When the act of getting sex is becoming a problem within the back (literally, not figuratively), you might be interested to know that, contrary to public opinion, spooning isn’t the best position to use when getting intimate with your significant other, according to researchers in the Spine Biomechanics Laboratory at University of Waterloo in Ontario.
Writing within the September 15 edition from the journal Spine, authors Natalie Sidorkewicz and Dr. Stuart M. McGill recruited 10 healthy, young couples in established relationships. Each couple was asked to perform five different sex positions (two variations from the missionary position, two variations of the quadruped or hands-and-knees position, and a spooning position) in random order.
The researchers then used motion capture technology to trace to movement of every person’s spine, and then measured spinal motion and estimated the strain on the male partner’s spine for each of the five positions. The outcomes showed a tremendous variation in terms of the rate and extent of spinal movement, and also the strategies for back pain patients depends on which movements triggered discomfort, they explained.
“Spooning had previously been considered a one-position-fits-all for men and women with back pain,” Sidorkewicz told Abby Phillip from the Washington Post on Wednesday. “That ignores the truth that you will find different kinds of lower back pain triggered by different kinds of movements.”
For example, in the event of flexion-intolerant pain (that is induced by bending the spine forwards), a quadruped position where the woman supports her weight using her joints would place the least strain on the male partner’s spine, accompanied by the missionary position with the man using his hands to aid his torso.
When it comes to the spooning position, they discovered that it produced the best amount of stress on the spine from the male partner if they were flexion-intolerant. Those findings contradict the present assumption that spooning was perfect for all patients with low back pain, but Sidorkewicz said that those claims were not supported by scientific evidence.
“Before now, spooning was often recommended by physicians as the one position that suit all. But because we’ve discovered, that is not the situation. Sex positions that are ideal for one sort of back pain aren’t right for a different type of pain,” she told The Telegraph.
“For the very first time ever, we’ve very solid science to steer clinicians on their own recommendations for patients who are suffering debilitating lower back pain, but nonetheless want to be intimate. This has the potential to improve quality of life C and love-life C for many couples,” Sidorkewicz added.
She and McGill intend to publish research about the impact of sexual activity around the female spine in the near future, and afterwards, the next thing of the research will involve recruiting patients with hip pain and extra types of lower back pain to help get the guidelines.
The research authors said they hope that this work will help open the channels of sex-related communication between patients suffering from back pain and their doctors, writing, “Many health care professionals feel uncomfortable discussing their client’s sexual needs or don’t address these needs whatsoever. Perhaps the provision of recommendations qualified with empirical data will not only substantiate their clinical advice, but also facilitate dialogue between health care practitioners and their patients in regards to this important issue.”
