Exercises To Reduce Back Pain

Exercises to reduce back pain can help those athletes who are involved in heavy training or rigorous competition. Activities like cardio, football, hockey, rugby, running, swimming, soccer, and weight training can all take a toll on the lower back if proper technique and equipment use is not followed. Back problems are one of the most common injuries that cause down time for athletes.

As many as 80% of adults have had back problems in their lifetime. It is the leading cause of doctor visits and claims for work disability. The annual cost of back pain medical care and disability claims in the US exceeds $50 billion.

These are six exercises to reduce back pain that we have found that will help get athletes back on track.

Exercises to Reduce Back Pain #1: Running Style
Runners put a lot of strain on the lower back due to the impact of their body with the ground for a prolonged period of time. This can also cause injuries like calf muscle or hamstring strains or Achilles tendonitis and pain. One of the largest culprits is the running style some athletes have.

Russian scientist Nicholas Romanov has developed a new technique called pose running which can reduce the strain on the body. His principles include:


Run only on the balls of your feet, avoid impacting on your heels. The flex in your foot and ankle will help absorb some of the impact.
Your ankle needs to align properly and raise straight through your hip.
Using a shorter stride will help to vertically align you ankles, hips and shoulders to avoid swaying which will put undue strain on your muscles to keep proper balance.



Exercises to Reduce Back Pain #2: Core strength
The strength of your core muscles (abdominals, obliques as well as back muscles) will stabilize your posture and make muscle strains far less likely. If one set of muscles is weaker, other areas try to compensate and this causes the strains you feel. Add core exercises to your daily routine to build up your strength over time or if you are a gym rat like me, include them as a part of your weight training.

Exercises to Reduce Back Pain #3: Build Endurance
Lower back pain can be reduced by increasing muscle endurance. Your back will need to maintain a level of force for an extended period of time and not get tired. For example - standing and moving at a work station or picking up light objects from the floor.

To build up your endurance:


Lie down on a flat bench with your upper body over the edge and someone holding your legs or use a back extension apparatus at the gym.
Extend your upper body parallel to the floor and hold this position with your arms folded across your chest, for as long as you can.
Do 3 sets with 30 seconds to 1 minute rest in between. Try to build up your endurance until you can hold your position for a full minute each time.



Exercises to Reduce Back Pain #4: Flexibility
Easily the best of these exercises to reduce back pain is to increase your range of motion. Stiffness in any joints in your body will put a strain on muscles in several areas at the same time. Work on your flexibility by using dynamic (active) stretching rather than static stretches. They are more effective and are a great warm up activity before exercise.

Exercises to Reduce Back Pain #5: Sleep the Right Way
Sleep is critical to the recovery process for athletes but so is the position that you use. Bad body positions can cause back pain due to poor support for the spine.

Some tips for the three types of sleepers:


Back sleepers - put a pillow under your knees
Side sleepers - keep your spine in a neutral position by placing a pillow between your knees
Stomach sleepers - use a specialized pillow to avoid neck and head twisting and being too elevated which puts undue stress on your back



Exercises to reduce back pain can be a critical piece to an active person's lifestyle so they can function properly in their daily work life but also as an athlete. There is no worse feeling than trying to get out of bed and finding that standing up is almost impossible due to a bad back.


My name is Jacques Delorme and I run a youth nutrition blog at http://visportsnutrition.ca where you can get information on nutrition, exercise and motivation for youth athletes. Visit my site and feel free to leave comments and questions if you need more information.

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