The Back Stretcher is scientifically designed to support, stretch and massage the lower back, neck and spine thus realigning the vertebra, relieving nerve pressure, increase blood circulation, improve flexibility and posture, and strengthen the muscles around our spine. It also enables our muscles to stretch without much strain.

The Back Stretcher comes with an instruction manual, which has details of several exercises that can be performed with the stretcher. The Back Stretcher is compact and can be effortlessly folded for easy storage. The arc comes with rolling balls that help in increasing our blood flow and relieve tension in the back and neck.

The use of Back Stretcher goes a long way in the prevention and treatment of back pain. The arc works in two ways: first, it releases muscle tension through massage and second, it improves our body posture through stretching. The Back Stretcher improves one’s flexibility and fitness. The arc-shaped stretcher comes with a five-year warranty.

These pillows fill the natural gap between the lower spine and the chair on which one is sitting. Such pillows provide the requisite support to our head, neck and shoulders, besides keeping them in alignment, thus relieving pressure and tension from our body. The back support pillows also provide a comfort feeling and enable one to relax, enabling the person to have a sound sleep

People with spinal disorders can benefit a lot by using support pillows. Pillows filled with firm material are more effective in providing support than feather pillows. People suffering from spinal disorders are likely to benefit more from pillow filled with firm material, such as grain or buckwheat hulls.

These pillows not only provide comfort, but also provide adequate support to a person’s neck and back. However, it is very essential that the pillow be placed at the right height. If you place a pillow at a high height, it can result in muscle strain in the back or the neck. Similarly, if the height of the pillow is too low, the neck tends to get strained. Therefore you must be careful in using back support pillows for back pain relief

Back pain treatment is effective if the exact cause is identified. The severity of back pain may vary from a dull ache to searing feeling. It may be due a strain in the muscles or an injury or problems like Osteoarthritis, arthritis, bone fracture or tumor or some infection. Although back pain may emerge suddenly, it may be caused by a problem, which has plagued us for a long time. It is essential that we identify the true cause of the back pain, if we want to eliminate or treat it fully.

A number of back pain treatment options are available for people suffering from back pain. However, the treatment may vary from person to person depending on the cause or the reason for the back pain. The exact nature of the pain and its severity can be judged by a specialist who will than suggest the most appropriate treatment.

Exercising is the best back pain treatment. It is a general notion that bed rest is the best cure for back pain. But evidence has shown that rest does not aid in the recovery of a person suffering from Back pain. It is much better if one carries on with normal activities while taking some measures for relieving the pain. The most recommended exercises for curing back pain are short walks, stretching exercises and swimming. However, it is advisable that one starts slowly and than gradually builds up the speed at which the various exercises are undertaken.

Application of a cold pack or a bag of ice to the back is also often recommended by the doctors. This form of back pain treatment is generally used within the first 48 hours after the start of the back pain. A cold pack is generally applied for 5-10 minutes. Ice reduces the inflammation and swelling, numbs soft tissues, and slows nerve impulses in the injured area.

A large number of drugs are also used as back pain treatment that reduce the pain and are easily available in the market. However, many of them can have serious side effects and so should be taken only after consulting a physician. Several non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin, ibuprofen, Naproxen®, Ketoprofen® are capable of reducing pain. These anti-inflammatory medications help in reducing the swelling and inflammation while healing the injured portion. Acute or chronic back pain may be treated by an anticonvulsant or an oral steroid.

Steroid injections are also effective in reducing the inflammation and the treatment of back pain caused by spinal stenosis, disc herniation, and degenerative disc disease. A steroid is injected directly into the membrane that surrounds the nerve roots (dura).

Other forms of back pain treatment include the massage therapy, the electrotherapy and the adjustment of the spine Chiropractors and osteopaths. Acupuncture may also prove to be effective in some cases. Finally surgery may be recommended in cases where the pain is not curable by any of the other forms of treatment.

Benefits of Back Massage Therapy

According to the American Massage Therapy Association, research proves that massage therapy provides many important health benefits, including:

Improvement in blood circulation in the body, which aids in the recovery of muscle soreness due to physical activity.

Relaxation of muscles for an improved range of motion. Muscle relaxation also helps in the treatment of insomnia.

Increased endorphin levels. The increase in endorphin levels is actually one of the greatest benefits of the massage therapy. Endorphins are body chemicals that lend a feel-good feeling, which is very effective in managing chronic pain.

It is important to ensure that precautions are exercised while receiving massage therapy. Your muscle should relax in response to the pressure applied by a massage therapist, in the absence of which, it is possible that muscles are inflamed. In such cases, you should not opt for back massages as a treatment option and consult his/her doctor for the treatment. Most muscle spasms require four massage treatments, usually spread over a six weeks period, to achieve best results. If muscle spasms do not respond to the neuromuscular therapy within two massages, try using another therapy.

If you have severe lower back pain, it is advisable that you undergo thorough medical checkup before commencing the massage therapy.

Slipped Disk or Herniated Disk

When a disk between the bones of the spine swells or bulges and starts pressing on nerves, a slipped disk or herniated disk occurs. This is often caused by twisting while lifting. When you have a slipped disk, you may experience difficulty in doing regular tasks or activities like sitting and bending. When the injury is severe, you will have the tendency to avoid movement due to intense pain. A lot of people don’t realize what caused their slipped disk but it is worthy to know that the injury will not lead to paralysis, and treatment is readily available.

Natural Pain Relief

Treatment options for Herniated disk or Slipped disk can fall into Non-surgical or Surgical methods. Both treatments have risk and benefit factors. It is important that you discuss it with your doctor. However, most back pain can be relieved by a few simple methods that doctors would suggest to try non-surgical means first to reduce irritation of the nerve. Natural pain relief such as enough bed rest, proper posture when sitting, walking, and lying, as well as regular exercise can do the tricks.

When sleeping, the best position is to sleep on your side with your knees bent. A pillow under your head is recommended to support your neck and may use a pillow in between your knees. You can also lie on your back on a firm mattress with pillows under your knees. Or you can lie on the floor with your hips and knees bent and your feet on a chair. This takes the pressure and weight off your back. You may only need about two days of this sort of rest for a hurt back. Too much bed rest can cause your muscles to weaken and slows down your recovery. Try to walk around, even when it sometimes hurt, for a few minutes every hour. Such regular movement can help maintain muscle tone but limit activities such as prolonged sitting, lifting, and bending which can aggravate the symptoms.

Proper sitting position can help provide back pain relief. Choose chairs with straight backs or low-back support. See to it that you keep your knees a little higher than your hips. Make adjustments with your seat or use a low stool to prop your feet on. When you turn, move your whole body rather than by just twisting at your waist.

Driving for long hours can strain your back. Try to sit straight by moving the seat forward to keep you from leaning forward when you reach for the controls. It may help to use a small pillow or rolled towel behind your lower back if you must drive or sit for a long time.

People whose work requires them to stand for a long period of time must find a way to rest one foot on a low stool from time to time, and try to switch with the other foot every 5 to 15 minutes. Maintaining a good posture is necessary in order to avoid back pain. Always try to keep your ears, shoulders, and hips in a straight line with your head up and your stomach pulled in.

To relax painful muscle spasms, try using heating pads for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. Likewise, ice packs and massages may also give the same back pain relief benefits.

Pain Medication

Muscle relaxant medications and anti-inflammatory drugs may be used to relieve pain and discomfort until the body heals itself. However, some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as naproxen sodium, may increase your risk of heart attack and stroke. Always consult with your doctor any medication to determine whether the potential benefits outweigh the risks for you.

Surgical Method

When nonsurgical therapy does not ease your discomfort or the pain is getting worse and becoming unbearable, your doctor may recommend surgical procedure as option. There are various surgeries available that range from the minimally invasive methods to a more serious procedure such as spinal fusion. The complexity of the surgery will depend on the severity of your condition.

Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation program may vary depending on the procedure the patient went through and the doctor’s preference. Exercise regimen may include:

* Exercises to strengthen your lower back and abdominal muscles
* Exercises to improve your posture
* Stretches to increase the flexibility of your spine and legs
* Exercises to maintain your cardiovascular conditioning while you recover

Prolonged bed rest is not advised as it can lead to a decrease in your overall physical condition. Get up and move with caution following your doctor’s recommendations regarding specific activities you should participate in.

indeed, back pain relief and the alleviation of other body aches is not impossible. Various drugs and therapies are now available to people who need to reclaim their health and resume their normal lives — free from pain and discomfort.

Causes of Back Pain

Before we understand about the exercises to relieve back pain, we should have an understanding of human spine and possible causes of back pain. Human body depends on the spinal column for structural stability and mobility. It is the spine which provides us the necessary support to bend, twist or move around. The spinal column is made up of 24 vertebrae which are placed one on another from the skull to the pelvis. The spinal column is tightly wrapped by muscles and ligaments. Now any type of injury in these muscles or ligaments can result in pain. You can rectify or reduce such back pains by carrying out proper back pain exercises.

Exercises- The Safest Cure For Back Pain

Backache usually is a result of the spasm of muscles supporting our spine. This occurs due to improper posture, or sudden movements or jerks or repetitive actions. Diseases such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, viral infection, and bladder or kidney infection, gynecological problems in women, tumors and trauma can also cause back pain. Excess body weight, wearing of improper shoes and carrying heavy weights can also result in back pain. The best remedy for backache occurring from these reasons is back pain exercises. This is mainly because exercises to relieve back pain are safe and free from any possible side effects that is a possibility with other treatments for back pain.

However, back pain exercises may not prove to be effective in cases where the pain is not caused by an improper posture or sudden movements, jerks or is accompanied by bowel or bladder control problems. In such cases, it is advisable that the person suffering from backache consults a physician and gets a proper treatment.

The best way to avoid back ache is to maintain a proper posture and keep your muscles well conditioned by undertaking proper back pain exercises. One should never bend at the waist or stoop to pick up an object. Instead, we should lower our body to the level of the object by bending our knees.

The most common back pain exercise is to stand straight or sit on a comfortable chair that provides adequate support to your back. You should avoid sitting or standing in a single posture for a long time. Even while sleeping, you should be careful as to the type of mattress being used. Slouching or leaning forward should be avoided at all times. Yoga and mediation go a long way in relieving back pain and are very good exercises.

Prevention, it is said is the best cure for back pain. You can avoid backache by undertaking back pain exercises on a regular basis. These exercises strengthen the muscles in the abdomen and the spinal area and ensure that there is adequate support to the spine. Wall slides, leg raises and leg swings are the best exercises and abdominal strengthening exercises prove to be effective in toning up our back muscles.

Read our related articles for Back pain massage, and other back pain exercises to have detailed information about exercises to cure back pain.

The more important reason for the publication of this article is the realization on our part that back-care should be directed more at prevention of backache rather than its treatment. Prevention is better than cure. And backache is a disorder that is easy to prevent.

The working of the lower back:

Let us now focus our attention on the five lumbar vertebrae as regards their working. These vertebrae are the trouble¬makers, responsible, directly or indirectly, for most backaches. You will recall that the thoracic vertebrae are attached to the ribs forming a rigid and strong cage that protects the heart and lungs. On the other hand, the lumbar spine is designed primarily for movement, although it must also bear weight.

However, these two functions, i.e., moving the trunk and bearing weight cannot be easily carried out at the same time. If such an activity is carried out this combines lumbar movements with lifting weight. For example, a ballet dancer or a gymnast moving and holding a partner aloft, the lumbar region becomes susceptible or vulnerable to injury.

Stacked one on top of another, the five lumbar vertebrae work as a unit, in a concerted manner, to permit forward bending, backward bending, etc. This working unit or column sits on a firm foundation or scaffolding called the pelvic platform. Our thigh bones, too, are attached to the sides of the pelvis. Therefore, the pelvis is the connecting structure between the spine and the hips of legs, i.e., between the top and the bottom halves of the body. Since the pelvis is the connecting and central point it acts like a pivot.

The position of the pelvis will control the position of the lumbar vertebras above it. If the pelvis is level or, .as we prefer to call it, balanced, the vertebrae above it will also be in a level or balanced position. This is the strongest position for the spine and makes it the least vulnerable to injury. However, if the pelvis is thrust forward, the vertebrae above it will curve out of alignment. Such out-of-alignment vertebrae cause wedging of the discs and potential discomfort to facet joints and make the spine weak and the back vulnerable to injury.

On the other hand, when the lumbar vertebrae are aligned properly because the pelvis is in a balanced position, pressure is taken off the discs, the facet joints are unloaded and maximum space is provided for the exit of nerve roots. This all-important ‘pelvic balance’ is a function of four groups of muscles. We shall learn more about these muscles soon.

The bones are the static, unchangeable part of the body. The muscles are the dynamic component, giving movement and life to the body. Back muscles play an important role in backache. They are controllable elements responding to the environment and controlled by our conscious thought processes. Composed of contractile fibers that are responsive to nerve-impulses, muscles comprise almost 40 per cent of our body weight and a large part of our body-bulk. There are some 140 muscles attached to the spine alone and they do a prodigious amount of work.

A muscle is basically a contractile tissue, i.e., it functions and tarries out messages by contracting or shortening and relaxing or lengthening. The more a muscle is used or worked, the more it develops and gains in strength. If it is not used as much as it should be, it weakens and becomes flabby or loose. If it is not used at all, it atrophies or wastes away.

The ignorance about the working of lower back leads to a callous misuse or disuse of our more than 140 back muscles and the lumbar region. The misuse of the lumbar region, essentially wrong posture, is the major reason for the wedging of the discs and potential injury to the spine. The continued disuse of our back muscles, a gift of the modern ultra comfort life style, brings about their enfeeblement and more pressure passes on to the spine, increasing the chances of injury manifold. The back ache can be effectively prevented by adopting the pelvic balance postures as a routine and strengthening the muscles supporting it.

Low back pain is a muscular and skeletal ailment that afflicts millions of people around the world. People with blue-collar jobs or those who are required to do heavy manual work are more prone to lumbar aches. No wonder, construction workers are often diagnosed with low back pain. If left untreated, this ailment can result to absenteeism and decreased productivity. Worse, it could even be the cause of more serious health problems.

To determine the severity of low back pain, you may use the following parameters to see how “bad” your back is:

Acute Low back pain last less than 6 weeks
Sub-Acute Low back pain between 6 and 12 weeks
Chronic Low back pain persists for more than 12 weeks

The good news is that there are a variety of treatments for back pain. One of the easiest ways to ease the aches is to use a muscle relaxant. Back pain relief is as easy as popping a pill. However, it is important to get your doctor’s advice since medications for back pain are often doctor-prescribed and cannot be bought over the counter.

These are other helpful tips, procedures and strategies on back pain relief that you may want to consider:

Apply a cold pack to the painful area for 5-10 minutes at time
Use an heating pad on the painful area if the pain is still there within a few days
Protect your back. Avoid sudden turning or bending. Go on with your usual activities and try to
avoid bed rest
Get expert professional treatments
Nonprescription Pain Medications
Spinal Manipulation
Get a massage
Try acupuncture
Traction treatments
Biofeedback
Back Belts and Corsets
Injections into the back

Certainly, back pain relief goes beyond office furniture and medication. The cause of back pain can also be stress at work, family problems, and other distressing situations that may not necessarily due to work or physical exertion. The build-up of everyday stress can make your muscles tighten up and contribute to the slow but painful tension of the back or lumbar muscles. Self-hypnosis, meditation and guided imagery are also being promoted as tools or techniques to reduce the discomforts association with lumbar ailments. Back pain relief options can be expensive, depending on the specific technique prescribed by the therapist.

But surely, regardless of the severity or degree of back pain, it is always best to consult a doctor or health care professional. The back pain may be a symptom of other illnesses or health problems.

You could get an attack at any point along the spine, especially the lower back area which takes on the maximum weight and stress. Most common causes: strain or bruising of muscles; sprain or injury to ligaments; and spasms when the injured muscle knots up as part of the body’s attempt to immobilize it to prevent further injury. Other causes include osteoporosis, arthritis, a slipped disc, or even excessive gas, besides more serious causes like tumors, diabetes or kidney malfunctions that emerge in a doctor’s clinic.

Blame it on your Lifestyle

An important factor and one that is entirely in you hands, is lifestyle. For instance, improper postures while sitting and sleeping, and carelessness during walking, stretching or playing, especially when you are overweight, are few common causes. Grand illusions of being a Hercules incarnate and lifting heavy weights or improperly hefting them around are other frequent errors.

Bad posture is the biggest culprit. Desk jobs mean sitting for hours before computers where we unconsciously slump into odd positions. Or twist our backs frequently while trying to reach for something behind or beside us, or stretch forward too far; too fast. We also unconsciously slip into awkward positions while reading or watching TV sprawled on the bed or sofa.

Sit up

Chairs with gaps at the lower back level are deadly – avoid them. And if you think you are invulnerable because you have that perfectly ‘ergonomically’ designed chair; know this – most people unconsciously lean forward in such a way that their lower back moves away from the chair base and thus remains unsupported.

Get up and Walk around

Sitting anywhere, anyhow, for long periods means that dangerous pressure points develop along the back. The load on you back is the highest when you are sitting, less while standing and least when you are sleeping.

The golden rule is to get up and walk around every 15-20 minutes. When on a long drive, get out of the car, walk around, stretch you limbs after every two hours. While driving, the back of the car seat should not recline beyond 30 degrees and ideally the seat bottom should be tilted up slightly in front.

It’s not a high

Avoid regular use of high heels – they hamper good posture, ruin you body’s alignment and hurt the back, feet and neck. Our feet are designed to bear the entire weight of the body evenly across their surface. However, the feet and legs are placed in and unnatural position when you wear heels. Most of the pressure is transferred to the front of the foot.

Stressed Out

The modern-day stress epidemic is another factor since back pain can be psychosomatic. Stress/emotional problems both cause back pain and aggravate any existing pain. Yoga and meditation sessions are effective in such cases.

Weak stomach muscles heighten back strain and cause you pelvis to twist abnormally. Regular and proper exercise help tremendously since it keeps joints mobile, muscles conditioned and, more importantly, raises your pain threshold.

Don’t over Exercise

Doctors receive many back-pain patients who are victims of improperly-trained gym instructors or half-baked yoga teachers. Suddenly launching into heavy, unaccustomed activity is a sure recipe for disaster.

Backpain can be acute, recurrent or chronic. Most of the people suffering from back pain fall in the first category wherein the pain vanishes in about six weeks and home remedies prove to be very effective. In the case of the recurrent category, the pain reappears after some time while chronic pain lasts for a longer period of time.

A strain in the back muscles due to bending, twisting or lifting some weight generally leads to backpain. An infection, arthritis or ovarian cysts can also be a cause of back pain. In today’s times people often sit in one posture for a long time and thus experience pain in their backs.

Backpain may emerge suddenly but it develops over a longer period of time and is generally a result of a strain in the back muscles. The accumulation of acidic byproducts such as lactic acid and pyruvic acid restricts the normal functioning of muscle tissues and leads to irritation or pain in the muscles. This results in a problem known as delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

The effective treatment of one’s backpain can only be done after a proper diagnosis of the factors causing the pain is done. A severe back pain may often be the result of muscle spasms emanating from a simple back strain. On the other hand a person with a herniated disc may not experience any pain in his back for a long period of time. So it is very important to know about the real cause of the back pain. An injury to the muscle ligament or tendon is less worrisome and easily curable than a bone fracture or tumor in the spine.

The most common symptoms of backpain due to a herniated disc are the numbness in the legs and the back. Degenerative disc disorder and osteoarthritis can result in a situation where the pain aggravates with the movement of the back. A minor pain in the back can also be due to the initiation of arthritis. An orthopedic surgeon or a spine specialist should be consulted in case of chronic pain.