Causes And Exercises For Back Pain
There’s lots of different causes of back pain. Most of the time, we hurt our backs by using them the wrong way, and/or not keeping them in good condition. In previous posts we learned how to use the back the right way via proper posture and the correct “body mechanics” of everyday movement. Here we take a look at getting it into good all-around shape.
Neither this site nor most any other source of back care information can emphasize it enough: Regular physical activity is crucial to keeping the muscles that support the back strong and flexible. It’s also just about the only tried-and-true healthy way to control weight and lower the risks too many extra pounds can bring. And it even helps build strong bones.
Yet many of us just can’t seem to get enough physical activity to keep in shape.
The problem in our society is we have cars and push-button everything. We drive one block. We ride lawnmowers and golf carts, let machines wash our dishes, we don’t even have to open doors ourselves. It’s the ‘If you don’t use it, you lose it’ phenomenon. In our society it’s actually possible to just atrophy.
And so, along came the high-powered gym and structured exercise programs. The catch-22 of our society is that we’ve now gone to using exercise machines to give us back all the exercise that machines have taken away from us.
But tread carefully – especially if you’re recovering from a bout with back pain – not only because you might not know what the exact problem is and what movements are safe to perform (or how many, or when) but because even the same problem might call for different exercises depending on the way in which it manifests. The best exercises if you have a bulging or herniated disk, for instance, would depend on the position in which the disk is bulging or herniated.
It depends on what the problem is for the patient and what’s causing the pain. Sometimes extension – bending backward – is best, sometimes the opposite is better. If you hand out a sheet of paper and say these are terrific exercises for everybody, you run into trouble because some people do better with one protocol and some with another.
You really should exercise under appropriate guidance, at least initially, to start off on the right track. You can create a back problem with inappropriate exercise – too much, or too intense, or done incorrectly – and exacerbate an already existing problem.
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