The soft tissues around the spine also play a key role in low back pain. With inflammation the muscles can spasm and cause low back pain and marked limitation in motion. Another key structure in back pain is the hamstring muscles in the leg. Patients with tight hamstrings tend to develop low back pain, and those with low back pain tend to develop tight hamstrings. The theory is that tight hamstrings limit motion in the pelvis, so the motion gets transferred to the bottom lumbar motion segments and increases the stress in the spine.
Rehabilitation focuses on strengthening the muscles and stretching the hamstring muscles.