Living with lower back pain can be a major stressor for people from all walks of life. While so many of us experience this problem often, we don’t seem to know much about what causes this common phenomenon to begin with, or how to relieve lower back pain when it flares up and causes trouble. There are some things we can do both before and after we experience back pain that will significantly reduce the discomfort and inconvenience of lower back pain, and these things are not too difficult, as you will see below. Today we will look at some ways to help while we go over everything you need to know about lower back pain relief.
One of the very best ways to avoid back pain altogether is to stretch several key muscles daily. A little known fact about back pain relief is that if you take a little time to stretch your hamstrings on a regular basis, you will find yourself waking up in the mornings with significantly less back pain than before. The reason this is such an effective but often overlooked way to avoid back pain is that your back muscles are closely woven with your hamstrings. The hamstring runs down the back of your thighs, but at the top of the legs are connected to your lower back, and they play a much bigger role in back pain than almost anyone realizes. Tight hamstring causes pulling on the back and this can be the source of much of the back pain experienced by most people.
Stretching to achieve lower pain relief or avoid it before it hits is not as simple as just bending down and touching your toes. Try laying down on the floor right up against a wall in your home. Then, stick both legs straight up in the air along the wall. You will feel the tightness of your hamstrings along the back of your legs, this good, as it means you are loosening the muscles in your legs that attach to the lower back, and this flexibility is exactly what you are looking for. Try to straighten your legs up against the wall as best as you can, the more flex you can get here the less chance of lower back pain.
Getting enough good sleep is essential to avoiding lower back pain as well. And the more you can stretch your legs and lower back the better you will sleep. The catch-22 with sleeping to achieve lower pain is that lower back pain will cause you to lose sleep, creating a negative feedback loop. That’s why it is such a great idea to try and stretch those hamstrings a few times a day, to get out ahead of the problem before it can cause the kinds of problems that could cascade into worse and worse things. If you do experience prolonged back pain for more than twelve weeks, you should schedule an appointment with your doctor, and think about asking to see a lower chiropractor for back pain.
If you are experiencing back pain you can and should still stretch and try to keep limber, but don’t overdo it, this could lead to a more serious injury. What you should do is alternate between icing and heating your back, this will loosen your muscles up a bit, and make life a little more comfortable for you. We all know back pain is a major bummer and can make doing even the little things a serious chore, but hopefully, you learned a few tips on how to avoid this problem as much as possible in the future, good luck out there!