Keep Your Back Healthy
Oh my aching back! It’s a fact that four out of five adults will have some form of back pain in their lives, and it has become a common misconception that people experiencing back pain should avoid exercise. Yet for most patients with back problems, exercise and movement are the natural stimuli for the healing process.
It is controlled, gradual and progressive exercise, rather than inactivity and bed rest, most often provides the best long-term solution for reducing back pain and preventing future episodes of pain.
Most experts recommend no more than one or two days rest at the onset of most episodes of back pain. Prolonged inactivity can make the back stiff, weak, and de-conditioned, and this will aggravate the cycle of recurring back pain.
Obviously, for chronic back pain, it is important to see a doctor in order to rule out possible types of back pain that could be aggravated by exercise, such as spinal instability.
By nourishing and repairing spinal structures, exercise helps alleviate many existing back problems. The erectors protect your nerves, and are the slowest recovering muscle in your body In fact, by some estimates, it takes some 100 hours to fully recuperate this body part.
How exercise helps the back
Engaging in exercise and fitness activities helps keep the back healthy by allowing discs to exchange fluids which is how the disc receives its nutrition. A healthy disc works like a shock absorber in your spine. It will swell with water and squeeze it out, just like a sponge. This sponge action distributes nutrients to the disc and the fluid exchange helps to reduce the swelling in the other soft tissues that naturally occurs surrounding injured discs. When there is a lack of exercise, swelling increases and discs become malnourished and degenerated.
Exercising the back reduces stiffness by keeping the connective fibers of ligaments and tendons flexible. Improved mobility through back exercise helps to prevent the connective fibers from tearing under stress, which in turn prevents injury and back pain.
Tags: back pain