University of Waterloo U Study Recommends Best Sex Positions To Ease Back Pain During Lovemaking

As people age, they feel different kinds of body pains, but yet they need to continue with their daily routine, including having sex. Since sexual activities normally involve pelvic or hip movements, some lovemaking positions that were easy to engage in during their younger days become more difficult and cause back pain.

To help couples, both heterosexual and homosexual pairs, address this problem, the University of Waterloo in Canada made a study to identify lovemaking positions that could help couples still enjoy sex even if one of them has back pain problems.

According to Natalie Sidorkewicz, lead author of the study, for men with back pain, they should control movements using their hips and knees instead of their spines. By maintaining a neutral spine position, they reduce lower back strain.

The study recommends that people who experienced terrible back pain when they touch their feet or sit for long periods of time must avoid spooning, more known as the missionary position in which the man is on top of the woman, because it is the worst position for the person controlling the movement, usually the man.

In particular, the study recommends the couple must eschew the missionary position in which the arms are propped on the elbows. They must rather use a missionary variation in which the person controlling the movement is propped on his or her hands or the rear-entry position in which the partner is propped on their elbows.

For couples in which one suffers from extension-intolerant back pain, lying on the back or stomach while lovemaking is a no-no. Instead, they should opt for spooning.

To make the recommendations, the research team recruited 10 health males and 10 health female partners who must have at least one year of sex experience with each other and do not have lower back pains.

They were made to put on reflective markers that served as sensors similar to what visual effects experts and video game animators use to create a model of spine angles of five different sex positions. The researches likewise monitored the hard muscles worked during lovemaking and muscles affected by orgasms.

The pioneer study is the first to investigate the biomechanics of the spine during lovemaking. It provides physicians solid evidence to recommend sex positions to patients suffering from lower back pain which run into millions.

Previous recommendations on sexual positions and techniques in existing literature and textbooks were based on opinion, not science, noted University of Waterloo professor Stuart McGill. He said that the university would have another study with focus on the spine movements of the female partner, orgasm's effect on spine movements and an assessment of the sex position recommendations made on the current study.

The American Chiropractic Association estimates that in the US, 31 million people have lower back pain.

Here's more information about sex and back pain by Dr Mandell.

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