How To Get Rid of Low-Back Pain

Strengthen Your Lower-Back, Eliminate Pain, & Feel Great

Low-back pain is one of the most common physical fitness-related problems we face in the modern era. Sitting in a chair, being generally inactive during the day, and exercising inefficiently are the main reasons why we experience low-back pain. The good news is that lower-back pain can be fixed when we do the right exercises on a regular basis, and adopt a healthier lifestyle.

This informative blog includes:

1. Common Issues related to low-back pain
2. Explanation of low-back pain causes
3. How to get rid of low-back pain
4. How can Man Flow Yoga help with low-back pain?

Common Issues related to low-back pain

• Sitting too much – Having a job that requires us to sit for hours and hours, long commutes, and in general living in a world with chairs that destroy your back.
• Lack of effective exercise to adequately strengthen the muscles that connect to and work with your spine (primarily the hips, core, spine, and mid-back).
• Exercise-related pain – Pain in the low-back during or after exercise, preventing you from doing exercise regularly.
• Chronic Low-Back Pain – Constant discomfort or pain in the lower-back on a daily basis.

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Explanation of low-back pain causes

• Inactivity Weakness & Flexibility Problems – Low-back pain is caused by general inactivity (a lack of movement on a regular basis throughout the day) as well as muscle weakness and tightness in the hips, thighs, core, and spine.
• Sitting – Desk jobs, sitting often, poor posture, and long commutes are other reasons for low-back pain. Back pain usually occurs when we spend too much time in a sitting position, which over-stretches the lower-back (lumbar spine) by putting it into a rounded position.
• Help me visualize this: Imagine a system of pulleys and levers that connects to your lower-back; this system is made up of the muscles, ligaments, and tendons that connect to your spine and your hips. When this system is not functioning the way it’s supposed to, the lower-back has to make up for it, and that’s why lower-back pain is so common – we just aren’t doing the exercises we need to in order to keep those areas strong.

How to get rid of low-back pain

• Movement – The cure for back pain is by moving; not sitting and waiting to feel better or “recover”.
• Strengthening (not stretching): Another common misconception is that stretching the lower-back relieves pain – this is typically incorrect. More often, the solution is strengthening those muscles, while improving the overall mobility (a combination of strength AND flexibility) of the muscles that connect to the lower-back.
• The appropriate beginner-friendly exercises work to relieve pain and discomfort in the lower-back by building up the system of muscles that support the spine. They can provide immediate relief by addressing the symptoms of weakness and inactivity, and over time can address the underlying causes by building strength and mobility.
• Strengthening the hip and core muscles, stretching the hips and spine by putting ourselves into positions that are different what we are doing while seated, and, in general, undoing the stress of what happens when we sit in a chair.
• Adopting a healthier, more active lifestyle (even if you work at a desk or spend most of your time sitting) – Become more aware of what we do throughout the day, and make an effort to get up every 1 or 2 hours to take a quick walk, stretch at our desks, or balance on one leg.
• Summary: Moving more often throughout the day, coupled with the appropriate exercises to build strength and mobility in the spine and its surrounding areas (hips, glutes, core, and thighs), can eliminate back pain within a few weeks.

How Man Flow Yoga helps

• The #1 program we have for relieving lower-back pain is Bulletproof Your Back. This addresses the underlying causes of low-back pain, helps to relieve low-back pain immediately, and builds strength in your hips and core – not to mention the rest of your body, too. This requires just 20 minutes per day, and most people report improvements in their first few days.
• If your low-back pain is not yet serious enough to prevent you from normal movement, I would highly recommend the Strength Foundations Course, which is a program I created to address common weaknesses that cause pain during exercise; notably low-back pain, but also pain in the knees, shoulders, neck, or spine. Workouts are 30-40 minutes per day.
• Which “path” is right for you? We’ve developed “paths” at Man Flow Yoga to help you follow a program specific to your needs and goals. People with low-back pain typically identify with our (1) Injury-Prevention and Rehab or (2) Low-Impact Fitness identities.

Additional Resources

You might be interested in some tips on starting off your yoga practice, so read on! 3 blogs covering some basics.

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