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03
Jun

Guidelines for increasing activity following low back pain

When you have low back pain it is important to remain as active as you can. Sometimes it can be hard to find the right sort of activity and exercise for you.

Many people with back pain have postures and activities that make their pain worse, and postures and activities that make them feel better – the activities that make you feel better can form the basis of a helpful exercise program.  A physiotherapist can help identify what might work for you.

You may have been told to focus on your ‘core’ if you have back pain. This may not be the case for everyone and in some people increasing activity of the trunk muscles may make them worse. Learning about your back pain and what works for you is an important part of creating a back resilience plan that will help you to manage your pain effectively.

As a general rule, the following forms of exercise may be useful for you and your low back pain

1.Relaxation

Encourage deep breathing and focus on relaxing your muscles, especially around you back and tummy.

2. General Physical Activity

Aim for 20-30mins each day of aerobic exercise that does not make your pain worse.  If 20-30mins seems out of reach build up gradually (a good rule of thumb is 10% increase in time per week).

3. Mobility Exercises

Encourage gentle flexibility exercises for your back and hips.Some examples of these can include hip flexor stretch, gluteal stretches, low back flexion (resting child yoga pose, bending forward in sitting) and sometimes extension.

4. Functional movement retraining/strengthening

The general exercises and advice given above is not always enough. It is possible that the way you move, stand or sit may be contributing to increased sensitivity of your low back.   This can be exacerbated by weakness of certain muscle groups (often your leg muscles and not always your ‘core’ muscles).

Learning how to move, relaxing some muscles and strengthening others, may have a positive affect on your back pain.  Your physiotherapist can guide you as to the right strengthening exercises for you.

To learn more about Alison Low visit http://www.opsmc.com.au/person/alison-low/