22 May Spinal Instability: Why Some Backs Need Stability, Not More Mobility
Article Rundown
- Some “tight” backs need stability, not more mobility.
- Spinal instability is often missed on MRI and requires a real assessment.
- Bracing should be tuned like a dimmer switch, not forced all-or-nothing.
- The goal is clean movement, proper core stiffness, and stopping micro-movements.
Why Some Backs Need Stability, Not More Mobility
Most people who have a tight back assume they need more mobility. They stretch more, twist more, crack more, and chase every mobility drill they can find. But in many cases, the problem is not that they are too tight. The problem is that they are unstable.
I have lived this from both sides. I went from a catastrophic back injury to squatting 1306 pounds, and now I work with clients every week as a McGill Master Clinician. One of the biggest things I see misunderstood is spinal instability. It is not always obvious on an MRI, and it is often missed because many practitioners are not looking for the right patterns or asking the right questions. Spinal instability is real. It is painful. And if you treat it like a mobility problem, you can make it worse.
What Spinal Instability Really Means
Spinal instability is not simply “looseness.” It is a loss of turgor, or firmness, in the disc. The annulus, which is the outer ring system of collagen in the disc, becomes softened and loses its ability to bear load properly. The spine is made of stacked vertebrae with discs between them, along with facet joints, ligaments, and other passive structures. When that system loses its ability to control motion, certain segments begin to move too much.
This is where people run into trouble. One segment may start taking all the movement (forming stress concentrations) while the others stay relatively stable. That one joint becomes loose, sloppy, irritated, and unable to hold position under load. You may get micro-movements, shear, flexion, extension, and torsion happening where it should not. The disc may bulge circumferentially, meaning all the way around, but there may not be a clean focal herniation for the MRI report to point to. The softened disc is akin to a car tire losing some of its air, and it’s becoming a little bit sloppy and inefficient on the road.
So the person gets told, “Nothing major is wrong.” Meanwhile, they cannot roll over in bed without a jab of pain, step off a curb without feeling a catch, or move through the day without symptoms jumping around.
The “Wet Blanket” Back
I have had many clients describe this perfectly. They say, “My back feels like a wet blanket,” or, “I got out of bed and felt like I had no stiffness in my body.” They feel like their spine is made of Jell-O. Often, these people have been stretching, doing yoga, Pilates, chiropractic adjustments, or endless mobility work because they were told they were tight. They may feel better temporarily because motion can give short-term relief. But if the underlying problem is instability, more motion just feeds the cycle.
That looseness creates more irritation. More irritation creates more pain. Then the person stretches more because they feel tight again. Eventually, the spine is even less resilient and has even less stiffness and turgor than before.
The Core Is a 360-Degree Stability System
When people hear “core,” they often think abs. Maybe they think rectus abdominis or transverse abdominis. But the core is not just the front of your body. It is a 360-degree system. You have the rectus abdominis, the obliques, the transverse abdominis, the spinal extensors, the deeper stabilizers, the lats, the pecs, and the entire muscular corset that helps control the spine. The job of this system is not endless movement. Its job is stiffness, control, and force transfer.
The spine is meant to stay stable while the hips and shoulders create motion. When people lose that ability, they start moving through the lumbar spine instead of hinging through the hips. They develop sloppy hinges, butt wink, lumbar-sacral hinging, thoracic-lumbar hinging, and other movement faults that continue to poke the bear.
Bracing Is a Dimmer Switch
Another mistake I see is that people treat bracing like it is either on or off. They either brace as hard as possible all the time, or they do not brace at all. Both approaches are wrong. Bracing is a dimmer switch. You need the right amount of stiffness for the task in front of you. Walking requires a little stiffness. Fast walking may require a little more. Picking something up off the floor requires more. Heavy lifting requires even more.
The goal is not maximum stiffness all the time. The goal is the least effective dose of stiffness needed to eliminate micro-movement. Too little stiffness and the spine moves around. Too much stiffness and you create unnecessary compression, fatigue, and sometimes a new pain generator. This is where real assessment matters. Some people need to learn how to stiffen. Others need to stop crushing themselves. Most need to learn how to tune their brace to the task.
Why Assessment Matters More Than Guessing
Spinal instability can be confusing because the symptoms may move around. One day it is in the back. Another day it is in the glute. Another day, there is nerve irritation, a catch, a pinch, or pain that seems to come and go for no reason. Unfortunately, when a practitioner does not spend enough time assessing the person, they may write it off or treat it like a simple mobility issue.
But this is not a guessing game. The MRI alone does not tell the full story because most MRIs are done while the person is lying on their back. That does not show how the spine behaves under load, during movement, or when the person is actually provoking their symptoms. You may see a flattened disc, circumferential bulging, or other clues, but the key is still the assessment. When we clean up movement and teach proper bracing, some clients feel better quickly. Not because they got stronger overnight, but because they stopped the little micro-movements that were triggering the pain.
How to Begin Fixing It
If you are unstable, stop chasing endless mobility. More motion is not always the answer. In many cases, the spine does not need to be stretched into submission. It needs better control. That starts with mastering the basics. Learn to brace properly, not with maximum effort, but with the right amount of stiffness. Master the McGill Big 3: the curl-up, side plank, and bird dog, along with the proper progressions. Learn to hip hinge with a neutral spine. Learn how to roll over, get up, pick things up, walk, train, and live without constantly poking the bear.
Pain-free does not always mean healed. It may simply mean you stopped irritating the pain generator long enough for things to calm down. The collagen and passive structures need time to stiffen and regain resilience. During that time, you have to use your core, lats, pecs, hips, and movement patterns to create manual stiffness and protect the spine.
Stability Before Mobility
The big takeaway is simple: not every tight-feeling back needs more mobility. Some backs need stability. I would go further and say most backs that I see have insufficient stability – whether tuned with the core, or not. The truth is – Some people do not need to get looser – some are severely compressed but this is generally in the older population (stenosis). But the lion’s share of my clients; They need to regain control. Spinal instability is often misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and mistreated. If you keep stretching, twisting, and mobilizing an unstable spine, you may be digging the hole deeper. The answer is not to become rigid and crush yourself either. The answer is tuned stiffness, clean movement, and a proper assessment that shows you what your spine actually needs. In many cases, the path forward is not more motion. It is better control.
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