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Stretching is the Key to Managing Your Back Pain

April 23rd, 2009

Stretching routine and stretching exercises to bring about relief for lower back pain.

Just about everyone, sometime or another, suffers from back pain. And probably the first thing you’ll do is reach for some pain killers. Medication, however, can be helpful in some ways, yet harmful in others. Medication is certainly needed if you’re in a lot of pain. Muscle relaxants can be effective at calming muscle spasms in your back.

However, the problem with medication is that it really doesn’t treat the cause of the problem. It merely covers up the pain so that you can get through your daily activities. If you don’t truly fix the problem, your back pain could continue to cause you problems for some time to come.

Fortunately, there is another method of treating back pain. This technique can be far more effective than medication. To be effective, however, it has to be part of your ongoing routine. And don’t give up without giving it enough of a chance to start working. So what exactly is this magic cure? It’s known as stretching exercises.

There are many reasons why you should do some stretching exercises for your back. First of all, it’s an all natural way to deal with the problem. You’re not constantly popping pills or wrapping ice packs around your back. Because it’s all natural, you won’t experience any harmful side effects. This can certainly happen with some medications. However, you do need to make sure you perform the exercises correctly so you don’t injure yourself further.

Another advantage of using stretching exercises to treat your back pain is it can help prevent future problems. That can’t be said for most medications. Your core muscles are strengthened through regular stretching. So you’re ensuring that your body can handle the demands you place on it every day.

You’re also contributing to the flexibility of your muscles. This means they’ll be ready for action whenever they’re called upon. Limber muscles are particularly important when you trip or lose your balance, because they’ll help to stabilize you.

It’s not just your back that benefits from stretching. They have benefits for your entire body. By incorporating a stretching routine into your day, you improve your fitness. This improves the functioning of your cardiovascular system. It also strengthens your immune system, so you won’t catch every bug that goes around.

You just can’t lose by doing some stretching exercises on a regular basis. The benefits aren’t only for your back. Your whole body will be more fit and full of health.

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Hip And Lower Back Pain Common Causes Of Lower Back Pain

April 21st, 2009

Hip and lower back pain, and exercises to strengthen the lower back.

Do you want to know why most people end up visiting a doctor? If lower back pain was your choice, then you would be right.

It happens so many times that it s almost unbelievable. If you combine this information with the fact that most people are less active and live longer in our time, you might guess that it is the main reason why lower back pain exists in such large numbers today.

Whatever the origin of the lower back leg pain might be, I m sure it s very annoying. You go to a number of doctors, and nobody can help you with your problem. No cure seems to work.

It can be difficult dealing with back pain. Here are some of the things that might help you speed the healing process.

First of all, you should know that you will probably get the same treatments from doctors. You will have to answer a huge number of questions so they can understand what the problem is.

They will try to address the causes in the beginning because that decides what kind of treatment you should follow.

One of the biggest causes of back pain is stress. That happens because stress causes the muscles to tighten up. That is normal actually, since muscles need to do that in order to be able to take action.

Learning to relax is something you should learn to do. You can try going to an auction site such as eBay for example and buy a stress reduction or relaxation CD. You can find them cheap on this site.

Buy only one CD for now and listen to it on a regular basis. You can try for example to listen to it for 21 days. In the end you will see that you ll be feeling a lot better.

Something that is quite common is muscle strains. In many cases, muscle strains commonly occurs in the neck area and lower back. That is because these muscle groups tends to be more fragile and when overstretch can lead to muscle strains.

Lower back muscles are infrequent exercised therefore the chances of getting lower back pain is higher.

Lifting and stretching can be useful in most problems we mentioned so far. You should learn how to pick up objects or how to lift them. This is particularly important as you get older and your back is more fragile.

Discover what are the common causes for hip and lower back pain. Learn what exercises to strengthen the lower back.

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Massage Chairs

February 16th, 2009

Using massage chairs to get relief for lower back pain ties in with the concept of using exercise and non-surgical therapy to get refief for lower back pain.

Massage Chairs Relieve Lower Back Pain

Massage chairs effectively relieve lower back pain. There are a variety of massage treatments available in many advanced massage chairs. You can target lower back pain relief at the touch of a button. Massage Chairs Relieve Lower Back Pain Did you know that low back pain affects hundreds of thousands of people each year? We all know the symptoms. One wrong twist or turn and our back makes a twang and ouch! Sometimes, it happens fast, while other times it’s a gradual process.

Symptoms develop through times perhaps starting with stiffness and progressing on to soreness. At some point in our lifetime, we will experience low back pain. As someone that has lower back pain, I found that a massage chair has helped in many ways.

First off, we know that prevention should be our first and foremost goal. So I will present some quick items to consider. Preventing low back pain means taking positive action to improve your overall health as well as your back health. First realize that you must protect your back in your activities. This means learning the correct ways of lifting, sitting and standing.

The most common areas to correct are your standing posture, sitting positions and lifting techniques. These are areas of the highest probability of an injury. So if you are standing, hold your head up high and put your shoulders back. Try not to slouch forward. This creates concentration of pressure on your spinal column. How do you sit? For the most part we sit with our shoulders slouched forward. This places more strain on the muscles of the upper back. You can immediately correct this pain by holding your shoulders back and sitting up straight.

This protects the back from top to bottom. What about activities that involve lifting. Learning proper lifting techniques are important. When you pick up heavier items, they can do more damage to your back. Heavier items have more mass and require more effort which puts more strain on your back. When lifting items, it is critical to use your legs. Bend your knees and let your legs do the lifting-not your back. Massage chairs help relieve lower back pain by massage treatments. There are a variety of programs I have used to reduce soreness and discomfort. A rolling massage helps to adjust the vertebrae.

You can use a shiatsu massage to relieve soreness and to revitalize your muscles. I have even used some of the traction features of the newer massage chairs to stretch my lower body. To take some pressure off my lower back, you can select a rolling massage. The massage chair uses rollers to go up and down your spine. You can recline the chair to find the pressure you want applied. The rollers move slowly up and down the spine.

As it passes each cervical disc, it will give it a gentle press. This action helps to loosen the soft tissue around the cervical discs. Try the shiatsu massage program. Shiatsu is a centuries old technique originating in Japan. Shiatsu uses different thumb and finger pressures along with acupressure points. It is a very invigorating and pain relieving massage. Shiatsu around the spinal column helps the muscles to reduce in stiffness and become more flexible. Some of the more advanced massage chairs have a traction system. The massage chair will actually hold your feet. It raises the leg rest to the horizontal position. With you in a seated position, the leg rest starts to move downward to 3 successively lower positions.

This stretches out the lower body. All this while you are getting your massage treatment! If you have back pain, then a massage chair may be an important compliment to your overall health and wellness plan.

Prevention is certainly the best medicine. However, if you are affected by low back pain, then finding the right treatments is paramount to proper recovery. A massage chair can help you both on the prevention side and on the recovery side. Massage Chairs See a variety of the best massage chairs for effective relief of low back pain

By James Knolan Published: 1/8/2009

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Pilates Exercises

February 15th, 2009

Exercises designed for lower back pain has been one of the many approaches that have been successful in the attempts to bring relief for lower back pain.

Pilates Exercises can Help with Low Back Pain

Physical therapists are integrating PIlates into their low back rehabilitation programs with great success. Low back pain is one of the most common complaints from males over the age of 20. Many women also experience a number of different acute or chronic injuries to their lower back as well. Despite the multitude of recovery options available, ranging from medication to surgery, there is one method that has continued to prove successful. A prescribed core strengthening routine has relieved the average back pain sufferer of their pain while helping them prevent future injury also. Strengthening programs designed to increase core muscle strength and endurance have been shown to effectively alleviate back injury and improve posture. In order to make my back pain go away I need to do more back exercises in the gym, right? Not so much. The real key to decreasing the stress put on one’s low back is to develop a corset that supports our body. This corset is formed by strengthening what many refer to as the core muscles; mainly the transverse abdominis, multifidus, pelvic floor muscles, and obliques. These muscles help us to breathe properly, and maintain good balance and posture throughout our daily activities. There are some different theories out there that try to explain the best way to improve core strength. Many different exercises and props have been developed to improve all aspects of one’s core. A more recent development has been the inclusion of Pilates into an abdominal strengthening program. Pilates has been shown to successfully alleviate and increasing functional strength. Pilates emphasizes movement through the use of our core muscles, those closest to the spin. Instead of performing more reps, Pilates focuses on performing fewer, more precise movements that require concentration, control, and proper form. Due to its focus on developing the core muscles as well as postural awareness, Pilates is especially successful at alleviating back pain. By integrating the trunk, pelvis, and shoulder girdle Pilates enables you to develop a strong core. Many physical therapists are successfully introducing some of the Pilates methods into their rehabilitation programs for patients with back pain. The most successful programs thus far have been those who creatively integrate Pilates with props, like the Swiss Ball, resistance bands, or balance disks, and with more traditional techniques. A prop such as the Swiss Ball is ideal for strengthening of muscles like those in the core because they challenge our balance which increases recruitment of the transverse abdominis. Pilates also emphasizes proper breathing and body awareness in addition to core conditioning. Patients are able to develop their full set of core muscles that gives them functional strength to participate in their daily activities. Those who have given Pilates a try notice a greater ability to focus on their task and increased strength to take part in normal activity while maintaining good posture. Experiencing low back pain can be frustrating. Luckily there are some options that have been proven to alleviate back pain and help us continue with our regular schedules. The integration of Pilates with more traditional strengthening methods, like using a Swiss Ball, has shown great results in helping those of us with acute and chronic back pain. Ask your local physical therapist if they have been trained in prescribing a Pilates core strengthening program. Robert Tendick is a student preparing himself to earn a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. His experience as an athlete with various injuries has given him insight into the common aches and pains that trouble many athletes and the need for core strengthening through mat pilates. He has also had the opportunity as a physical therapy aide to help heal a number of Los Angeles physical therapy patients through the use of cutting edge injury rehabilitation techniques.

By rob tendick Published: 1/27/2007

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