Exercising and Back Pain...

I used to suffer from chronic back pain. After the birth of my second child, when I was in my early 20's I fell at work which caused me to start down a long road of back problems.  It's hard when you start so young and you are supposed to be so healthy.  I realized that having two children back to back did little to help the muscles in my stomach and my back.  Then to go and have a third child with an existing back injury was not the best thing in the world to do.  I suffered for years and went to physical therapy all to help my back heal.  Then I purchased Power 90 and asked my physical therapist to take a look.  She agreed I could do it with modifications.  From that point on I became the queen of modification!


Fast forward several years...I'm now in my 40's and for the most part I've had a healthy back.  Then yesterday I moved wrong.  It's been a long time since I've felt this pain and I don't like it.  Lower back into my left hip wrapping around into my left abdomen area.  Not a fun time in the least.  So yesterday I took the day off of my ChaLEAN Extreme workout, it was supposed to be Burn Circuit 3 which is focused on lots of lower back, thighs and arms.

So I went looking for information on exercising with back pain and I found a great site www.spine-health.com.  Here is a little bit:

A typical response to experiencing back pain is to take it easy - either staying in bed or at least stopping any activity that is at all strenuous. While this approach is understandable and may even be recommended in the short term, when done for more than a day or two it can actually undermine healing. Instead, active forms of back exercises are almost always necessary to rehabilitate the spine and help alleviate back pain.

Go HERE to read the entire article.

Just remember that you need to know what you are working with before you do any forms of exercise when you are experience back pain.  If you are like me and know what happened then it's important to ice and heat the first day or two along with taking anti-inflammatory's.  Stretching is also good for low back pain as it helps keep the joints lubricated and stretch the muscles that tense up around the area that is inflamed.


So while I will not be doing any heavy lifting tonight you can bet I am going to be doing some yoga.  I will not let my back get the better of me.  I am taking ibuprofen and drinking lots of water.  For the first time I feel like I have control of my body instead of the other way around.  For so many years I let my aches and pains control me.  I'm so glad I have Beachbody in my life and I know what it feels like to live a healthy lifestyle!