BackFaqs

Believe it or not, there's still a lot of misunderstanding and controversy around this issue. Some people think the best thing to do when they have back pain is to lie down until it goes away.

Most people know that regular exercise is one of the best ways to prevent back pain, but it can also be be the route to treat your pain if you approach it correctly.

NOTHING on this site is intended as medical advice. If your pain is severe or chronic, particularly if it is accompanied by any numbness or tingling, bladder symptoms, pain or swelling in any other joints, or any leg pain, PLEASE see a medical professional before starting an exercise program.

What's the Best Exercise for Back Pain?

Exercise for back pain (exercise in general) can be broken down into three general areas:

1. Stretching
2. Strengthening
3. Cardiovascular

This is, of course, oversimplified. and leaves out an important component: balance. The first area, stretching, is where a lot of people focus. When you're in pain, the natural tendency is to want to stretch it out. Unless of course, the pain's so severe that you can't move, but that's another story. In this article, I'm talking about mild to moderate back pain, where stretching does feel good.

The problem, though, is that even though the stretches might help temporarily, they do little to fix what caused the problems in the first place until you strengthen the supporting muscle groups. Before you go out and buy a big old set of weights or run to the gym, here's my first piece of advice.

GO SLOW!! You're reading this blog in the first place because you have back pain. You don't want to end up in worse pain or seriously injure yourself. I know. Been there, done that.

I'm one of those "got a plan, gonna get it done today" types. But you can't force progress. One rule of thumb used by personal trainers physical therapists is that you shouldn't increase your activity (weights, aerobic activity, etc.) more than 10% a week. And that's for healthy people who are NOT in pain! So if you're walking a mile this week, you could walk 1.1 miles next week (is that right? I'm far from a math genius).

If you're starting out in pain, you can break in even more slowly than that. The point is to work at your own pace and not to stress your already stressed muscles.

In my massage practice, I use a 1-10 scale when I'm working on clients, where 1 is basically nothing and 10 is "I want to run away screaming." This is for the trigger point therapy I do, and I tell them I like to work at about a level 6, and they should always be able to breathe comfortably into the pressure. I'm telling you this because it could be a good guidepost for your workouts.

Whether it's stretching, strength work, or aerobics, you should never be in pain as you work out. You can use a 1-10 scale, or if you're more visual, maybe red, yellow, green for stop, caution, go. Never push yourself beyond that "hurts so good" feeling. Hope that makes sense.

• Highly recommended: swimming, walking, recumbent biking, elliptical exerciser, yoga (gentle). pilates, gyrotonics,
• Caution or stop until you're relatively pain-free: Running, golf, any exercise that involves bending or heavy lifting

I'll get into specific exercises in more detail in other articles, but the best advice I have is to see if there's a gentle yoga or back care yoga class in your community. One of the biggest myths still floating around is that yoga's all about stretching and twisting yourself into a pretzel. It's not. A good yoga class combines strength, flexibility, and balance, and you'll even end up sweating a bit.

I've seen at least two cases where people have corrected their scoliosis through yoga. You could also look into pilates or gyrotonics, which I highly recommend. Here in Seattle, there's a chiropractor who teaches yoga classes, and she's terrific!