Although a lot of people will use Advil or Tylenol as a form of pain relief, we are going to going into depth on some holistic forms of pain relief care for those with chronic back pain.
Back pain is one of the most common complaints from massage therapy clients, it is something that registered massage therapists are so familiar with and know how to treat throughly. So of course, I will always recommend a trip to see your RMT if you are experiencing any sort of back pain and seeking relief.
Most people's jobs include some sort of strenuous activity on the back; whether it be sitting at a desk all day or manual labour - everyone's career takes a toll on their back. That's where this blog comes into play.... I am hoping you can read this and try the exercises below to help alleviate your daily back pain and get back to a healthier, pain free lifestyle.
Below you will see a few videos attached showing some stretching exercises to relieve back pain, the first two videos are more aimed toward low back pain, whereas the last video is more a full back stretch.
As you can see in the video above performing a forward lunge, keeping hips straight forward, once the stretch is no longer felt by simply leaning into the forward lunge, grab your foot and pull it to your glute, this will add a stronger stretch as your rectus femoris (main quadricep muscles) that crosses your hips at your anterior superior illiac spine (ASIS - your front hip bones that stick out) to your tibial tuberosity (the bulge bone just below your knee). This helps with low back pain because while we are living our daily life we are often in a hip flexed position, which causes an anterior pelvic tilt; meaning it is pulling the top of your pelvis forward and essentially causing your butt to stick out - tightening your lower back, this helps relieve it by taking the strain off your hip flexors.
Now this video demonstrates a supine twist
if you have tight glutes (butt) you will feel this stretch there first, that's often because that area is "tighter" and needs to release first. What you will do for this stretch is lay on your back, bend your knee and pull it across your body in a twisting motion, to create a deeper stretch apply pressure toward the ground on the knee. This is to focus your QL (quadrates lumborum - which run from your lowest rib to the iliac crest; which is the outer/hightest part of your hip) the twist motion pulls the hip away from the rib creating a deep stretch.
If you've ever heard of child's pose in yoga - this is a great feeling stretch and relieves the muscles that run along side your spine (Erector Spinae). While doing this stretch slowly reach your hand further to increase the pull and if you can move your hands as far to one side in front of you to stretch each side of the body, this will provide a stretch to the latissimus dorsi (often known as Lats). Trust me this feels so good!!
Lastly, another important thing to remember when thinking about back pain is to consider the strength of your abs - same idea as agonist/antagonist muscles like biceps/triceps the strength and weakness affect the opposite muscles. This applies to your back and stomach, the stronger your abdomens are, the less pull it creates on the back.
Hope this helps relieve your daily back pain.
If not, come see me on Main Street Mount Forest and I can do the work for you!
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