Many of us suffer from back pain. Whether it is from an injury we had, or from simple stress and genetics, back pain can be an all encompassing pain that really is life interrupting if you don’t know how to manage it.
Many people think, intuitively, that when you are in pain, you should stay still and this will help. That is exactly opposite of what is true. Staying still, and leading a sedentary lifestyle where you get little movement and sit in a chair a lot is the WORST thing you can do for back pain.
Moving around helps to loosen up the muscles, get the blood flowing, and perhaps most importantly gets enorphins and pleasure chemicals released in the brian, which helps to offset any of the pain you might be feeling in your back. The same goes for neck pain, and often times back, neck and shoulder pain go hand in hand.
Think of moving as lubing up the body. It helps to loosen the joints, and also helps to keep you mobile and agile as you age and your joints, bones and muscles inevitably become less elastic and more prone to injury.
Exercises like yoga, swimming and water aerobics are excellent for those that exeperience back pain. The elliptical machine is a great way to get your cardio in if you have a sensitive back or joints in your leg that act up, since it has almost zero impact on the muscles and the joints.
Walking is an excellent workout for those with back pain. In fact, just walking and standing in the upright position helps us to stay mobile and flexible, whereas sitting and laying down really allow the muscles to atrophy and to become inflexible.
It’s all about maintaining movement and flexibility in the body. If you have a desk job, make sure you get up and walk around once every hour. If you can’t actually get up and walk around, make sure you at least stand up from your chair and move around your cube or office, or stretch your back.
If you are going to do yoga for your back pain, be mindful that some poses are not back friendly if you are not flexible enough yet, and must be eased into instead of forcing your body into them. This can actually create more pain or result in injury, so take it slow.
Many exercises for flabby arms also help to ease back pain, such as supermans and kickbacks, all of which help to strengthen the lower back and help prevent back pain and weakness.
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This entry was posted on Monday, July 11th, 2011 at 10:53 am and is filed under Fitness Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.