Allow me to share my 5 best golden rules to alleviate low back pain. It is important to not only alleviate low back pain but also learn how to not have a re-occurrence.
Golden Rule # 1, lose weight
The reasoning behind the importance of losing weight is excessive weight creates additional stress on the low back, especially abdominal fat. Remember, if you have additional fat in the abdomen region then the structures in your low back are required to support the extra weight. Over time this puts unnecessary stress on joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons creating small micro-traumas that can result in pain and discomfort.
Golden Rule # 2, strengthen abdominals
This is very important because the abdominal muscles should function like a corset holding ligaments, bones, joints and internal organs in place. Understand that if you abdominal muscles are weak then we hang off of our back muscles, joints and ligaments creating unnecessary stress on the low back.
Golden Rule # 3, Stretch your iliopsoas muscle
The iliopsoas is one of the main muscles in hip flexion. This means that every time you sit, walk, run, and ride a bike, the iliopsoas muscle is engaged and contracting. We do the above activities a lot. Those are just a few reason it is important to stretch your iliopsoas muscle daily and properly.
Golden Rule # 4, drink more filtered water
This not only combats against muscle spasms but also can help with organ referral to the low back from the colon and/or kidneys. Water is magic medicine to normalize dysfunction in these organs.
Golden Rule # 5, make sure you have proper spinal alignment and muscle balance
You could easily fix this by going to your local chiropractor. This should be important to maintain proper posture, combat against arthritis, decrease joint dysfunction, increase muscle length, and restore natural function in the body. This is really critical because it allows you not to compensate with other muscle groups creating chronic pain patterns.
It is best to start with going to a local chiropractor, starting a weight loss program, and increasing water intake. Then as indicated, you can add stretching exercises and strengthening exercises. It is important to be pain-free enough where the stretch and strengthen in can done correctly, so not to injure yourself more.
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