Lower back pain is the most common medical ailment on Earth. Every day, millions of people suffer from pain in their lower back which is often caused by muscle strain, tension, or spasms. While many people take over the counter or even prescription medications, there are safe, natural ways to treat and even prevent this type of pain from occurring.
Pain Relief
The first step towards treating the pain in your lower back is to get more blood circulation into the area. The circulation of blood speeds up the healing process and begins to reduce the pain quickly. This assumes that the pain is being caused by the temporary muscle spasms, tension, or strain. Here are a few quick methods you can use to start the blood flowing into the area.
- Stretching
- Massage
- Application of Heat
Stretching helps to activate the circulation in the muscle tissues. Remember to not bounce, but instead to gently stretch slowly until your muscles start to respond. Massage can also start the circulation in your back as well. Be careful with massage as too much force can cause even further issues. Applying heat to the area may also loosen the muscles and start the healing process.
Strengthening Back Muscles
Once your lower back pain lessens, you can take steps to reduce the pain further and even prevent some back pain from occurring by strengthening the muscles. While you cannot prevent all events of back pain from occurring, you can reduce the chances of experiencing lower back pain.
- Walking
- Jogging
- Cycling
- Swimming
- Aerobics & Yoga
The key to working the muscles is to do so indirectly through exercises such as walking, jogging, cycling, and swimming which help to strengthen all the muscles. Your lower back muscles act in support of these exercises which means that they gradually gain strength and tone while not being worked in a direct manner. Swimming is an excellent exercise in this regard because the back muscles can be worked without placing any direct pressure.
Once you have toned your back muscles, you can then strengthen the muscles directly through specific aerobic exercise and yoga. Yoga is an excellent exercise because it emphasizes stretching, positioning, and creating enough blood flow to help build and tone the muscles. Plus, the stretching alone helps to break up muscle tension and combined with the breathing techniques and meditational aspects make yoga a marvelous means of reducing lower back pain.
Other Pain Relief Methods
There is nothing wrong with over the counter medications such as aspirin that help increase blood flow while taking the edge off the pain. You can use such medications with stretching and other exercises to help bring about faster pain relief.
Prescription medications are generally reserved for when damage has occurred to the muscle area, a more serious condition compared to simple strain or spasms. In the end, getting rid of lower back pain means a combination of strengthening, stretching, and increasing the blood flow to the muscle groups so your back can feel better quickly.
