Back pain affects about 80 percent of adults at some point in their lives, the Mayo Clinic says, and often the reason for back pain is a lumbar (lower back) muscle strain. A pulled lumbar muscle has either been torn or excessively stretched. Sometimes the damage affects both the muscle and the tendons attached to it. The resulting lower back pain you experience can last from just a few days to several weeks. Many common activities (such as playing sports or lifting heavy objects) can put too much pressure on your lumbar muscles, causing them to become strained. The damage can occur suddenly or over a prolonged period of time.
Acute Causes
You can suffer an acute lumbar muscle strain if you stretch one or more of your back muscles too abruptly or too far, resulting in a muscle pull or tear, the Mayo Clinic reports. That can happen in a variety of ways, including lifting a heavy object, lifting any object in an awkward position, running, jumping, throwing or slipping on ice, says the Mayo Clinic.
Chronic Causes
You can experience a chronic lumbar muscle strain if you repeatedly move one or more of your back muscles for a prolonged period of time, reports the Mayo Clinic. That can happen at work when you do physical labor or when you're engaging in sports, such as gymnastics, rowing, golf or tennis, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Risk Factors
Certain risk factors contribute to what causes muscle strains by leaving you vulnerable to them. One of those factors, the Mayo Clinic says, is fatigue. When you're tired, you're more likely to make decisions that can overextend a muscle or stress a joint than when you're well rested, says the Mayo Clinic. And when your muscles themselves are tired, the Mayo Clinic adds, they're less likely to provide good support for your joints than they would if you were well rested. A 1996 Duke University Medical Center research study published in the "American Journal of Sports Medicine" showed that fatigued muscles were able to absorb less energy than well-rested muscles before reaching the degree of stretching that causes injuries.
Another risk factor that contributes to muscle strains is poor athletic conditioning that can leave your muscles weak (and therefore more likely to sustain injury), according to the Mayo Clinic. Yet another risk factor to consider is failing to properly warm up before vigorous exercise. The Mayo Clinic says that a proper warm-up will loosen your muscles and increase the range of motion in your joints, which will make your muscles less prone to strains.
