Low back pain is a reality for most adults. According to the National Institutes of Health, this condition afflicts about 80 percent of all men and women and is one of the leading causes of job-related disability and missed days at work.
The pain can vary in severity—from a dull sense of tightness or discomfort, to an alarmingly sharp jolt. Most people suffer from the acute variety of low back pain which usually lasts a few days or weeks. This condition is often caused by a musculoskeletal disruption negatively impacting the alignment and movement of the spine, discs, muscles and nerves.
Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do address acute low back pain. Here are five surprisingly simple steps that can help you avoid or reduce the severity of your pain.
Stand up straight
Believe it or not, when your parents or teachers told you to stand up straight and stop slouching, they were giving you sound medical advice! Good posture is tremendously important in maintaining a healthy back but the list of benefits isn't limited to the bones, muscles and nerves of the back. Maintaining good posture can positively impact breathing, organ function, and muscle activation during exercise. It can even alter your mood and hormones, and contribute to a sense of wellbeing.
Sit up straight
Sitting for long periods of time can destroy good posture and is damaging to your health. Unfortunately, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 1 in 4 Americans report sitting for more than 8 hours a day. Even if you don’t sit for that long, modern life often demands extended bouts of sitting each day which doesn't help.
Sitting in a slouched or hunched position creates serious misalignments in the spine and surrounding bone and muscle structures which inevitably lead to lower back pain. The problems don’t end there. Improper sitting posture can lead to poor blood flow to the brain, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, poor digestion, increased fatigue and can even negatively impact your mood.
The remedy is to avoid sitting for too long and if you must sit—straighten up!
Walk 20 to 30 minutes daily for exercise
According to that same CDC research mentioned above, only 3% of a representative sample of all Americans said that they sat for less than 4 hours a day and were physically active. Fortunately, given the hectic nature of daily life, it doesn’t take rigorous exercise to keep back pain at bay. A simple stroll of 20 to 30 minutes each day can be highly effective.
Stretch your chest, hamstrings and calf muscles every day.
For many, this will probably be the most surprising step in relieving lower back pain. Most people don’t realize that tight hamstring muscles can hurt lower back function by limiting the movement of the pelvis thus forcing the lumbar spine to overextend.
Likewise, calves play a big role not only because they work together with the hamstrings but because they are the main muscles responsible for our forward movement. Because they work so hard to keep us going, they can get tight and that tightness can inhibit proper alignment during standing or walking. It is remarkable but it works. If you have lower back pain, try stretching your calves!
Strengthen your hips, knees, upper back, low back and abdominal core muscles.
It should not be surprising that strengthening the muscles around, or supporting, your lower back will have massively beneficial effects on proper lower back functioning. In fact, weak abdominal muscles do a poor job of supporting the lumbar spine and can increases your pelvic tilt thus creating lumbar disc pressure (among other negative impacts). Strengthening your hips, knees, upper back and ab muscles will pay big dividends in reducing or eliminating lower back pain.
It's not just your back
As you can no doubt appreciate, the human body is a beautifully complex and integrated system. This means that we can’t think of lower back pain in isolation but rather as part of a bigger system. These five steps take that “system” philosophy into account and are a simple way to get started.
I’ll be sharing more information on the best exercises to target all these areas in future posts. Please stay tuned for that.
If you are suffering with acute lower back pain and would like to work with a certified professional immediately to start relieving that pain, we can help.
Please contact us: https://www.hidfittherapy.com/contact
