Lower back pain can have such a negative impact on your day-to-day life. It can make it difficult to sit at a desk at work, exercise, do heavy lifting or even simply get out of bed. Not to mention, when it lasts for a long period of time, it can put you in a cranky mood. Thankfully, there are things you can do to feel better. Here are Pain Resource’s tips for lower back pain relief.
Exercise
This might sound counter-intuitive, but read on a little bit further before you write this off. “The most common back problems happen because people who aren’t in shape start doing heavy lifting or hard work and stress their back,” says Santiago Figuereo, M.D., neurological surgeon and founder and medical director of the Miami Neurological Institute.
When your muscles aren’t strong, your spine ends up working too hard. This can lead to degeneration of the spine. When you build up your back muscles through exercise, however, your muscles provide your spine with the strength it needs to stay healthy and function properly.
Because of this, physical therapy is an often-recommended back pain treatment. Even better, you can actually prevent back issues by staying in shape.
Stretch
Stretching helps your back muscles to remain flexible, reducing the likelihood for injury. Any time you’re going to exercise or do some type of heavy lifting, take a few moments to stretch beforehand. You can also get into the habit of stretching first thing when you wake up in the morning, or right before bed at night.
Practicing yoga has helped many people with back pain find relief that they haven’t been able to find otherwise.
“Yoga is great for working on flexibility and core stability, correcting posture, and breathing—all of which are necessary for a healthy back,” says Sasha Cyrelson, P.T., D.P.T., O.C.S., clinical director at Professional Physical Therapy in Sicklerville, New Jersey.
Get Up and Get Moving
A common cause of lower back pain is sitting all day. Many people who work at a computer all day don’t realize that they end up sitting in the same place for hours at a time. This puts a lot of unnecessary stress on the lower back, causing pain.
Doing something as simple as setting an alarm on your phone every 50 minutes as a reminder to stand up can make a huge difference. Every 50 minutes stand up, stretch, walk around the office a little bit. If your co-workers won’t give you a side-eye, you might even find a quiet place to do some yoga stretches.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
When you’re overweight, your body puts added stress on your spine. “Staying fit is one of the most important recommendations for avoiding back pain,” says Dr. Figuereo. Regular exercise and eating a healthy diet can help you to maintain a healthy weight.
Do you suffer from back pain? What are your tips for low back pain relief? Please leave a comment below to share what has worked well for you to effectively manage your back pain.
It’s great to learn that staying fit and healthy will help you fight against back pain. My brother is getting older and he was wondering how he can keep his lower back from hurting in the morning. I’ll be sure to tell him that he should stay active to fight his lower back pain.
It’s interesting to learn that yoga can help people with back pain find pain relief. My wife is struggling with pain in her back and she was wondering what she can do to relieve some of her pain. I’ll be sure to tell her that she should do yoga to help relieve pain in her back.
From my experience, exercise and stretching are best for back pain. But sometimes I wonder if somebody already suffering from back pain how can he perform the exercise.
My husband has been struggling with low back pain, and we are looking for advice about what to do. It’s interesting to know that exercise regularly will keep your muscles strong and prevent low back pain. I will let him know about your recommendations to help him relieve back pain.
I appreciate your tip to move more to help with lower back pain. I work at a computer all day and by the end of the day, my lower back usually hurts pretty badly. I’ll be sure to give these tips a try, but I may also have to see a chiropractor.
I wanted to thank you for explaining what could help with lower back pain. It’s good to know that building up muscles in your back through exercise can help give your spine the strength it needs. Maybe it could be good to start with simple exercises to slowly improve your back muscles before trying anything extreme.