If you’re suffering with back pain at the moment, I’m really sorry to hear this. Here are a few of my top tips you can try to help banish your back pain & settle your symptoms:
Get a good night’s sleep
If you’re not allowing your body enough time to recover, it’s going to be more tricky for it to feel better. Try to get yourself to bed early enough to give you a full 8 hours, and see if that helps you wake up feeling a little less sore.
Keep active
Even though your first thought is likely to be to rest, cardiovascular exercise that raises your heart rate helps back pain to settle. Keeping your muscles moving, and blood pumping through your body can help more efficient and effective healing to take place.
Take some time to relax
The cause of back pain isn’t often as straightforward as “just” being a disc injury, trapped nerve, or muscle strain. Research now tells us it’s usually a combination of both sensitivity of physical structures (such as your discs, nerves, and muscles) and psychological factors – the main one being stress & the effect it has on our body. So, try to take some time out to take some deep breaths & relax to help calm your nervous system. It might help more than you realise! You can follow along with my 5 minutes of calm here.
Heat can help
A hot water bottle, or warm, relaxing bath can help settle muscle spasms in the acute phase of lower back pain. If your back pain is more longstanding, using heat can still be a helpful way to reduce tension and sensitivity.
Give Pilates a go
Movement is medicine! Pilates exercises not only get your body moving in a kind way, but also provide a combination of both stretching & strengthening exercises to help release tension whilst helping you build a strong core. I also make sure I include a few minutes of relaxation at the end of every mixed abilities session so you leave feeling stretched, relaxed, and hopefully with your symptoms settled! You can find out more about my Pilates sessions here.
If you’ve given all of these a go, and still don’t seem to be making progress, don’t forget that you can book to see me for a physio appointment to get some help with settling your symptoms here.
If you’d like more help with settling your back pain, sign up to my mailing list, where I send out free weekly advice to help you feel the best you can! I’ll also send you through my free download ‘5 Simple Steps to Settle Your Back Pain’ when you enter your details below:
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