Exercise Can Help Relieve Lower Back Pain

If you are one of the millions of people that suffer from lower
back pain, then you need to know that exercise can do wonders
for you. When it comes to relieving lower back pain, exercise
provides more long term relief than any back pills that your
doctor can give you. The fact is, pills only serve to mask the
problem by providing temporary relief of the pain, but the
problem that is causing much of the pain is still there.
Exercise will strengthen the muscles that support your back and
improve flexibility thus greatly reducing the chances of future
attacks.

You should be doing a three fold program of exercise which
includes aerobics, resistance and stretching exercises. Aerobic
exercise like walking and bike riding will begin to get your
body conditioned properly because it strengthens your heart and
lightly works your muscles. Resistance exercise like weight
lifting will strengthen the muscles that support your back.
Stretching exercises will increase flexibility giving your back
a greater range of motion. Your doctor can guide you as to when
and how much of each type of exercise you should be getting.

For people with lower back pain, the best aerobic exercises to
do are low impact ones like swimming, walking and bike riding.
Jogging, dance aerobics and step aerobics all produce repeated
impact on your back and on your knee and hip joints as well. In
order to get in good condition, start out with 15 minutes of
light aerobic work per day, 2 to 3 times per week, and then
gradually build yourself up to 30 to 40 minutes per day, 4 to 5
times per week.

You should be working enough to raise your heart rate to be in
between 65% to 85% of your maximal heart rate. You determine
your maximal heart rate by subtracting your age from 220.
Regardless of whether you are walking, bike riding or doing any
other aerobic exercise, always maintain good posture. This means
sit up strait, stand strait and do not slouch or lean forward.
Good posture is essential to any good exercise program.

When it comes to resistance exercising, you always want to
concentrate on the abdominal muscles. These muscles play a
major part in giving your lower back support and the stronger
they are, the more relief for your back. Also important is to
do exercises that are designed to specifically strengthen the
lower back muscles themselves. You will best benefit from
working each muscle group 2 to 3 times per week. You may want
to hire a qualified fitness trainer to help get you on your way
by designing a resistance program that is right for you.

Remember that while resistance exercise is great for
strengthening the targeted muscles being worked, there should
never be any pain involved. Some discomfort should be present
in the muscles being worked while performing the exercises for
them, but should subside very shortly after completion of the
exercise. If there is any pain during the exercises or if
discomfort persists for some time after, it is a sign that
something is wrong and exercising should be discontinued and
your doctor should be consulted immediately.

As far as stretching is concerned, 10 to 15 minutes of moderate
stretching per day is usually enough to get the job done just
fine. Here you really want to concentrate on stretching your
hamstrings which are the muscles in the back of your upper
legs. The looser your hamstring muscles are, the better range
of motion your back will have as flexible hamstring muscles do
not put the strain on your lower back that tight ones do.

Stretching the lower back muscles is also a must and sitting on
the floor with your legs flat on the floor in front of you while
you slowly reach for your toes until you can't go any further,
hold for 10 seconds, and sit back up is a great exercise to
stretch both your hamstrings and your lower back. Repeat this
stretch 2 to 3 times each day.

While there are no miracle cures for lower back pain, you can
make living with a lower back condition much easier to deal
with by simply incorporating some exercise into your life each
day. It is worth the effort in the long run give up 30 to 40
minutes per day, 4 to 5 days per week to exercise away your
lower back pain.


About The Author: Jim O'Neill gives you tons of valuable
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