The Three Worst Exercises For Low Back Pain

Three of the most common exercises purported to reduce back pain actually can cause more harm than good. In fact, some of these exercises are downright dangerous. Given the frequency with which these harmful exercises are prescribed, it is not surprising that most people experience back pain at some point in their life and typical medical treatment is not effective for reducing the pain.

The first harmful exercise is the "Superman", which involves laying down on your stomach and lifting up your arms and legs. This causes a strong contraction in the lower back.

The primary reason that this exercise is dangerous is that any time you hyper-extend your spine, the facet joints (one of the joints between adjacent vertebrae) are compressed in a compromising position. The facet joints are incredibly sensitive and often the site of many people's back pain.

Adding a muscular contraction in this position can result in forces in excess of 6000 Newtons (a Newton is a unit of force). To get an idea of what this type of force means, the NIOSH, which is a safety organization run by the American government, states that the maximum allowable force in the workplace is 6700 Newtons.

The "Superman" exercise approaches the maximum safe level of force spinal compression in a hyper-extended (compromised) position, making this exercise a true spine destroyer.

The deceptive thing about this exercise is that usually motion (of any kind) provides relief at first, so this exercise might temporarily reduce pain. However, given the damage it can cause to the facet joints, this exercise is bound to increase back pain levels over time.

The second harmful exercise is the crunch or sit-up. It does not matter whether or not this exercise is performed with the knees bent, straight, as a full sit-up, just a crunch, or on a Swiss ball; this exercise will inevitably cause damage to the spine.

This is counter-intuitive as the popular belief is that increasing "core" strength will reduce back pain. The truth is that increasing abdominal strength is not associated with back pain at all (however, muscular endurance does protect against back pain).

The problem with the crunch is that lab research has discovered that the easiest way to herniate a disc is to repetitively perform flexion (flexing) to extension (straightening back to normal) movements (a crunch involves flexing then extending the spine repeatedly).

As a result, performing crunches can increase disc wear and tear in addition to ultimately creating or worsening herniated discs.

The final exercise is the side-crunch. This exercise for the obliques involves holding a dumbbell or weight in the hand and then bending down to the side and back up. This is bad for the back for the same reasons that a crunch is: repeatedly flexing and extending (straightening) the spine is liable to herniate a disc.

Lower Back Ache - 2 Simple Cures

Lower back ache, you may have heard by now, is the second most common reason to see your doctor. There is a problem with this statistic...

It means that there are literally millions of people that do not know how to help them self. Frightening to think only a few people know how to ease their lower back ache and the simple ways to stop it returning. Sure you still need to see your doctor if you have had a serious fall or injury - but in over 97% of all lower back pain cases, specific injuries were not the cause.

Most lower backache is from doing so called "normal" daily activity. You may have been doing house-hold chores, doing gardening, shifting furniture or even making your bed. Others may have noticed that each day their back become more and more stiff and sore.

It is only ever a few people that have significant falls or injuries that started their back ache. For those - see your doctor to make sure you do not have anything serious to be concerned about. For the rest of you ...

There are many simple and quick ways you can use to help ease your lower back pain. Lower back pain is caused by 4 main issues - tight muscles, weak muscles, poor joint movement and pelvic imbalance. You need to correct these or your lower backache will return again ... and often worse as you age.

There are two exercises that help to strengthen the main muscular causes. Do these and your back ache will ease - if not then you need to use other techniques to address either the joints or pelvis that is obviously the bigger cause.

But onto what to do now...

Firstly you need to build strength in your lower abdominal muscles. This is achieved by doing lower abdominal exercise, however you may need to stimulate their nerve and blood supply first to maintain their strength over longer periods of time.

To exercise the muscle, lie on your back with your knees bent. You then rock your pelvis- this means pulling your pubic bone towards your belly button, by flattening your lower back against the floor. Hold this position for 6 seconds and then relax and take a deep breath in and out. Repeat this 3 times, 3 times each day.

If the nerve and blood supply to the muscle is strong, then this is enough exercise to gain strength in the muscle within a few days. Your lower back pain can ease very quickly.

The second exercise is to strengthen your lower back muscles. Again stimulate the nerve and blood supply and then lie on the floor face down. Raise your shoulders off the ground as far as you can comfortably, hold there for 6 seconds and then relax an take a deep breath in and out. Like with the lower abdominals, do this 3 times, 3 times each day to gain the strength you need to improve your lower back pain.

Although back ache is caused by the 4 main factors (tight muscles, weak muscles, joint movement, & pelvic balance), these exercises can help top ease you lower back pain. Even if they ease your lower back ache quickly you should still address the 4 main factors if you want long term permanent relief from your lower back ache.

Natural Lower Back Pain Relief - Holistic Approaches to Your Back Health

Are you looking for natural lower back pain relief? Do you live in Fort Collins, Colorado and wish that you could get out and do all the things this beautiful city has to offer? As you know, living in Fort Collins gives one access to a multitude of outdoor activities that can be done year round, and for those who love to stay active, there really is no better place to be. But if you're stuck at home with a bum back, it can be hard to really get out there and do all those fun things in the Colorado sun. Even daily tasks can be daunting when dealing with lower back pain.

Thankfully Fort Collins also has a wonderful holistic community that can help you get back on your feet quickly, without the use of drugs or invasive procedures. Here are some holistic techniques to try that will get you back in the saddle again...or the snowshoes...or the skis...or the snowboard, or....well, you get the idea!

Massage

Massage is probably the best known modality for releasing tension within the body, and is an excellent way to relieve back pain. There are different styles of massage ranging from relaxation to therapeutic. The severity of your back pain will more than likely determine the style you choose. Relaxation massage is wonderful for increasing blood flow, lessening pain and tension and can possibly increase the range of motion in your back. Sports massage, neuromuscular rehabilitation techniques and other therapeutic styles focus more on increasing range motion, re-organizing muscle fibers to an appropriate resting length, and correcting established muscular patterns so they are more healthy and functional. Either way, massage is great way to relieve back pain.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been around for thousands of years. By focusing on the channels of energy that run through the body, also known as meridians, an Acupuncturist can recognize any blocks that are causing pain and dysfunction in the body. An Acupuncturist stimulates our meridians by placing thin needles accurately and gently underneath the skin along the lines of the energy channel. This stimulation helps to remove the blocks that are preventing our life-force from flowing freely. The result is a body that is pain-free, balanced, and healthy.

Yoga

Also an ancient practice of health and wellness, yoga has been embraced by our culture enthusiastically, and its popularity continues to grow. Yoga is a wonderful exercise to help alleviate lower back pain. Its gentle, slow and methodical stretches, coupled with deep breathing can have a profound effect on the body and mind. Yoga looks to establish in its practitioners core strength, flexibility, quiet mindfulness, and overall health.

Network Chiropractic Care

While still considered a form of chiropractic care, Network Chiropractic techniques are completely different than traditional methods. In a session, the Chiropractor focuses on releasing distortions within the spinal cord by gently applying pressure to the connection points of where the spinal cord and vertebrae touch. Rather than focusing on adjusting the vertebrae themselves, as in traditional chiropractic, Network Chiropractic focuses on specific contact points, called spinal gateways, which alters the state or tone of the spinal cord, allowing the vertebrae to self correct and the neurology to release tension held in the system. Not only will Network Chiropractic alleviate lower back pain, it supports the body in staying balanced and healthy, eliminating future occurrences.

Treatment For Back Pain - 4 Exercises to Relieve Middle-Back Pain

If you need natural treatment for pain in your mid-back muscles, there are a few powerful, but simple, exercises that you can use. First, discover why you need these exercises, especially. Then, learn them and practice them.

Middle-back muscles.
The muscles in your mid-back region work with your thoracic vertebrae and ribs. They provide stability and security for the thoracic spine.

Due to the interconnectedness of the thoracic tissues, they may be less vulnerable to injury. But without movement, you can feel stiff and locked-up.

To prevent tension and pain, the thoracic area needs movement and stimulation.

Dynamic movement.
The middle-back muscles need dynamic movement to stay loose. They need movement in different directions.

You can practice several different exercises, but if they work the muscle fibers in the same direction, then you might not relieve tension or pain.

These 4 exercises are simple, but they are powerful. This combination of exercises will make your mid-back muscles stronger and looser:

1) Flyes, or modified Rows- Hold a pair of medium-sized hand-weights or dumbbells. Lean over, making your torso parallel with the floor. For a reverse flye, raise your arms up to the sides, keeping the elbows just slightly bent throughout the movement. Your goal is to squeeze the muscles between your shoulder blades.

2) Opposition Arm-Leg Raise- This simple floor exercise is to elongate the torso, lengthening your spine. This makes you feel taller. Kneel on a mat first. Raise your right arm and left leg at the same time. Focus on lengthening them as you lift them. Then do the same with the left arm and right leg. Notice that you are using the leg opposite the arm.

3) Rotational Stretches- To loosen up the muscles between your neck and lower back, you need to stretch with a gentle twist. Do these when you take a break from your desk at work, or when you stop for a rest while driving.

4) Cardio- How does this help the mid-back? Cardio, or aerobic exercise, improves blood-flow and loosens joints. It's as simple as running an errand, or taking a brisk walk. Cardio is critical for all-over health, which carries over to back muscles.

With just these 4 exercises, you can achieve both short-term and long-lasting relief from the muscle pain and tension in your middle-back muscles.

Lower Back Pain Relief - Looking For a Natural Solution?

Millions of people around the world are crying out for lower back pain relief. A high proportion of them are suffering from a personally-generated, musculo-skeletal system dysfunction. That being the case, getting better by having someone do something to them is drawing a long bow. They have to do something to themselves. Once they grasp that concept, many - though not all - will start getting better.

For many of these people, rubbing, crunching, heating and vibrating the spot where it hurts isn't providing the relief they are craving.

If it is, it's only because they keep going back for more treatment.

The only thing that relieves the pain is an anti-inflammatory drug, but they know that's not restoring poor function to good. They also know that under the pharmaceutical regime the condition is getting worse.

Most therapists overlook the underlying cause of the problem because their attention is intuitively focused on the spot where it hurts.

The X-rays show that there are bones in the lower back that are out of alignment. The therapeutic urge is usually to try and push them back into alignment.

However, unless the cause of the movement of the bones is found and treated, the body in its wisdom will pull the bones back out of alignment, just in time for the next visit.

So what is the likely cause of the problem?

For a high proportion of people the problem stems from a pelvis that is out of alignment. When that happens the bones about it are automatically drawn out of alignment to keep the body in some semblance of balance. It's a bit like a house. When the foundation moves the bricks above it move, the walls crack.

The aim of treatment for lower back pain relief is to get the foundation - in this case the pelvis - squared up. When that happens there's a good chance the bones above the pelvis will be drawn back into better alignment. Pain is relieved.

Having got this far the next question is, 'What is it that causes the pelvis to move out of alignment?' The short answer is tight muscles attached to it, usually the hamstring, buttock and muscles in the groin area.

The next question is, 'What causes those muscles to tighten up?'

The short answer to that question is sitting down for years on end without a regular and systematic flexibility training program.

Sitting down looks easy, yet subtly, nanometre by nanometre muscles shorten. Muscles on one side of the body usually become shorter than muscles on the other side. Couple that with muscles throughout the body becoming weaker, it's almost inevitable that the pelvis and the bones above it will move out of alignment.

How do you know which muscles are tight?

If you can't sit up straight, with an 'S' shaped curve in your spine, bottom close in against a wall, legs straight out and pain free, your hamstrings are too tight.

If you can't sit up straight with your legs crossed and your hands clasped behind your back, your buttock muscles are too tight.

If you're lying face down on the floor with knees wide apart, your legs in the frog position and soles of the feet together, and you can't get your abdomen and toes to rest comfortably on the floor, the muscles in your groin area are too tight.

It is not a tough assignment for anyone to work out which muscles are too tight.

Tight muscles are not caused by a lack of rubbing, crunching, heating, vibrating or paracetamol, so using those therapeutic modalities to gain lower back pain relief is not the best way to treat the cause of the problem.

So what is the best way to get lower back pain relief? The simple answer is to start doing the exercises that loosen off the tight muscles around the pelvis and strengthen weak muscles throughout the body.

There are a number of flexibility exercises that you can do at home on the floor while you watch TV. For best effect it will take an hour or two each night for these muscles to gradually start loosening off. If it's taken 60,000 hours for these muscles to tighten up, would you be prepared to spend 100 hours over the next a couple of months to loosen them off?

Getting your body back into better alignment is not a particularly quick fix, but there again, it's a big ask expecting to fix in a few minutes something that has taken years to develop.

Nevertheless, in a few days you may feel some relief. In a few weeks you'll feel much better. In a few months you'll be able to feel a real difference. You'll be able sit up straighter. In fact the straighter you can sit, with an 'S' shaped curve in your lower spine, the higher the likelihood you'll have lower back pain relief.

There are four great body strengthening exercises you can do at home - situps, pressups, squats and back arches. At the most, all up, they'll take you less than four minutes every second day. If you want to get better, just find the time. When you can do 20 situps, pressups and squats and a minute's worth of Superman back arches you'll probably be feeling better.

There are many strength exercises you can do in the gym. It's a known fact that the stronger people are the lower the risk of lower back pain.

The other enemy of the lower back is obesity. Once you weight more than 20Kg over your ideal weight, the chances of lower back pain increase exponentially.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and the more time you can spend loosening tight muscles and strengthening weak muscles the sooner you'll experience lower back pain relief. Don't ask what your therapist can do for you, ask what you can do for yourself.

Relief From Lower Back And Hip Pain

It is time to leave behind all those pain killers for chronic aches and pains and concentrate on natural remedies for lower back and hip pain.

Despite the fact that instant pain killers and medicines can relieve hip pain in minutes, they rarely address your basic problem at its root. Whatever the problem might be, using pain meds again and again will only make your body more immune to the drug you are using.

What Does Intake Of Drugs Imply?

As a result of the natural aging process the human body becomes less capable of handling extreme pressures. Although a good dose of regular exercise and a good diet can go a long way in minimizing these effects, the lower back and hip portions have to bear the brunt of the extra weight of the body and this can lead to perpetual aches.

Sometimes in cases of injury to the back you may have a continuous lower back and hip pain which refuses to go away even after the injured area is healed. Incessant use of allopathic medicines might cause irreparable damage to different organs of the body depending on the strength of the drug. The only way to prevent this is to stop using drugs for extended periods of time.

Instead of painkiller medications that are prescribed to you, you can turn to natural methods which do not cause any side effects and help calm down the body and relieve back pain naturally.

Natural Remedies For Lower Back Pain

In recent times people have begun to question the wisdom of swallowing over the counter drugs and are increasingly judging the side effects they cause over a period of time.

Through this sort of investigation they have realized that natural medicines and natural aids, including herbals, can successfully curb lower back pain.

Suffering from occasional lower back and hip pain does not mean that it is going to be your life-long companion and will come back again and again to haunt you. Treating your body with natural ingredients and medicines can help pain relieve in a safe and natural way.

Some of the natural ingredients that are used in these medicines include turmeric, papain, ginger extracts, among hundreds of others that have been used for centuries. Every one of these wonderful herbs contains something that nature has provided to help humans get relief from whatever kind of pain they are having.

Using these natural methods, one can soothe their lower back and hip pain. Not only will natural remedies alleviate the pain but they can also calm the entire body and all without having to turn to over the counter drugs.

Conclusion

Drugs and medicines sometimes have to be used in extreme cases. But their use over a long period of time can create more problems rather than solving them. Instead of depending on these dangerous drugs, turning to natural extracts and herbs for relieving your lower back and hip pain can naturally help to reduce the pain and heal the body in the safest way possible.

Lower Back Pain Relief Tips - Some Treatments

Lower back pain is a common problem for Americans. Around 90% of people in the United States have suffered from the problem at least once in their lives. This problem is commonly not a disease, but rather a symptom that occurs from other health problems. Most of the time, the uneasy feeling is generated by no specific reason and just disappears. When the problem attacks, here are some treatments you can try for relieving the symptom.

1. Capsaicin cream

Capsaicin is the active ingredient found in chili peppers which creates the hot burning sensation. When applied to the skin, the cream works as an analgesic which reduces the ache. In a study of the connection between lower back pain and capsaicin cream, it is found that 42% of 160 patients who regularly used the cream during 3 weeks improved their lower back cases. The result is better than the other experiment group; among 160 people who were treated with placebo, only 31% showed significant improvement. The cream can be found in drugstores, health food stores, or purchased online.

2. Massage

This method is one of the most popular treatments for relieving lower back pain. In fact, research revealed that massage is effective for relieving chronic and subacute pain. Massage is also known to reduce anxiety and depression which often come with the chronic ache. For pregnant women who suffer from the lower back problem, massage is the most often used therapy.

3. Willow Bark

White willow tree bark works similar to aspirin to reduce pain. The willow bark contains salicin which turns into salicylic acid when consumed. The same way also applies to aspirin; when the aspirin is consumed, the substance turns into salicylic acid. Salicylic acid is known as the remedy for aches as well as inflammations.

4. Yoga

Yoga balances the function of our body with its series of poses. This body exercise also helps improving strength and flexibility. When taken regularly, yoga can relieve chronic back pain. You have to take regular yoga classes at least three months in a row to see the result of the remedy.

5. Acupuncture

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that pain is resulted by blocked energy in our body. Acupuncture needles help unblocking the blockage thus relieving the pain. Scientifically, it is found that the inserted needles make the body releases natural pain-relieving opioids which calms our sympathetic nervous system. However, acupuncture cannot be done only once. Just as yoga, you need to undergo a series of the therapy to get satisfying result.