Prevention

Yoga For Back Pain Relief

Good, regular yoga practice will go a long way to relieving the stress and tension that can sometimes cause mild back pain. In fact, studies have shown that yoga is the number one most effective exercise for relieving back pain.

However, not all yoga poses relieve back pain and some can actually aggravate the existing pain, so it is important to know which poses will be most helpful in relieving back pain.

It is best to do these exercises under the supervision of a certified yoga instructor and if you encounter any problems with these poses, you should consult an expert. Even just one or two sessions with a yoga instructor can help, an instructor will help you with your form and posture during poses.

Here are some of the best yoga poses for relieving back pain. Each pose should be held from five to ten seconds, depending upon your level of comfort, and should be done on a mat or other soft, supportive surface.

Corpse: Lie flat on your back in a relaxed position, arms resting at your sides, palms down, and legs lying naturally, with knees turned out slightly. If it hurts your back to have your knees turned outward, do this pose with knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Breathe in and out for a few seconds while allowing any tension to leave the body.

Cat Stretch: Start out on your hands and knees with a flat back. Your hands should be directly under your shoulders with fingers spread. Knees should be directly under the hips. Head is held loosely so that you are looking at the floor between your hands. Inhale, and as you exhale, arch your back toward the ceiling, tuck your chin in to your chest so that you are looking at your navel, and tuck your tailbone underneath. Hold, then release back into your original position.

Wind Releasing Pole: Lie flat on your back as in Corpse pose. As you inhale, bend your knee, place your hands right below the knee, and draw your leg towards your chest. Your left leg should remain flat on the floor. Exhale and bring your forehead up to touch your knee. Inhale, and then as you exhale, return to your original position. Repeat with the other leg.

Sage Twist: Warning for this pose—it involves twisting your back, so you should take particular care not to twist too far or you risk aggravating any existing back pain. This should be a gentle stretch; twist just as far as is comfortable. Sit on the floor with both legs out in front of you. Bend your right knee, lift your right leg over your left, and place your right foot on the floor next to your left knee. Sitting with spine straight, place your left elbow on the right side of your right knee. Bend your left arm so that your left fingertips are touching your right hip, while at the same time, twisting to look over your right shoulder. This is where you need to be careful not to twist too far. Hold for a few seconds, release, and repeat on the opposite side.

Palm Tree: Stand with feet facing forward, arms at your sides, weight distributed evenly on both feet. Raise both arms over your head, interlock your fingers, and turn your hands so that your palms are facing upward. Next, place your palms on your head and turn your head so that you are looking slightly upward. Stretch your arms upwards, and at the same time, come up onto your toes if you can do so without pain. Stretch your entire body upward and hold, if you can. Some people have difficulty balancing during this pose, so just do the stretching parts if you need to.

Fish Pose: Lie on your back with knees bent and arms at your side. Arch your back as far as you comfortably can and raise it off the ground by pushing the floor with your elbows. If you can, tilt your head backwards and rest the crown of your head on the floor. Breathe deeply from the diaphragm and hold pose for one minute if you can.

Locust: Lie face down with arms at the side, palms down, and elbows slightly bent with fingers pointing towards the feet. Raise your legs and thighs as high off the ground as possible without causing your back any pain. Hold for one second and repeat up to twelve times. This can be a vigorous exercise so you must take care to strain already injured muscles.

Bending Forward Pose: Stand up straight with feet together and arms hanging loosely along your sides. Breathe in deeply and raise your arms straight above your head. While breathing out, bend forward and touch your toes if you can. If you can’t reach your toes, grab hold of your ankles or calves. To complete the pose, you should touch your head to your knees, but this may be too difficult for many who suffer from lower back pain. Your movements during this pose should be smooth, not jerky.

Exercise

Exercise

Exercise is anything you do in addition to your regular daily activity that will improve your flexibility, strength, coordination, or endurance. It even includes changing how you do your regular activities to give you some health benefits.

For example, if you park a little farther away from the door of the grocery store, the extra distance you walk is exercise. Physical therapy nearly always involves exercise of some kind that is specifically designed for your injury, illness, condition, or to help prevent future health problems.

Exercise can include stretching to reduce stress on joints, core stability exercises to strengthen the muscles of your trunk (your back and abdomen) and hips, lifting weights to strengthen muscles, walking, doing water aerobics, and many other forms of activity. Your physical therapist is likely to teach you how to do an exercise program on your own at home so you can continue to work toward your fitness goals and prevent future problems.

10 Prevention Tips

Back pain can be very excruciating and can snowball into a major medical problem if not attended to timely. Take note of the following tips to avoid back pain.

Tip 1: Follow Your Body Signs
Any harm that comes to the body is indicated through occurrence of pain. Hence, treat back pains seriously and take adequate precautions to first suppress it and later to avoid it.

Tip 2: Do Some Exercise to keep the Muscles Agile
We need to do a lot of work in our day to day life; the type of work done is also different as well. Our back muscles would start to pain if they are not habitual of bearing the strain of heavy work. You can work out in order to improve their strength. Further, damage can be avoided by doing some warm up exercise before doing any heavy work.

Tip 3: Avoid Injuries during Work by Warming up
It happens on a number of occasions that we attempt to do tasks which our back won’t be able to tolerate. What follows is back pain or injury. This can be avoided by warming up for a few minutes before you start doing the task.

Tip 4: Give your Body Enough Rest
Heavy work of any type should be followed by a period of relaxation. This would allow your body muscles to relax and recuperate. If you don’t do it, your back muscles would be the first one to get hit.

Tip 5: Pick up Things Correctly
The most frequently performed activity involving the back is picking up things. And most people suffer from back pain while performing this. The reason is simple- improper method of lifting. You should lift things properly and keep the back straight while holding them.

Tip 6: Do not Laze Around
Your muscles need to be always ready for some type of work or the other, otherwise they will hurt. Moving around the house or workplace regularly can help you avoid any type of injury to the back.

Tip 7: Use the Right Furniture to Sit on
Incorrect posture while sitting is one of the major causes of back pain. This can be avoided be sitting on a comfortable chair. It should have a back high enough to support your lower back as well as shoulders. Anything higher or lower could result in damage to your back.

Tip 8: Sleep in a Correct Posture
Sleeping on your chest is an awkward position to sleep in. It can also cause back pain. The best position to sleep in is the sideways position. Sleeping on your back is also good but do maintain a comfortable level of your head.

Tip 9: Avoid Indiscriminate use of Pain-killers
Do swallow pills like food if you have a back ache. Use them judiciously. First address the root cause of the problem and only then go on to medications.

Tip 10: Refer to a Chiropractor
When the situation goes out of hand, know that it is time to consult a chiropractor.

Back Ache Protection

Back pain can be one of the most annoying ailments that your body may suffer from. It will restrict your working ability by a severe extent. It is extremely important that you protect yourself from back pain so that you can work for long hours without much fatigue. Here are some guidelines to protect your back.

While in Bed
Whereas it might seem the most odd place for a back pain to crop up, it is important that you protect your back while in bed. You must make sure that your bed is back friendly. Excessively hard and excessively soft beds are both causes of back pain. You have to find a bed that is just the perfect in terms of both- tension and size, to protect your back. Proper mattress is also extremely important. Not all the people would be able to handle the common coir mattress. If you are one of them, you should choose a mattress with fiberfill.

While in Car
While you are driving, your back has to undergo a lot of stress. The bumps and fast braking are both big enemies of your back while on the road. For people who drive a lot, it is strongly advised that they should get a Shiatsu massaging seat. Such seats are easily available, starting from just $100. Such a seat would gently massage your back while driving. It is also important that you maintain proper seat position. Make sure that your position in car is not too rigid nor are you so stretched that someone may mistake you for lying down. It is also important that you get in and out of the car in the correct manner. This involves gently easing in and out of the cabin.

While at Work
This is the most common source of back pain. You should be very careful about the posture you sit in. For the people who have a desk job, getting an ergonomically designed chair is all the more important. Even if you are not able to procure an ergonomically designed chair, it is important to ensure that you sit upright, rest your back after some hours and take short walks after every two hours or so. If your work involves lifting things and moving them around, make sure that you do so in the correct way. The correct way is not to bend on your back to lift things but to bend on your knees so that your back remains perpendicular to the ground.

All in all, back pain can be easily prevented if you follow these guidelines and make sure that you get in touch with a doctor if you feel the slightest of backache.

Pilates Relieve Back Tension

1. Pilates is intended for women.  Wrong!

Though it is quite popular amongst women, many males also practice Pilates. Even professional athletes have used Pilates to achieve results that other types of exercise have failed to deliver.

In fact, Pilates was developed by man named Joseph Pilates who was an athlete and a boxer. Baseball pitcher Curt Shilling, Golfer – Tiger Woods, and Basketball Player Jason Kidd all incorporate Pilates into their workouts.

2. Pilates is for people that are already in shape!  Wrong!

In fact people that are overweight or out of shape should definitely start with Pilates. They will be able to strengthen their core muscle groups and stretch muscles to prevent injury when they do begin a strength training and cardiovascular workout.

3. Pilates has to be performed with equipment.  Wrong Again!

Some Pilates methods do involve pieces of equipment, however you can also do authentic Pilates workouts from the comfort of your home with only a simple floor mat. The advantage of starting with mat Pilates is that you can focus on improving your Pilates technique without having to worry about the complexity of equipment… plus it can be done anywhere!

4. Pilates is just like Yoga.  Myth!

Pilates does involve learning to breathe properly and using controlled movements to improve the body. Yoga dwells deeper on harmonizing the mind, body and spirit where as Pilates is a better choice for those whom are looking for a longer, leaner, dancer-like body.

5. Pilates is not challenging.  Wrong!

Like anything, the effort you put in will reflect the results you achieve. You can do the exercises at a beginner level if you need to or you can do advanced variations and exercises that will kick your butt!

There plenty of other myths and misconceptions about Pilates out there. You have likely heard one or more of them already, we suggest you try it for your self and come to your own conclusions.

Ok, now time for my “uncensored” opinion of pilates…

First of all, let me start by saying any exercise is better than none.

Second, one of the things I really like about pilates is that it builds strength and improves flexibility at the same time and most importantly, it does it without the damage and wear and tear that traditional weight lifting causes.

Another thing I like about pilates is that you can do it anywhere so you have no excuses whereas if you rely on dozens of machines to workout, it’s easy to have things “come up” and get in the way.

Is pilates the only exercise you need to do, maybe, but maybe not… it all depends on what your goals are. But I can say that everyone can benefit from adding some pilates into their fitness program, even if it’s only done once in a while.