Many people seem to want to know if you can just exercise lower back
pain away. Is it only about exercise? That is, did you end up with lower
back pain due to a lack of exercise? Or could it be something else?
Your back pain is not necessarily caused by a lack of exercise, but
it’s probably a good place to start looking. When I ask patients if they
exercise, most are still saying “no.” Those that do exercise tend to
stick with the same machine or routine for their entire program. (And
almost none of their “routine” exercises focus on improving their back
muscles.)
So on one hand, we have those that don’t exercise and have lower back
pain. It’s easy to take a guess and see that their spine is having
problems due to a lack of muscular support. While their spine may need
more work at this point (check with your healthcare professional),
eventually they’ll exercise lower back pain away by creating a muscular
back support around their spine with regular exercise.
Those that do exercise, but are not performing a variety of movements
are causing a different problem; muscular imbalance. They are likely
only developing certain muscle groups while largely ignoring others.
Worse, they may be performing activities that are alarmingly similar to
what they already do all day.
They are strengthening muscles that are already overworked (muscles
in the front of the body) and not strengthening muscles that are
typically ignored (back muscles). This is a standard recipe for
developing lower back pain problems and should be avoided.
Overall, maintaining a variety of activities that includes exercises
to enhance cardiovascular health, strengthening and stretching will help
exercise lower back pain away for good. The same formula works for
almost everyone. First, due some exercise regularly. Next, make sure you
take some time to strengthen your back muscles (especially if you
already know you need it!).
Dr. Natalie Cordova is a posture exercise expert, chiropractor, and health educator. More information can be found at his website at http://www.postureconfidence.com
