Deep Stabilizer Muscles Turn off with Pain?

**Katie** · 08-29-2009, 06:03 PM

Bear with me here folks

I came across an article on one of my horse forums that talked about Pilates for horses. Yes, we do almost the same therapies on our horses as we do ourselves...massage, water therapy, chiropractic adjustments, you name it.

But this article started with an interesting statement, that the deep stabilizer muscles both in horses and humans turn off when hit with pain, and do not turn back on after the pain stops. Since I am usually more concerned with my horses' welfare than my own, I saved it to use on them, but thought that the information might be helpful here.

I also wondered if anyone knew of the studies quoted in the article. Here is the paragraph that caught my eye.

"Preliminary results from research suggest you can strengthen your horse’s core muscles to help him be healthier, no matter his job in life. "One of the things we know from human medical research is that when people get back pain, the deep stabilizer muscles turn off. When the back pain goes away, these muscles don't turn on again. There is a very high recurrence rate of back pain, something like 70-80% in people (Hides, et. al, 2001). But if they go to physical therapy and learn how to turn on these deep stabilizer muscles, then the rates of recurrence of back pain are reduced to about 30%. We suspect the same thing is happening in horses."

Justin, you may want to move this to a different forum. I thought it may help some of us in future treatment.

**Justin** · 08-29-2009, 07:05 PM

Hi Katie,

Thanks for posting this information. Here's some info on Hides research on the Multifidus Muscle: Click here.

This is a good article: The Multifidus Muscle - Key to Spinal Stabilization?

I hope these help.

**KBear** · 08-29-2009, 10:06 PM

Thanks Katie and Justin, will have to look into this more.....

**daveinaustin** · 08-30-2009, 09:47 AM

Looks like I'll have some good reading for Monday or Tuesday!

Katie and Justin, thank you for posting this very interesting topic and research!

-Dave

**Justin** · 08-30-2009, 12:46 PM

Joel actually posted about the multifidus muscle and it's dysfunction in Spine Patients previously in this thread: PT; multifidus muscle

The link to the website he referenced changed. However, there are many good YouTube videos on the multifidus muscle:

**Katie** · 08-30-2009, 06:17 PM

Thanks Justin. I wasn't sure just how factual this article was, and I'm glad to see that it really is useful. That means I can use it for my horses too

I really appreciate the links that you put up. I often miss these things unless they are shoved into my line of vision.

Guess the massage therapists and others will be getting some more business.

**Cindylou** · 09-02-2009, 01:56 PM

Thank-you Justin and Katie for posting the article and the links to the multifidi muscle on YouTube. Very interesting. Time to book a massage. he he. I am noticing with my p.t. working my core in the water, it is slowly coming back from the dead.

I knew I had some obliques in there somewhere.

**Justin** · 09-02-2009, 10:01 PM

Originally Posted by Cindylou

I am noticing with my p.t. working my core in the water, it is slowly coming back from the dead. I knew I had some obliques in there somewhere.

This is good news!

My core is going to take a while to get to get strong again.

**Hooch** · 09-04-2010, 05:29 AM

I've messed around with a lot of bs treatments for my back, but this pt based on these principles is the only one (apart from general fitness) that has made a significant ongoing improvement. I don't think it's a co-incidence that it's firmly grounded in scientific research.