Dealing with back pain can be a very confusing time. Just a simple search of methods to beat back pain can leave you none the wiser about what can help your specific problem. If you’re part of our membership area, you might be familiar with the kinds of tips and tricks that we share, but if they’re new to you they may sound quite different to the advice you’ve been given in the past. Here at The Mayfair Clinic, we deal with back pain cases every single day, so we know exactly what works for our patients and what they should be avoiding to make improvements.
What You Need To Avoid
A lot of the time, advice is given on back pain to do exercises that may potentially make the problem worse. Exercises like knee hugs and nerve flossing are not good because they involve a lot of bending over, or flexion. This can feel good at the time, which is exactly why it’s recommended. However, forward bending can put a lot of pressure on the discs and joints in the lower back, which can cause more inflammation to develop. It can also make it a lot more painful to straighten up afterwards as the inflammation builds. This happens because when you get an injury, inflammation fills the spaces behind the discs at the site. These spaces get bigger when you do flexion based exercises, which will relieve pain because it allows more space for the nerves. However, when you straighten back up the compression on the nerves remains. These exercises are often given without an explanation as to why they’re being given, which is not to treat the problem but rather relieve symptoms momentarily.
Breaking Habits To Help Back Pain
Consistency is really going to be key when it comes to getting rid of back pain in the long-run. Unless you’ve had an accident that involved a sudden trauma to your spine, chances are your back pain has been developing over a period of months and years of repetitive stress. This may be through poor posture everyday at your desk for a year or two, or it may be the slouching on the sofa at home in the evening that’s been gradually causing your spine to lose its natural alignment and become less able to deal with everyday stresses and strains effectively. If you eat cake everyday for years, one salad isn’t going to undo the weight gain you’ve probably experienced, just like one day at the gym won’t. The key is consistency with your rehabilitation work everyday and correcting your posture, as these will work but it can take time.
Join The Back In Shape Program
A full protocol to support you get out of back pain in the short term and then rehab safely and effectively to deal with the issue for the long term.
F.O.C.U.S
This acronym simply means Follow One Course Until Successful. We do see a lot of cases where patients have been to a great number of practitioners before seeing us. It’s very often the case that the above consistency rule hasn’t been emphasized and not explained properly, so the patient has a timeframe in their head of recovery that’s not feasible. The road to recovery is not always a linear process. A lot of times it can involve ups and downs, good days and bad ones too, but having consistency with your rehabilitation and following the advice that we’ve recommended to patients day-in-day-out is going to be key to getting momentum in your recovery.
What We Recommend For Back Pain At Home
Our tips that we recommend you follow at home are a threefold approach. Learning to re-engage your core and regain control of those muscles is number one and forms the basis of the rest of the strengthening exercises later on. The ‘ab’ muscles are different to the deeper, protective core muscles, so even gym bunnies with six packs may not be protected because of this. Equally, if you’re a lady that’s had a C-section in the past, usually the focus at that point in time is on the baby and not so much on the mother’s recovery. This can mean that learning how to rehabilitate those core muscles falls by the wayside. If you’ve been inactive, you may also have weaker core muscles so this first step is so important. Once you learn how to switch the core on and off, this will help you in so many ways.
Improving the flexibility around your hips is also going to be helpful to your recovery. This means learning how to stretch the hip flexors, glutes and hamstrings in a way that isolates the muscles and enables you to bend properly without the need to burden your back by bending over at the waist. In our membership area, we show you exactly how to perform these stretches in a safe way for your back.
Lastly, the decompression towel stretch that we frequently recommend is going to be great for relieving pressure on the joints and muscles in your lower back. Take a rolled up towel, roughly the size of a foam roller, lie with it underneath the lower back about an inch above the dimples in your lower spine, and relax there for around 3-5 minutes. This can be done everyday if you’ve got back pain, but also can be done if you don’t have back pain as a maintenance treatment and reset for your body. If you don’t currently experience back pain but enjoy the more high impact sports, you can also use this stretch to relieve the pressure on your back.
We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s article! To sign up to our membership area for free, and learn more in-depth tips and tricks including all of the things we talked about today, visit www.backinshapeapp.com to join. If you have any questions about your back pain or about the stretches we recommend, please do get in touch with us and we’d be happy to help! You can reach us by emailing us at info@themayfairclinic.com, by visiting our social channels, or by tuning in to our livestreams every weekday!
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info@themayfairclinic.com
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0203 947 32 22
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4 Cavendish Square, London, W1g 0PG.