| Wednesday, August 27, 2008 |
| Low Back Pain - 5 Ways to Get Rid of Pain in Your Lower Back by Fixing Your Posture |
If you have muscle strain in your lower back, you probably know that your posture can be a major cause.
But, what causes poor posture? And, how can you fix your posture and get rid of your low back pain?
Most of us hold our head and arms in front of our body for most of the day. This causes the muscles in the front of our body get short. These short muscles pull your shoulders forward. They pull your head forward and down and make your chin stick out.
If your back muscles are weak because you aren't making a point to strengthen them, they get overstretched. So, instead of holding you up, your weak back muscles let your spine bend forward at the top. That causes you to lose the curve in your low back, too. Your posture starts to fail. Gravity starts pulling on your heavy head and that causes you to collapse even more.
What happens next?
Your bones are the support system for your body. They are supposed to be the steel grids. But, when your posture starts to collapse, your muscles have to start acting as bones to hold you up. Your poor muscles strain to hold your heavy head up while gravity is pulling it down. (Why? Because your head has moved in front of your body instead of being held directly over it.) Your muscles are doing what your bones are supposed to do. Your muscles are being strained because they are doing the job of bones.
So what can you do?
There are several natural things you can do to improve your posture and get rid of your back pain.
1. Assess your posture. Have someone take a sideways photograph of your whole body (right side and left side) and examine it to see where your head is. Is it over your body or is it several inches in front of your body? The holes in your ears should be pretty close in line with the center of your shoulders. The midline of your shoulder should be directly over the joint of your hip and thigh. Are your hands hanging next to your body or are they in front of your body?
If your head and hands are in front of your body, that indicates that your back muscles need to be strengthened. A strong back side will let you stand straight and tall. Forward head and arms also indicate that the muscles in the front of your body are tight, or short.
2. Learn about muscle balance therapy and how to assess your posture to determine the cause of your pain.
3. Stretch the muscles in the front of your body that are tight and short.
4. Balance your workouts. It is so much easier for us to strengthen the large muscles in the front of our thighs than the hamstrings in the back of the thigh. But, the hamstrings need to be strong, too.
It might make you feel more powerful if you have well-developed pectoral (chest) muscles, but they can pull you into poor posture unless you also strengthen your back.
5. If your lower back is too flat, one thing you might do is practice flexing it slightly backward and forward. Also, stretch the front of your thighs. The goal is to develop a small curve in your lower back. But, if your lower back has too much curve in it, you might practice pressing it into the floor. That's one movement that can help normalize the curve.
When the muscles in front (from knees to head) are relaxed, or in a neutral resting length, and the muscles in the back of your body are strong enough to hold you up, you are in an ideal posture.
If you correct poor, or "forward" posture, it will take the strain off your back muscles (and your neck muscles, too.) Less muscle strain means less low back pain. |
| posted by Healthy Life @ 9:45 AM |
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