Exercises For Back Pain Relief
Posted on Sep 04, 2008 under Health and Fitness | No CommentExercise is very good for you, as as I’m sure you appreciate, but it’s particularly good for you for middle back pain relief, if you follow a few easy guidelines, and do the low impact routines. Here’s a list of simple and effective exercises that can help relieve back pain and offer up some much needed chronic back pain relief:
Shift and lift: The “shift and lift” is an easy exercise that really can tone up the muscles around your lower back and buttocks (in particular) while sitting at your desk. Even though this is something that you can practice while sat at your desk, owing to the nature of the ‘lifting’ part of the exercise, I would suggest that you don’t do this while there’s other people too close to you, for example. It might make them think there is something wrong with you!
All The Same, this is a very effective exercise for helping stop your muscles stiffening up that could result from sitting still for an extended period of time, and it strengthens those muscles too!
You start by sitting in your chair, relax then clench one buttock and hold for 3 to 5 seconds, lifting slightly at the same time. Relax and rest for 1 or 2 seconds and then repeat. Do this 15-20 repetitions for each buttock.
Hip sway: This is helpful exercise to do if you have to stand up for an extended period of time, as it alleviates the stress in your lower back, legs and hips and invigorates the blood flow throughout the whole of your lower body. It also reduces or even eliminates back and hip pain that many individuals are affected by if they have to stand for a long time.
Start from a standing position, let you right knee relax totally, and at the same time pushing your left hip out to the side. Pull the hip back in again, and repeat the same action 15-20 times. After that, let you left knee completely relax, and drive your right hip out in the same fashion.
Lifting: This exercise needs a bag - a supermarket shopping bag, or anything else with extended handles for lifting will be fine. Place something of weight in the bag - again, it is fairly irrelevant exactly what it is, providing it easily weighs a couple of kilos (water bottles are just right for this, as a liter bottle of water weighs pretty much a kilo).
Start with your arm straight down the side of your body, bend your knees until the bag touches the ground and then lift it by straightening your knees up. Lift until your legs are once again straight, hold the standing position for a few seconds, and then bend your legs until the bag touches down again.
Repeat this for at least 15 times with the bag on one side of your body, and then repeat on the other side. By making sure you bend your legs and not you back - this is a great exercise for strengthening the middle and lower back, buttocks and hips, and will also work wonders on your thighs, arms and shoulders.
Give us a shrug: This is a really easy exercise that together with making your lower back in great shape, it is also a quick option for freeing the tension that builds around your neck and across the back of your shoulders. As an added benefit, this exercise is also great for working your shoulders and arm muscles. It can also be done in either a standing or a sitting position.
Doing the exercise is really easy, just shrug your shoulders all the way up to your ears (or at least as far as you can), then extend your arms sideways from your body until they are parallel to the ground and turn your palms so that they are facing outwards. Lastly, lean your head to the side to touch your shoulder then hold for a few seconds. Return to the beginning and do the whole thing again, but this time, tilt your head to the opposite side.