Low back pain: exercises to relieve it

Low back pain and back discomfort are very common. These exercises to stretch and strengthen the lumbar relieve pain and prevent its appearance.

Making a sudden movement while carrying weight or spending long days standing or sitting in a bad position are clear examples of common situations that load the back through the lumbar area, until a day comes when back pain appears, especially low back pain.

We can give rest to the lumbar and seek momentary relief, but the most effective is to prevent pain and contribute to reduce it by learning to relate and function better with our body.

WHAT CAUSES LOW BACK PAIN AND HOW TO AVOID IT

If at home we lift a pot or in the supermarket some bottles of water from the floor simply bending the back, we will be loading the lumbar and adding points to suffer low back pain. In fact, if we make this movement many times, pain will indeed appear, because this part of the body should not carry all the weight.

However, if instead we use the legs, that is, we lower the center of gravity by bending the legs and performing the force with them and the abdomen, the lumbar area is freed from the effort and the dreaded low back pain.

If we spend hours sitting without maintaining a position aligned with the ground or carrying the entire trunk in the lumbar and without moving for more than an hour, day after day, back pain will appear. For it to disappear we have two possibilities:

• Get up and walk about 10 meters every half hour.
• Change the sitting position every 10 minutes: we can start aligned, with the ischia in the chair, the spine in line, the abdomen making a slight force inward and the ears on the shoulders. And from there we change: once we lean more on one ischium, then on the other; we cross our legs or separate them; We bend one leg under the thigh and then the other… Let’s use imagination.

In standing positions, a large majority of lower back pain appears due to hyperextension of the knees. If the knees are hyperextended backwards, we block them, which automatically blocks the lower back preventing it from breathing.

All this blocks the passage of gravity into the sky and leads to back pain. Simply by loosening the knees, without bending them, the relationship with the earth is unblocked and the lumbar ones are opened letting them breathe.

Another part of the solution lies in the time off, because one of the best things we can do is walk, but keep in mind these aspects:

• It is best to walk at a light pace, with your hands free.
• Do the steps a little longer than normal.
• Don’t stop for half an hour.
• Direct your gaze forward and open your field of vision so that you do not look at a fixed point, but see the landscape, including the ground and the sky. In this way body and mind will open to the earth that welcomes us and the sky that keeps us.

We can also perform some stretches that relax the area and strengthen the muscles. Below you will also find some therapies and habits that will help you prevent and relieve low back pain.

EXERCISES FOR LOWER BACK THAT RELIEVE PAIN

DISCHARGE LUMBAR TENSION

Stand with your back touching a wall, with your feet about 20 centimeters apart, and making a slight force of the abdomen towards the back. Next:

1. Move your feet away from the wall (about 20 centimeters) while you take your pelvis off the wall so that it follows the line of your thighs.
2. Hold this position for 20 seconds and notice how the buttocks and thighs take the weight of the body and release the dorsals.
3. If you want the torso to connect with the lumbar, raise your arms without raising the trapezoids or shoulders and sticking the open shoulder blades to the wall.

The further you move away from the wall, the more force you will transfer from your back to your legs. You can separate from the wall until the lower back has come off.

SPIRAL TO ACTIVATE THE COLUMN

The vertical spirals activate the spine, adjacent musculature and solar plexus.

1. Stand up, bend your knees and slide your right foot and leg without placing weight on top, that is, without displacement. The weight is on the left leg and foot.
2. Then raise your arms to the side until they are crossed and turn to the right with your right foot and leg firmly rooted in the ground.
3. Hold the position for about five seconds and repeat the whole process about five times.
4. Once the 5 repetitions are done, perform the exercise again by extending the left leg and spiraling to the left.

ROCKER TO OXYGENATE THE DORSALS

This position, the seesaw, will allow the dorsals to breathe, that is, the breath to reach them.

1. Sit on a stool, cross the fingers of your right hand with those of your left hand, and place them below your left kneecap.
2. Swing the trunk slightly back from the ischia. The arms do not force to support the leg, the leg is supported by the crisscrossing of the fingers and the trunk, which has the chest out and is in a straight line inclined backwards, acts as a counterweight.
3. You can stay three minutes listening as the air expands the lower back.
4. Repeat the exercise with your other leg and fingers crisscrossed in an unusual way.

ALIGN THE BODY WITH THE LUMBAR

With this exercise you will learn to align the body with the lower back, something especially important when we spend many hours sitting or not moving.

1. Sit on a stool and open your legs a little more than your shoulders, separating your feet from the stool so that they are below the knee or a little beyond.
2. Push the left foot towards the ground so that the thigh makes a slight force forward and the left ischium is raised, resting the body on the right ischium.
3. Drop the trunk to the left, while bringing the left side of the trunk forward and the right side back making a spiral. The head falls to the left side and looks towards the left foot.
4. Hold the position for five seconds.
5. Return to the center and repeat the entire exercise from the right foot to the other side. Five times on each side.

RELAX AND STRETCH YOUR BACK

This exercise to rest the lumbar can be easily done in the office to relieve low back pain and preventively.

1. Sit on a stool or chair with your legs open.
2. Let the force of gravity drop your head forward feeling how the cervical vertebrae relax.
3. Continue to drop the rib cage, curving it and with your arms forward, feeling how gravity relaxes the dorsal vertebrae.
4. Follow this path dropping the lumbar area to the sacrum, until you notice that the ischia detach from the stool.
5. Stay in the position for a moment, and then return to the opposite path. Feel the vertebrae align with the ischia as they move up.

REST THE LUMBAR

After performing the above exercise, if you can, you can stretch on the floor and put your legs apart on the stool as indicated in the figure, to rest.

FLEXILIZE THE SPINE

This exercise, which begins with the yoga cat pose, is performed smoothly along with the following exercise. The sequence makes the dorsals and the entire back more flexible.

In the first part of the exercise:

1. Stand on all fours on the ground, with your abdomen exerting a slight force towards your back. Maintain this light strength throughout the exercise.
2. As if someone were pulling your coccyx into your legs and in the direction of the earth, make an arc that begins at the coccyx, continues through the sacrum, lumbar, dorsal and cervical and involves the entire spine.

FINAL REST

From the previous posture, as if someone were pulling your tailbone back, undo the curve of the spine by bringing the trunk back to sit on your calves and relax your whole body.

Listen to how the breath expands and rests the lower back.

Repeat the entire sequence 5 times.

OTHER WAYS TO RELIEVE LOW BACK PAIN

In addition to doing exercises for your lower back, you can improve body awareness and work your muscles in other ways:

DANCE

One of the best and most fun exercises is dancing. Look for a good dance teacher (classical, modern, jazz or hip hop) and dance. There will be many benefits:

• You will learn many things about how your body works and how you work.
• Dancing requires preparatory exercises in which the mind learns to enter the body and project it into space, opening new physical and mental horizons.

TAI CHI

Tai chi is a meditative dance composed of gentle movements in which the body makes circles and spirals in space and the mind accompanies them.

It is a good way to enter the lumbar area and relax it, protecting it from any effort.

RESPIRATION

Breathing can help us become aware of our lower backs and relax them:

1. Sitting or lying down we inspire the first time by swelling the belly and exhaling lengthening the spine as if we wanted to touch the ceiling, putting the navel inside.
2. We felt the pause.
3. The second time we inhale with the navel inwards and we feel that the air goes to the lumbar area, which expands and we let the air out.
4. We leave a breath that goes in and out without doing anything and repeat from the beginning the whole process three times

STRETCHING FOR LUMBAGO

This exercise is ideal for quickly soothing lower back pain:

1. We lay on the floor on our backs, with our backs glued to the ground.
2. We flex the legs and take with the right hand the right leg below the kneecap of the knee, and the left leg below the kneecap of the left knee.
3. Without closing the legs (on the contrary, we leave them open, with an opening a little more than the shoulders) and with the legs relaxed on each side, we attract one leg to the chest slightly and then the other, alternating.
4. We play a little in this position as babies do when they are lying on their backs.