Back pain can be debilitating, affecting nearly every aspect of your day-to-day life. Moving, sitting, and even sleeping become difficult and painful. However, if your back hurts, there are some things you can do to help ease the pain.
Today, we will look at some simple exercises you can do at home and go through some tips to help you relieve your back pain.
Simple Exercises to Help Ease Back Pain
These daily exercises can help stretch your back muscles, relieve tension, and build strength.
Knee-to-chest stretch
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.
- Using both hands, pull one knee and pull it towards your chest.
- Tighten your tummy muscles and push your lower back towards the floor.
- Hold for a few seconds.
- Repeat using your other leg.
Lower back rotational stretch.
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.
- Keeping both shoulders on the floor, slowly roll your knees to one side.
- Hold for 2-3 seconds.
- Repeat on the other side.
Cat-camel
- Kneel on all fours, with your hands flat on the floor in line with your shoulders, and keep your back straight.
- Push your chest towards the floor, lifting your chin towards the ceiling, stretching like a cat.
- Bring your chin down and straighten your back, returning to the original position.
- Bring your chin down towards your chest, gently pushing your back upwards (forming a hump, like a camel).
- Return to the original position.
- Repeat these stages in one fluid motion, gently stretching your back.
Pelvic Tilts
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor.
- Put your hands on your hips.
- Gently tilt your hips towards the floor, flattening your back against the floor.
- Hold for 2-3 seconds.
Pain during exercise
If you have a bad back, it’s likely that these exercises will cause a certain amount of discomfort. However, you must pay attention to your body to avoid harming yourself during exercise.
One way to do so is to think about the level of pain you experience on a scale of 1 to 10, where ten is the most you have experienced.
0-3: Minimal pain
4-5: Acceptable pain
6-10: Excessive pain.
During exercise, try to ensure that your pain levels never exceed 5. If you find that the pain you feel becomes excessive, stop the exercise you are doing. You can then adjust your exercises by reducing the speed of movement, reducing the number of times you do each exercise or increasing rest times between exercises.
Additional Steps to Help Ease Back Pain
These exercises can be highly effective in easing your back pain. However, there are additional things that you can do to ease your suffering when you have a bad back. Here are a few extra tips to help you ease your pain.
- Stay active: Avoiding movement or even staying in bed can be tempting if you have a bad back. However, keeping yourself active and continuing your daily activities is crucial.
- Move regularly: If you sit down for work, ensure you get up and move every 30 minutes. Also, consider standing up to work by raising your desk height or putting your computer on a stand.
- Use hot packs: You can use hot packs to relax stiff, tense muscles, which can help ease your pain.
- Use ice Packs: Ice packs can also help ease back pain by reducing swelling.
- Take anti-inflammatory painkillers: Ibuprofen works by reducing swelling and is the most effective over-the-counter painkiller for back pain. Aspirin can also help reduce swelling and relieve pain. Paracetamol is far less effective and not recommended for use by itself; however, you can use it in conjunction with ibuprofen.
Seeking Help
If you do these exercises and keep active, there is a good chance your back pain will improve by itself, given time. However, if your back pain doesn’t improve or you struggle to do everyday activities, you should get help from a medical professional. Book an appointment with your GP or book an online GP appointment so you can get the help you need.