December 5, 2008
Reader’s Digest Back Pain Page
The Reader’s digest website has an entire section of back pain relief information: Manage Back Pain. One of the pages mentions exercise:
One of the best ways to prevent back pain is to stretch and strengthen the muscles and ligaments of the back and abdomen, chest, and legs. Even if you are already suffering from back pain, it’s crucial to start an exercise program to build strength and then keep your back strong
From “Exercise is an Important Part of Managing Back Pain.”
That is one of those “common sense” ideas that I find to be both right and wrong at the same time. Exercise is great. It can be a wonderful “positive addiction” and has many, many health and psychological benefits. I have personally had minor bouts of tightness and pain in my back that seemed to be relieved after exercising.
But I have to stress that the pain itself is not a result of lack of exercise and the exercise itself, does not make the back pain go away. Back pain is often related to the body working against itself. For example, you can sit for years at a computer and desk chair that accents a certain body habit such as having too much of an arch in your back. To compensate for this arch, your muscles have to work “overtime” to keep you upright. The muscles might even become partially frozen in this posture so that you feel pain when you stand up or move into some other posture. In essence, you have learned a pattern that is more or less functional for sitting, but not for walking, running, bending over and doing other tasks.
When you exercise, the same pattern that I mention above is present, so it is entirely possible to work out and stretch while maintaining the same more or less rigid configuration. Again, the exercise can help, but very often the underlying pattern is still there. You can work out and not change the pattern that was learned in sitting. The trick is learning NEW patterns of coordination, so that when you are sitting you are sitting in a way that is functional and does not cause undue muscles stress. Your muscles can relax more, lengthen, and then have more availability for moving in a variety of ways.
I have found that some type of sensory-motor feedback and exploration of new ways of moving is in order. As you may have guessed if you have read this website before, I think Feldenkrais-based practices are a useful way to begin. But there are many others.
