Back pain interferes with our attitude, activity level, and ability to enjoy life. With back pain constantly nagging, life can be uncomfortable - at all times! Whether it's at work, visiting the movie theater, or going on a walk with grandkids, back pain can lessen our excitement for all of those things. With the help of Physical Therapy Assistant Megan Davis, we're sharing our top tips with you to help you relieve your back pain!
1. Practice Good Posture
The biggest culprit of back pain today is most likely bad posture. Whether it's bent over at the desk, on your phone, or even reading a book, bad posture weakens muscles, places more pressure on your spine, and increases your back pain. To help relieve back pain, try to keep your spine as straight as possible. Make sure your shoulders are not hunched, but straight back and relaxed. Engage your core to take pressure off of your lower back. If maintaining a good posture is difficult, necessary muscles have probably weakened. FYZICAL can help teach you exercises to strengthen those muscles and how to engage them to encourage better posture.
2. Stretch Your Muscles
Stretching your back muscles can increase flexibility, loosen tight muscles, and relieve back pain. You should never stretch too intensely at first, but take things slow and try to increase your flexibility, too. Here is a great list of stretches with images for examples that can help reduce back pain, specifically lower back pain.
3. Strengthen Your Core Muscles
All muscles are connected, so sometimes your back pain can be caused by weak muscles in other areas. Your core muscles help support your spine, so if your core muscles are weak, your spine isn't receiving the best support. That can mean extra pressure on your spine, and more back pain. We recommend the following exercises for strengthening your core:
- Planks
- Bird Dog
- Mad Cat
- Crunches
- Bridges
4. Sleep With a Pillow Under Your Knees
If you sleep on your back, you're putting extreme pressure on your spine. To help relieve that pressure, try sleeping with a rolled up towel or pillow under your knees. The change in position will relieve pressure from your spine and reduce back pain in the morning.
5. Provide Proper Support for Your Feet
Often, pain can be caused by problems from other areas in your body. To make sure your body is properly supported, you need to make sure your shoes have proper support. Consider checking out your shoes and seeing if they provide the support your body needs. Your feet, after all, support the rest of your body. If you're looking for custom orthotics to better support your feet, ask a FYZICAL staff member about Footmaxx orthotics.
Back pain can be frustrating and persistent, but it doesn't have to be. Small changes to your everyday or a few stretches and exercises incorporated to your day can make huge improvements to your back pain. If you find your back pain keeps coming back or is not relieved by your efforts, consider giving us a call to schedule an appointment with a physical therapist. They'll be able to analyze what might be causing your pain and create an individualized plan of care to relieve your pain. Start today! 229.273.9445.