Despite what you might think, low back pain is rarely caused by where it hurts. Most people and their therapists believe that it is. That’s why they want to heat, rub, crush, vibrate and slice the place where it hurts the most.
In fact, you can tell how good a therapist is by watching where they go in search of the cause of the pain. Just hitting the spot where it hurts sends out a huge amber light.
Surprisingly, lower back pain is simply a symptom that some of the bones in the lower back are out of alignment. Your immediate task is to get them back in line. Do that and there’s a good chance the pain will go away.
When vertebrae become misaligned, ligaments, tendons, and muscles are stretched beyond their pain threshold. The core of the disks is squeezed and the disk collapses. Often the nucleus hits the spinal cord. That’s when the bread really begins. You can’t sneeze or cough without feeling like you have a red hot poker stuck in your back. You can’t lean over the sink to brush your teeth. You can’t bend down to put your socks on.
So what causes the vertebrae in your lower back to go out of alignment?
Answer! If the pelvis has become misaligned, it is very likely that the bones above it have also become misaligned.
Treat the pelvis as the base of the bones above it, and consider this analogy. If the foundation of your house shifts, the walls will crack. You can patch up or paper over the cracks, but you’ll probably have to keep patching and papering up until the kingdom comes. The solution is to shore up (and square) the foundation so that it does not move.
So the precondition for an aligned spine is an aligned pelvis.
So what causes the pelvis to become misaligned?
Answer! Tight calf flexors, hamstrings, gluteals, and hips.
Which brings us back to the question of what are the best exercises to relieve low back pain?
Answer! Flexibility exercises that impact pelvic alignment, particularly exercises that loosen tight calf muscles, hamstrings, gluteals, and hip flexors.
But that’s not the whole story. You also need to strengthen the entire musculoskeletal ecosystem by regularly going to the gym and exercising, or if you’re reluctant to lift weights, start with a regular, systematic home strength training program that includes sit-ups, push-ups, squats, and the Superman Back Arch. .
It makes sense to have a strong enough body to keep the bones of the spine aligned correctly.
Interestingly, one of the best predictors of low back pain risk is the ability to do push-ups. As you do pushups, your core muscles get stronger, front, back, and core.
If you’re looking for goals for sit-ups, push-ups, and squats, 20 of each is good, 30 is better, and 40 is best. Build the Superman back arch up to a couple of minutes of gentle ups and downs without your chest or legs touching the ground.
The final piece of the lower back exercise puzzle are some relaxing exercises to settle your spine, exercises where you lie on your back with both legs bent at 90 degrees and your lower legs resting on an ottoman. . This is known in the trade as the static back exercise and lying in this position for 20 minutes will provide temporary relief from back pain and, over weeks and months, will help the vertebrae gradually come back into alignment. .
Another relaxing ottoman pose is to lie on the floor with one leg on the ottoman and the other stretched out over the stream for 20 minutes, then switch legs. This is the supine snout stretch. Over 20 minutes, the hip flexors will gradually relax, allowing the vertebrae to come back into better alignment over weeks and months.
If you are diligent, you will spend a couple of hours on the floor each night while watching TV, reading a book or just falling asleep with the fairies doing the flexibility and relaxation exercises.
The strength exercises you can do after walking, shuffling, jogging, swimming, cycling… in the morning.
Now, just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, your back pain wasn’t caused in a day. For most people, it happens over decades, due to poor sitting posture and a lack of strength and flexibility exercises. Being 20 or more kg overweight does not help.
Nor does back pain heal in a day. Depending on how misaligned your pelvis and the bones above it are, it can take a couple of months for you to experience real relief and up to a year before you can say, “My back pain is gone.”
But the good news is that if you start doing something now, there is an 80% chance for 80% of people to get 80% good nick back within a year. If you have back pain, chances are good.
In the meantime, stay tuned, highly tuned, and start a serious strength and flexibility training program right away.
