What is the connection between lower back pain and our spine?
Lower back pain is largely caused by tension in the soft tissues, muscles, and ligaments along the spine. This can be triggered by poor posture and sedentary work, which weaken the muscles responsible for posture, or by sudden lifting, improper movements, and a lack of warm-up and stretching…
The most common causes of back and lower back pain:
- Sedentary work – the grind of office life
- Standing work – the hustle and bustle of the service industry
- Obesity – the epidemic of overeating
- Lack of exercise – the vicious cycle of exhaustion
- Stress – we carry the emotional burden on our shoulders
One of the biggest misconceptions is that spinal exercises are only recommended in old age or for those with existing lower back complaints. Prevention is very important regardless of age and lifestyle. Whether we do physical labor or desk work, strengthening the muscles along the spine is…
Whether we do physical labor or desk work, developing and strengthening the muscles along the spine is recommended for everyone. This makes our spine sufficiently flexible and stable, improves our body awareness, and increases our range of motion.
Spinal exercises teach proper posture so we don’t put unnecessary strain on our lower back. They mobilize the vertebrae, shoulder joints, and hip joints, stretch the muscles that have shortened from prolonged sitting, and strengthen the smaller muscles along the spine, while stabilizing exercises help protect the spine.
The goal is to replace poor movement patterns with spine-friendly ones, which help protect the spine and surrounding tissues from overexertion and, consequently, pain.
The ultimate goal is for proper spinal alignment to become completely natural for us.
It’s definitely worth incorporating spinal exercises into your daily routine, even if it’s just a few simple mobilization and stretching exercises.
In many cases, just 15–30 minutes of daily spinal exercises at home, combined with consistent attention to proper posture, can eliminate back pain or prevent it from developing. The key here is consistency and perseverance.
Sleep well!
Choose a medium-firm, completely flat mattress, and alternate between an anatomical pillow and a bolster pillow, which won’t strain your neck too much.
The correct sleeping position is on your side with your knees bent (the so-called fetal position); sleeping on your back is also acceptable, but the most popular position—sleeping on your stomach—unfortunately puts additional strain on the spine, preventing it from regenerating during the night.
Spine-friendly diet
To maintain a healthy weight, it’s just as important to ensure you get enough calcium in your diet. Natural sources include dairy products, bananas, nuts, legumes, dried fruits, and broccoli, but you can also get extra calcium in the form of supplements. Vitamin D, which is essential for calcium absorption, can be obtained from autumn sunlight, liver, eggs, fish, or vitamin D drops.
Relaxation and healing in one
Put yourself in the capable hands of a therapeutic massage therapist: rubbing, stroking, tapping, percussion, kneading, and stretching… These techniques help relax your muscles, increase their flexibility and performance, and reduce muscle tension that has formed into knots. Improved blood flow delivers more nutrients to the tissues, and this treatment also alleviates stress, one of the causes of back pain.
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