What is the difference between back sprains and strains the difference here is a P and then a T. Let’s start with the T a strain is to the muscle it’s a sudden over pulling of the muscle and there are different grades of strain their grade one two and three a grade one strain is just an over pulling of the muscles but there’s no real tearing a grade two is a partial tear and a grade three is a full complete tear which is rare in the spine but not rare and other joints of the body so that’s a strain a muscle strain a muscle sprain is a little different it’s not really a muscle we’re talking about ligaments that join bone for example in the knee there’s lots of ligaments in the knee and they oats can be torn the same way grade 1 grade 2 grade 3 but in the back there are small little ligaments that go between their vertebral bodies that will show you and those ligaments could be injured as well either over pulled by a sudden force or fall or some type of trauma so a strain is to the muscle with a tea and a sprain is to the ligament keep in mind that muscles also have tendons when the muscle joins to the bone it’s joined by a tendon so those are the areas that commonly are affected with a muscle strain so it could be you in the muscle or it could be in the tendon it connects the muscle to the bone.