If the thought of exercising through your constant back pain brings fear and anxiety that you’ll make it worse, I don’t blame you. Back pain can be painful and scary. It turns out, though, that by working on core strength, dynamic spine support, and hip mobility, exercise will actually help you feel better.
Most often, low back pain is not caused by any single traumatic event, but a gradually weakened core that is less and less supportive to your everyday activities. That causes tightness, stiffness, inflexibility, soreness, and eventually pain and inflammation.
The answer to feeling better is to move and work on:
1) Reducing pain by modifying the painful activities.
2) Working on improving joint mobility in your spine and hips.
3) Improving dynamic coordination of the core muscles.
4) Taking a whole body functional approach to strength and endurance.
The spine doesn’t work alone, but depends on all the muscles of your core/trunk, shoulders, hips and legs. Now, low back pain can mean many different things to many different people and may require more than just exercises to heal.
An important reason to see or talk to a Physical Therapist before doing these exercises would be if you were feeling any sharp pain, numbness or tingling in the hips/groin/legs/feet, or difficulty bending over. The PT can help decide which exercises will be best for you (below are only a few), and provide treatment strategies non only in the clinic, but also those that you can continue doing on your own between visits.
There are also 3 reasons to go and see your physician before physical therapy.
• If you’re experiencing night pain that won’t quit.
• Changes in your bowel or bladder function.
• Unexplained sudden weight loss/gain.
For general back pain, stiffness or tightness here are exercises you can try - in order from least to most challenging - to allow you to work on your mobility and dynamic core stability, and get stronger as you go!
To ensure the least amount of discomfort we have divided your daily workout into 3 areas: warm up, dynamic workout, cool down. Ease into these with slow, controlled movements, the goal is to first work on your flexibility, proper posture, then breath. Don’t worry about trying to do them perfectly, that comes with repetition and practice. Be patient with yourself. Creating a daily practice is the key to feeling better and seeing lasting results.
If you feel exceptionally tight or sore, you can avoid worsening your symptoms and often eliminating them completely by starting your days with a slow, controlled yoga sequence to “stretch you out” and warm up your body.
Recently injured or post-op? Book a FREE consultation to establish whether this workout is OK for you to do and to receive variations to avoid re injuring yourself.
There are hundreds of asanas (poses) in yoga practice, they are essentially deep stretches or low weight bearing poses done in sequence . You are welcome to try them all, but below we chose 24 warm up asanas, 10 exercises for a dynamic workout and 15 cool down asanas that will help you create a wider range of motion resulting in more flexibility, less back pain, and general discomfort.
20 Benefits of our Chronic Back Pain Relief Program
Improving your flexibility
Building muscle strength
Perfecting your posture
Preventing cartilage and joint breakdown
Protecting your spine
Improving your bone health
Increasing blood flow
Draining your lymphs and boosting immunity
Increasing heart rate
Dropping your blood pressure
Regulating adrenal glands
Lowering blood sugar
Relaxing your body
Improving balance
Maintaining your nervous system
Releasing tension in your limbs
Supporting your connective tissue
Improving mood and fending off depression
Helping with focus
Creating deeper sleep