Exercise for Lower Back Pain: With the ongoing pandemic and ‘work-from-home’ there are many who are suffering from back pain. This can be due to the stagnant life most of us have gone through or probably, even the stress the pandemic has caused.
You need to know that moving less, rest and lying down will not help you get much relief from this back ache. You need to exercise. This helps in getting some relief and can also help in preventing any future problems with the back. As known, the spine is designed for movement, lifting and bending, and this can keep our soft tissues and bones supple and strong.
Regular exercise and movement can help in restoring strength, flexibility and endurance. This helps us recover quickly from any bout of back pain we are going through.
Reasons Physical Activity Helps in Back Pain
There is an ongoing research by experts as to how physical activity can help in dealing with back pain. How much of this is required and is enough. Exercise does have an impact on the structures that surround the spine.
Certain functions of the nervous system are benefitted when you include exercise in your daily routine. This also includes the brain. Exercise can influence directly how pain is experienced by bringing down the sensitivity to damaging stimuli. This is known as hypoalgesia induced by exercise.
Research has proved that adults who are pain-free can experience effects that relieve pain with a bout of aerobic exercise of high intensity, like running or cycling. This pain-relief effect can last for almost 30 minutes.
These effects of pain-relief are underpinned by different mechanisms interacting – one of these is the body produced agents that relieve pain. These agents include adrenaline, endocannabinoids, noradrenaline, serotonin, and endorphins. This is via the circulatory system in the nervous system.
These signals not only help in reducing the pain but can also make a positive difference to the mood. This is important as the pain experience is known to be directly influenced by your flings and thoughts and your control over the pain.
Hypoalgesia induced by exercise involves the forming of helpful and new connections in the nervous system. This is known as neuroplasticity.
The changes that are structural in the nervous system work over tie scales that are slow as compared to the chemical alterations happening due to hypoalgesia induced by exercise. This does decrease the level of pain over a period of time.
Get Active
There is no specific exercise or movement to bring down the level of back pain. The combination of exercise and the physical activity carried out on a routine basis can help.
But you cannot just take up any exercise and expect to get relief from your back pain. It is important to find out what can help and what exercise can be damaging. It is important to make sure you enjoy whatever you take up.
There are simple ways to carry out your daily routine activities to help reduce the back pain. This can be walking up and down your staircase, or making sure you o not sit in the same position for a long period of time.
Back pain is, normally, due to simple strain or sprain, and nothing serious. This can settle down in a few weeks.
Exercise and staying active is a better option as compared to surgery or medications.