support from time to time and definitely when it is not needed.
If you do this, along with performing an appropriate exercise programme which will target the supporting muscles of your lower back and pelvis in order to make them stronger, then using a back support can be the sensible thing to so.
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