The back is an intricate structure that is made up of many different parts but all these parts have a specific purpose. This purpose is to help support the weight of your body and to protect your spinal cord. While all of these parts have a different job to do that is the main purpose. A healthy spine is one that is strong enough to allow you to stand upright, bend over, and twist. An injury to any of these parts can greatly impact your life as you are no longer able to go about your daily activities pain free.

Anatomy of your Spine

Muscles
There are two types of muscles in the back, your extensors and your flexors. If you where to lift an object you would be using your extensors, if you bend forward you would be using your flexors. Your extensors are attached to the back of your spine and your flexors are attached in the front of your body and would include your stomach muscles. Both of these muscles are critical in stabilizing your spine and if you are having back pain it can be very beneficial to work these muscles to provide more support to the back.

Ligaments
Your ligaments are strong fibrous bands that are used to hold your vertebrae together, stabilize the spine and protect your inter vertebral discs.

Vertebrae
Your spine has 33 vertebrae but only 24 of these are movable while the rest are fused together. Your 24 vertebrae that are not fused together are numbered and divided into regions, each region being responsible for a certain function.

From top to bottom your 24 movable bones are 7 cervical (neck) numbered C1-C7, 12 thoracic (mid-back) numbered T1-T12, and 5 lumbar (lower back). Your 7 cervical bones help support the weight of your head and allow you to move your head up and down or side to side. Your 12 thoracic bones are there to protect the organs by providing a place for your ribs to attach, and your lumbar bones help to bear the weight of your body.

Your fused vertebrae are 5 sacral, and 4 coccygeal and those also have a role and provide a needed function. Your sacral bones provide attachment for the hip bones and protect the pelvic organs and your coccygeal bones provide a place for your muscles, tendons and ligaments to attach to.

Inter vertebral Discs
You have 23 inter vertebral discs one between each of the vertebrae in your spine and they act like a shock absorber limiting the impact on your spine as you go about your daily activities. These discs are made up of a tough outer shell called the annulus fibrous. This tough outer shell is used to house the soft gel center that is needed to absorb shock.

Facet Joints
On each of your vertebra there are 4 facet joints, they are located on the sides and the top and bottom. Your top ones would connect to the vertebrae above it and the ones located on the bottom would connect to the vertebrae on the bottom, by doing this they keep the spine together and allow you to move the back.