One of the easily injured parts in our body is our lower back and hence we need to take care of it

If our back cannot function properly, we find ourselves not doing much at all. A lot of people also have lower back fat that needs toning. Strong abdominal muscles tend to go hand in hand with the lower back as well .

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It is imperative that every exercise routine has some parts dedicated to lower back exercises. You should never perform your exercises everyday. Lower back exercise routines require a lot of attention and it is possible to hurt yourself if you perform your routines carelessly. The rest of this article will discuss a few back strengthening exercises that will give you the lean back muscles you need.

The Superman, Alternating The Superman exercise should be performed with you lying face down on gym mat with your arms directly out in front of you. Tighten the abdominal muscles, and keep your head straight along with your neck. Lift the arm and leg on the same side of the body. Perform these exercises slowly and take care to keep the movements slow and your abdominal muscles tight. Exercise the alternate sides of the body and take care to continue breathing during the performance of the movements.

The weight hip extension begins with the person lying down on his back on a gym mat. Keep your feet flat on the floor and bend your knees. Pick up a dumbbell of the desired weight and hold it with both hands, close to your lower abdomen . Hold your neck and head comfortably straight. Make sure you do not lift your feet, head, neck or upper back from the mat during the course of the exercise, for safety. Lift your buttocks and lower back slowly from the mat as far as possible, as you exhale. Lower your buttocks and lower back as you inhale. It is important not to perform these exercises too fast because you could potentially injure yourself.

The Plank – Strengthening exercise for back, abs and neck..Begin by lying on your stomach with forearms flat on floor. Raise body up by balancing on your toes and forearms. Your back, legs and neck should be straight (Similair to a plank) Contract Abs Remain in this pose for 10 seconds. Relax. Repeat five to ten times. If this exercise is too difficult, balance on your knees instead of your toes.

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If you are recovering from injury, suffering back pain or just want to maintain a healthy back then these exercises are highly recommended. Don’t forget to perform a thorough warm up before lifting weights and perform regular stretching as part of your routine. This will keep your spine flexible and make sure the muscles in your back don’t shorten and tighten up.

Strengthen your back if you want to prevent it from getting injured easily. Exercises that strengthen your lower back also benefit your whole body. You must keep in mind the fact that your lower back is an integral part the core strength of your body

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If you suffer from lumbar back pain, then you know it can be harrowing and very hard to live with. Much of the activities we do depend on having a strong and healthy lower back, and without one, every activity we do, or every moment spent upright can be excruciating.

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Since it may not be evident what has caused the pain, we are often left in wonder if it will ever subside.Thankfully, there is hope. Unless you have had a serious injury such as a break, most lumbar back pain can be lessened or alleviated completely and in a natural way by a good postural program and a regular exercise regimen. Also by the energy therapy eft which you can learn to apply yourself in minutes

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The lumbar back is the site of many muscles that are key to our maneuverability. The spine alone is packed with hundreds of tiny muscles, each playing an integral role in almost every physical action we perform.

In addition to the many muscles, the lumbar back also provides support by curving in toward the body, forming an arch. Arches are stable structures capable of efficiently supporting lots of weight, which is why they appear often in both modern and historic architecture.

Unfortunately, we often lose this natural support in ways we aren’t aware of. By adopting poor postural habits for so long that they feel completely normal, we slowly draw this structure out of alignment. Then, when we hurt because of it, we aren’t sure from where the pain originates. After all, how we sit or stand doesn’t seem painful. It may, in fact, seem as if we’re doing nothing demanding at all, so why should that hurt?

Muscle strengthening

Keeping the spine properly aligned can be difficult for someone not used to doing so. Often the problem involves muscles that have weakened due to disuse, and how to strengthen them and improve posture isn’t immediately obvious.

Sometimes we even try too hard to correct our postures that we overly strain ourselves and cause new tension that makes the process harder to deal with. Tension makes muscles tired, and fills them with fatigue toxins that cause aches and pains and will encourage bad habits, and doing so, will continue a difficult cycle. Correct posture does not involve strength alone however.

Actually, better posture includes a combination of strength and relaxation. If all the muscles in your back become tense, the natural arches straighten into a rod. If all your muscles loosen up, the arches become too extreme. A good postural program strengthens the right muscles while allowing the remainder to relax, and will result in naturally re-enforcing the supportive arches needed to have a pain-free back.

A good posture regimen will help train your body to achieve a comfortable stance that you can hold for long periods, and condition your body to hold it that way. By having good and adequate posture, the pain you have been suffering from will slowly lessen, or vanish completely. What was once tormenting you will begin to feel relaxed and natural.

Good posture can benefit you not only in pain management. It is great for confidence as well. People with good postures appear bold and very confident and are treated accordingly. All these great advantages are easily attainable with a bit of effort. Soon, you can be enjoying a pain-free and healthy lumbar back and feel at ease.

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Bodies in their most efficient posture, experience better circulation, more effective respiration and, as a result, better distribution of the nutrients your body needs.

Poor posture, on the other hand, causes fatigue, as well as chronic aches and pains

As our lower backs are key to healthy postures and bodily support, poor posture is nowhere more apparent than it is in the back. Also, poor posture is at the root of many other health problems due to the numerous additional efficiencies it introduces throughout all the systems of our bodies.

Fixing problems with our postures may appear hopeless. They feel completely natural to us, even if we are told that they are inefficient and unhealthy. As if that weren’t bad enough, the very changes that are supposed to make things better also seem to tire us even more, and how can we fight fatigue by doing things that only make us more tired? If the very things that can help us feel very abnormal, and only worsen things, how can we ever improve? Fortunately, there is a powerful secret which can eliminate both the pain and the perceived effort quickly, naturally and without as much effort as you might at first think.

Poor posture is a quite common issue, and can be seen to some extent in almost anyone. The biggest cause is muscles that are either weak, or tensed to the point of causing fatigue.

There are two recommended treatments

The easy way employs a posture corrector to force your body into an efficient posture. By supporting your body more efficiently, it tires less easily and the fatigue toxins that cause pain slowly vanish. The more difficult treatment solves the problem on a more fundamental level by strengthening the weak muscles and relaxing those that are tense.

Posture correctors are a great short-term solution, providing the body the support it requires in a way that demands little effort. Also, posture correctors are often recommended by your doctor, another appealing reason for considering their use. In fact, posture correctors are a great deal like training wheels. They’re a great way to begin learning how to ride a bike, but training wheels must eventually come off so you’ll learn to ride naturally.

Unfortunately, posture correctors have many associated problems, ultimately making them a highly unsuitable solution for almost all postural problems. Posture correctors weaken the very muscles that you must strengthen if you hope to ever have better posture. Over time and with regular use, other muscles weaken as well, making your problems even worse. Soon you’ll find your pain increased when the brace is removed, and you’ll likely associate your posture corrector with health and well-being. In essence, you’ve become dependent on the brace, and you’ll truly never be without pain as long as it is used.

Strengthening the muscles required to support back posture is a much better solution. At first this will be painful and tiresome, but you can make a great deal of progress toward strengthening these muscles in as few as ten minutes per day. Because these muscles are fairly small, they should strengthen more rapidly, and as they do your pain will lessen.

In summary

Posture correctors may represent a great short-term solution, though they should never be relied upon as a permanent fix as they create dependence and new problems. An exercise program, on the other hand, can resolve the problems permanently. It is fairly quick, requires little effort and can have you on a path to a pain-free back in no time.

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Back pain can be caused by many things. Some of the activities that might result in this ailment are twisting or turning the upper body the wrong way. Neglecting to stretch before working out is one more common cause. Also, if you’ve been in an accident, you might have had damage inflicted on your spinal area. Or it may be sciatica.

But regardless of the explanation, it’s essential to be aware of how to deal with the situation. One notable way that you can get a break from your discomfort is through the use of back pain exercises.

If you are experiencing pain in the back, likely the last thing that you would like to hear your general practitioner or physical therapist prescribe is back pain exercises. This area is already producing substantial pain every time you make the least little movement, so exercising seems like it will only make your pain that much greater.

Nevertheless, exactly like any other muscle in the body, it’s important that the affected region be made stronger. This will help to ease any stiffness that will be felt after the incident that resulted in the damage. In particular, a regime of back pain exercises will enhance the condition of the affected muscles, tendons and ligaments. In addition, exercise has a positive effect on the discs in between the vertebrae of the spinal column.

The entire process of strengthening the back muscles is an important part of a total program of back pain management to guarantee a strong back. Not only are the muscles and related elements of the muscular system returned to health, but they are also strengthened to forestall more injury in the future.

For instance, when you awaken each morning, you may feel a bit of tightness or tension in your lower back. You can relieve this by means of a simple back stretch. Standing upright, gradually bend your upper torso downwards until it’s level with the ground. Hold the position for several seconds, and then go back to the upright position.

Another exercise that eases discomfort and strengthens the muscles in the back is the knee to chest stretch. Start by lying face up on the floor. Then slowly bring one knee upwards towards the torso, holding on to the knee in order to facilitate the process. Gradually return your leg to the floor, and repeat with the other leg.

Remember, though, that you should never start an exercise or stretching program for your back or do exercises for sciatica without the approval of your doctor. Furthermore, a trained physical therapist can help you learn many more appropriate back pain exercises and demonstrate how to do them correctly and without causing additional injury.

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Now that you know common causes of back pain you may have a better understanding of how to prevent and treat it in the first place. Losing a few pounds may seem like an impossible option but of course it can be well worth the effort when you get some relief for that pain. A big part of relief for your back is using correct posture and lifting with your legs.

But you may need to do more than all of this. You take all the precautions possible and still you have back pain – after all, you can t very well live your life in a recliner or refuse to pick up your children just to keep yourself safe from potential injury! So when you have soreness and pain, what can you do?

RELIEVING THE PRESSURE

Sometimes the pain you feel is simply muscles cramping up to protect themselves so that they can heal and repair minor injuries. If you relieve the pressure on your back this can go a long way toward helping it heal on its own.

Obviously it’s virtually impossible to make a movement that doesn’t affect the back. Even when sitting, the back muscles are tensing up to keep your upper body straight and supported.

Keeping this in mind, you realize how important it is to be in a reclined position that tilts your body back and relieves that pressure on your midsection. When your feet are higher than your pelvic area then you have less pressure on your back and it can heal. Never put pillows under your feet, but placing pillows under your knees can be a big help when stretching out on the floor. This puts added pressure on the area of the hips which results in the back muscles tensing up even more.

If you’re laying flat on your stomach your back is still working as the front of your body collapses and your back keeps you straight. You can instead use cushions or pillows under your stomach and upper body area to support yourself so that the back is not working as hard.

HEAT

Why is it that heat can help to relieve body pain? Because heat draws blood to the vicinity it assists in getting nutrients and healing elements to where they are required. When you apply heat to your muscles they relax because the increased blood flow forces them to unclench themselves, and especially in areas of the back can this be important.

When your back is in pain you don’t want to overdo it with the heat and of course there are injuries and other conditions that won t respond readily to heat – if you have a herniated disk that’s not going to be healed with a heating pad! – but often muscles that have been overworked and strained can relax with a simple application of heat. If you re at work all day see if you can somehow arrange a heating pad behind you for the duration of the day. If you notice that your back is starting to tense up then lean back and stay that way for a few minutes so that the heat has a chance to work.

Even though they are not boiling, care needs to be taken when using heating pads on bare skin. It’s not safe to sleep on top of one or to have it turned up too high. Keep a piece of cloth between your skin and the heating pad – if it doesn t have its own cover be sure to use a thin towel, sheet, or shirt.

Moist heat can also help the body to relax as the moisture loosens the muscles and skin as well. You can get a thin towel or washcloth wet and put it between the heating pad and your back.

Having a hot shower or bath can be a big help in relieving that pressure. A shower massage especially can work those muscles like a massage and force them to loosen up and soothe back pain.

STRETCHING

When those back muscles want to clamp up sometimes you need to force them to relax so as to cut down on the pain. Stretching both your back and sides is a good method to reduce your pain.

However this calls for extreme caution. If you overextend yourself then you re going to do more damage. Don’t forget to stretch properly so that you don t put added strain on your back. Many bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts actually do a lot of damage to their back when stretching and working out simply because they don t support it the way they should.

Usually it s best to sit on the floor and put your hands behind you and just stretch your back slightly. This will give it support as you pull those muscles loose. Moving forward carefully and slowly until your body is extended out in front of you can also loosen those muscles.

Extension and flexion

When it comes to stretching, flexion means bending forward and extension means moving backwards. When you stretch forward you are relieving pressure on the vertebrae and creating more space between them which helps to alleviate the pressure and grinding that is common with back pain. Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and then bending straight forward to touch your toes is often enough to relieve pressure and pain in the back.Attend to your posture as you do this and make sure you re not curling yourself up and putting more pressure on your spine, but a simple stretch like this helps to loosen those tight and sore muscles.

When bending backwards you also need to watch your posture and make sure you don t overextend. Some have a tendency to think of a particular area they want to touch or span they want to reach, but you need to be mindful of your body s own flexibility.

EXERCISE

Does anyone really like to exercise? Sure, there are some who do but not everyone is like this. unfortunately many people see exercise as boring and something to be dreaded and instead prefer to spend their free time stretched out in a favorite chair in front of the television or movie screen.

There are innumerable benefits to regular physical activity for humans, no matter what your physical situation. Exercise increases blood circulation and the blood is what brings nutrition and oxygen to every cell in the body. The digestive system, skin, bones, and major organs all benefit in this way from increased blood circulation. Because the heart and lungs work harder when exercised they become stronger and a person is less likely to suffer from asthma, shortness of breath, heart disease, and conditions such as this. Regular exercise also helps to keep one s weight under control and there are many benefits to being at a healthy weight.

But exercise also helps with back problems and can keep a person from having painful back problems. How is this possible?

The first connection has to do with one’s weight; as we’ve mentioned excess body weight means more stress and strain on the back as it needs to work harder to move that weight around and to keep the body steady and upright. Many who are overweight also find that their posture suffers quite a bit as this excessive weight pulls them forward, and this too keeps the back muscles tense and painful.

There is more to the association between exercise and back problems than just weight. That increased blood circulation means that your back muscles are also getting those important nutrients and healing agents that are delivered by the blood. Oxygen is one of the most important elements the body needs and uses for healing any wound or injury, and oxygen is delivered by the blood. When your back muscles are overused, injured or tense, that oxygen is desperately important for it to heal itself.

Exercise helps those back muscles stay loose and relaxed. When you walk or cycle or do anything else along those lines, the back muscles are worked and forced to loosen up. This means that they re relaxed and less likely to be pulled or cramped when in use.

Just as happens with other body muscles, they become stronger when exercised. When the back muscles are stronger they re more resistant to pulls, tears, and overuse. Regular exercise is good for the back muscles in this way and can help to alleviate pain from these types of injuries.

The bones are strengthened by regular exercise. This may be because the blood circulation also helps the bones to strengthen themselves, and if the bones in the back are strengthened then the back has better support.

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Many musculoskeletal pains are often easily diagnosed and successfully treated, unfortunately lower back muscle pain is not one of them. The cause can sometimes be elusive, therefore the diagnosis can be incorrect and then the wrong treatments ensues.

PAIN AND WHAT IT TELLS YOU

"Pain is a signal something is wrong."

It the lower back pain is short lasting and mild it may be nothing to worry about, on the flip side if it severe and lasts for a few days up to a week or more, you body is most likely trying to tell you something is wrong. Not listening to your body’s signals can compound problems, extending the duration of lower back muscle pain, often for unnecessary periods.

General guides as to when to refer to a doctor are:

If the pain is severe

If there is swelling

If you hear a cracking or snapping at the time of the injury

If you cannot perform your normal day to day duties

If there is nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, paralysis, weakness or disturbed function following an accident or injury.

If the pain continues beyond 7-10 days.1

WHAT IS LOWER BACK PAIN?

Lower back muscle pain affects the muscles in the lower part of the back. It can be described as:

Acute if it is less than 6 weeks

Sub-acute if it 6-12 weeks

Chronic if it is more than 12 weeks

Many people have suffered from lower back pain, costing millions in lost work as well as medical and insurance resources. Lower back muscle pain is a very common back complaint and effects four out of five people at some point in their lives. Although most lower back pain will heal out within a few days to a few weeks.

LOWER BACK MUSCLE PAIN AMERICAN STATISTICS

80% of society will suffer back pain of some type

Lower back pain

88% will be asymptomatic in 6 weeks

98% in 24 weeks

99% in 52 weeks

97% of causes are unknown

2% attributed to disc problems

29% will require conservative treatment only

1% will require surgery

The rest will recover spontaneously2

RISK FACTORS LOW BACK PAIN

Postural deformities and leg length, in general, don t seem to predispose to low back pain. Studies of static work postures indicate an increased risk of low back pain sitting with a bent over working posture seems to carry significant risk, for example sitting in a car for more than half a work day can lead to three times the risk of disc herniation.3

Physically heavy, static work postures

Frequent bending and twisting, lifting and forceful movements

Repetitive work and vibrations

Tallness leads to increased risk

Sciatica is more frequent in obese people

Weak trunk muscles and decreased endurance

Coughing leading to decreased blood supply to essential areas

Social factors i.e alcoholism, history of divorce, level of education, history of depression.4

SYMPTOMS OF LOWER BACK MUSCLE PAIN

Lower back muscle pain means a pain or ache somewhere between the bottom of the ribs at the back and the top of the legs. That may begin suddenly or follow obvious strain or injury or it can come out of the blue .

It is possible that pain may also travel for example down the buttocks to the foot. It can be worse bending and sitting. Agonizing pain can be experienced when rolling over in bed or possibly sitting up. Sneezing or coughing can aggravate the pain. Back muscles can also go into painful spasms.

Lower back muscle pain may be combined with pain in the leg traveling down the knee. This is otherwise known as sciatica, because the main nerve in the leg (the sciatica nerve) is being irritated by pressure on it..

If in doubt consult your doctor, chiropractor, physiotherapist an osteopath or myotherapist.

GUIDELINES

The first thing to rule out is other obvious conditions which may cause back pain. Watch out for red flags or warning signs, which are factors that may need more rapid treatment. They may point to something more serious than a mechanical problem. If any of these apply to you it is recommended that you see your doctor.

You are younger than 20 when you first get back pain

You are older than 55 when you first get back pain

The pain follows a violent injury

The pain is constant and getting worse

You have had or have cancer

You are on steroids

You are drug abuser

You have HIV

You are generally unwell

You have significant and unexplained weight loss

You have significant trouble bending forward over a period of time

You have developed nervous system problems numbness, loss of power etc

You have developed an obvious structural deformities

If the pain continues over 4 weeks

CONCLUSION

If you are concerned about lower back muscle pain please consult your health care practitioner or doctor. To find out more information please visit YourBackHealth.com

1 Listen to Your Pain. B, Benjamin. Penguin Books. P6

2 Ibid

3 Ibid P543

4 Ibid P544

For a list of natural back pain treatments see natural pain relief

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