Chronic Lower Back Pain

lookingforward
Wed, 14 Oct 2015 17:23:01 +0000

Ok, adding my own tale. I dealt with awful back pain for years, the sort that kept me from sleeping through the night and left me unbelievably stiff in the am. Of course, a few docs couldn’t find anything, nothing showed up on x-rays or whatever. I used to say, this happened 350 days/year. Changing beds didn’t help. Nothing helped, I just had to move through the morning to get it out. And long walks could exacerbate it, any time of day.

It’s not stretching that helped me. Not stretching. It was strengthening exercises. And it was coincidental that I learned this- I had a free offer for time with a trainer at a local gym and kept it up, even on my own dime. Core training, since it’s your core that helps support your carriage. This revelation happened about ten years ago. Now I marvel that I have maybe 6 bad mornings per year and they are minor, ignorable.

Yes, it so happens I have a good bed now. And yes, shoes or inserts can help some. Stretching is good. Ibuprophen helped. But for me, nothing matched the strength building. Ok, that’s my story.

adding: the pillow under knees, or laying on the floor with knees-to-feet flat on a chair never helped me, made it worse. Mind over matter was a huge psychological drain. Losing weight didn’t cure it.

Oh, and core training is more than what some call a core class. It’s not just abs or abdomen. My current trainer tells me core is shoulders to knees.