Syntax

Syntactic actants

Actant 1: whose back it is
(a) Genitive
(b) Possessive
Поясница бабушки была всегда обмотана платком. Grandma always had a shawl wrapped around the small of her back.
Поясница её сильно ныла. Her lower back ached badly.
NB When the word поясница functions as a subject and does not have a descriptive modifier, the construction поясница у + Genitive is often preferred to (a) and (b), above:
Поясница у бабушки была всегда обмотана платком. Grandma always had a shawl wrapped around the small of her back.