One of the most debilitating of injuries is the lower back strain, simply because it affects everything you do from standing to sitting. Pain associated with pinched nerves can be especially severe. Spine-Health.com estimates that 80 percent of Americans will suffer lower back pain at some point during their lives. Exercise is often an effective way to strengthen your back and relieve your pain.
Types
The exercise or stability ball offers ways to relieve tension in your back muscles and to prevent recurrence of injury, Spine-Health.com says. Foam rollers offer a similar option. Simply rolling over the equipment will gently massage your back muscles, relieving tension. Pain relief can also come from water exercises or hydrotherapy. The water's buoyancy can help individuals who cannot tolerate weight-bearing exercises. Using hand webs for added resistance, you can exercise your arms and back in the water, the Mayo Clinic website says.
Benefits
Exercise will strengthen your back muscles and keep them from getting stiff from inactivity, says the Mayo Clinic website. Of course, avoiding exercise is tempting if you feel pain. But a 2010 study published in the Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology found that exercise relieved lower back pain in individuals whose jobs involved standing. Exercises targeting hip and leg muscles helped relieve the pressure the back muscles sustain to maintain posture.
Other Uses
You can use an exercise ball as a support, enabling you to exercise at a beginner's level until you build up strength. For example, perform push-ups using the ball to support some of your weight. Or do crunches with the ball at your upper back as your starting position. You progress by placing the ball farther down your back so that you increase the range of motion in the exercise.
Warnings
If you use an exercise ball, choose the proper size to avoid injury. Your legs should be at right angles when you're sitting on the ball. Also take care when you exercise in the water. It's harder to detect worsening symptoms when the pressure is temporarily taken off your back. Prolonged back pain may be a symptom of another condition that requires medical treatment, such as a protruding disk, warns the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Prevention/Solution
One of the best ways in which you can avoid back pain is to strengthen your core. Weak abdominal muscles place added strain on your back to keep your body upright. Some of the same equipment you use to relieve pain can prevent it from occurring. Exercises such as crunches are more effective on a stability ball because of the increased range of motion you get. A Pilates chair acts like a prop not unlike a stability ball for doing exercises such as leg raises to strength your core. Prevention, after all, often is easier than the cure.
References
- Spine-Health: Lower Back Pain Health Center
- Spine-Health: Exercise Ball Therapy for Lower Back Pain Relief
- Mayo Clinic: Back Pain - Prevention
- Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology: "Changes in Muscle Activation Patterns and Subjective Low Back Pain Ratings During Prolonged Standing in Response to an Exercise Intervention"; E Nelson-Wong, JP Callaghan
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Low Back Pain
- Mayo Clinic: Slide show: Aquatic Exercise How-To's
