What To Do When Back Pain Throws a Wrench In Your Workout
A strong body supports a healthy back! Credit by: tokyosucks
Why Back Pain Isn’t Just About Your Back
When your body is out of balance, gravity drags it down. Imagine a building with a huge chunk in the middle shifted 15 feet to the side. The force of gravity would strain the building and pull it down, compromising the structure. The same is happening in your body, except you also have the added complication of being a moving structure, not static.
When back pain strikes, you’ll likely get a prescription for pain killers and rest from your doctor. This may work in the short term, but your pain will probably come back as soon as you pick up your activity again because those same old muscle imbalances haven’t changed a bit.
In reality, you’ve got two choices when it comes to back pain: fix it or make it worse. If you simply medicate using pain killers, you may not feel it while exercising, but you’ll still be doing damage to your body by “working through the pain.” Pain is a message from your body that something is wrong and needs attention. Medicating yourself out of pain is like turning off your fire alarm and ignoring the smoke and flames consuming your home.
To truly correct back pain, you need to address your physical imbalances. Generally, pain exists in cases of hypo- and hyper-mobility, meaning one part of your body isn’t moving like it should and another part is moving more than it’s designed to do in order to compensate.
Comments
If you truly have pain you can’t fix it yourself by the above exercises/stretching you have in the article. You need to see a Chiropractor or licensed Massage Therapist to help manually shift either the lumbar area of the spine or the muscle and fascial tissues in the sciatic area. You are right that the pain is only masked by drugs, not correcting the problem. So do yourself a favor and get it fixed the right way. The exercises here are good AFTER you have the problem correctly fixed.
I have a bulging disc in my lower back and am under the care of a chiropractor. I have been doing the shoulder bridges as instructed by him for a couple of weeks now, along with a small list of other strengthening moves. I have been told to minimize the time spent sitting so I stand all day at my desk job and in the evenings at home. I am also not allowed to bike (because of the sitting) or run (because of compression/jolting) so I get my cardio by walking and on the elliptical. I am hopeful that I’ll be able to return to running but I know that this disc will always be a weak spot on me and may plague me the rest of my life. 🙁
Try a tens belt! It really helps me!! 🙂
http://www.allegromedical.com/personal-care-c532/back-pain-relief-system-with-tens-belt-technology-p559641.html
Good morning
I read the comment of Cat saying she is not allowed to bike.I have a terrible backache with two of my discs dropped and the only thing I do to keep fit is an indoor bike with different programmes,each 30minutes.Am i damaging my back more with this indoor bike?
I have started working out on my back pain and i am being cured a bit. Thanks for it.
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