Back pain – how can I reduce it?
Back pain is one of the most common ailments today. More and more people suffer from it, and it is not easy to get rid of. If you have back pain, you can probably blame yourself. You sit hunched in front of a monitor for hours, then sit in traffic in your car or on the bus, and finally flop down on your couch to watch your usual evening series. You don’t move, you avoid exercise, and you may be carrying some extra weight. Don’t be surprised if your untrained, weakened back-supporting muscles can’t do their job and don’t hold your spine firmly—that’s the cause of the unpleasant back pain. You can say goodbye to back pain, but you can’t expect that from just a couple of pills.
Types of back pain
- Acute back pain is mainly caused by poor posture, lack of movement, or is the consequence of some inflammation. It goes away when the triggering cause is treated.
Regular back-strengthening exercises, physical activity, replacing a bad chair, and raising the monitor to eye level can already provide a solution.
However, if you do not treat it for a long time and do not eliminate the triggering cause, it can become chronic. - Chronic back pain refers to pain that has persisted for months.
It is the result of long-lasting muscle weakness, but inflammatory disease can also be among the causes. Stress can also cause back pain.
Turn your back on back pain!
Treating back pain with medication is pointless! Although painkillers can relieve the pain for a few hours, they have no effect on the spinal-stabilizing muscles, so they do not treat the cause. With medication the pain will always return – this is not the solution!
Moreover, with long-term use of painkillers you must reckon with side effects. Gastrointestinal complaints, excess stomach acid, stomach ulcers, in severe cases even gastrointestinal bleeding, and damage to white blood cells leading to impaired defense mechanisms against diseases can be the consequences.
Instead of medication, cold or heat therapy can be used; it is excellent for almost all low back and back pain. Alternating cooling and warming improves blood circulation in the muscles, washes out the pain-causing toxins and reduces the pain.
However, these also do not strengthen your muscles, so after a temporary improvement the pain may return.
The role of the spinal-stabilizing muscles
Your spinal-stabilizing muscles play a vital role in preventing and reducing back pain. As their name suggests, their task is to support your spine and prevent the vertebrae from being pressed together. For them to have adequate strength, regular physical exercise is necessary. If you do not do any physical exercise at all, back pain is much more likely.
For early-stage back pain, regular back-strengthening exercises or, for example, yoga are the most effective methods!
If the pain is severe and long-standing, however, you should not "dive into training" right away, because sudden exertion will increase your pain and could even lead to a herniated disc. First you must create a condition in which you can train safely!
This is where modern muscle stimulators come in, which are primarily used to strengthen muscles and eliminate muscle-origin pain. With a muscle stimulator you can strengthen the spinal-stabilizing muscles without lifting weights or doing exercise routines.
Under stimulation, the muscles repeatedly contract, similar to during exercise – in other words, muscle stimulation produces the same effect in the muscle as training, without causing movement in the joint. As a result of stimulation, muscle fibers thicken, muscle strength increases, circulation improves and metabolic processes also improve.
Just as exercise does not work immediately, stimulation also only shows effects after 6–8 weeks. That means you must treat the back muscles persistently and regularly. You can even do this while sitting in your office chair or in front of the TV! Strengthened muscles hold the vertebrae in place, reduce pressure on the nerve roots, and thereby the pain disappears.
Muscle stimulation and thus strengthening the spinal-stabilizing muscles will produce improvement even if your working posture or body position at work does not change.
Use a foam roller!
The greatest benefit of the foam roller is that it provides many of the advantages of physiotherapy and massage at the same time. Meanwhile the foam roller is cheaper than a single physiotherapy session or massage and can still be used for years. The main difference between rolling and a massage performed by a masseur is that when rolling you use your body weight to work the muscles and fascia thoroughly. In a traditional massage, the same is done by the hands and fingers of the masseur. Of course it does not completely replace relaxation-stretching exercise routines or massage. But for someone who cannot afford to pay for a massage after every workout, using a foam roller is very worthwhile.
Ergonomic foam roller
The softer and more comfortable roller: compared to the traditional hollow foam roller, its material is more flexible.
The Ergonomic Foam Roller is perfect for rolling the back (the spinal stabilizing muscles). The central groove reduces pressure on the spinous processes.
Its curved shape allows more than straight-line exercises. The scattered knobs on the surface provide a soothing massage.
The foam roller helps release adhesions and knots, but it does not strengthen the muscles. A different tool is needed for that.
Muscle stimulation – improves muscle condition
Muscle stimulators (I recommend four-channel devices) are excellent for treating neck and back pain, as well as low back pain, and can even help with symptoms of a herniated disc.
I recommend them if you feel unpleasant pain in the muscles next to the spine. This can appear in the neck, mid-back or low-back area.
Using the devices is extremely simple. The electrodes that come with the device should be applied on both sides of the spine, over the spinal-stabilizing muscle bundles. With the “muscle tension relief” and the “endurance strength” programs you can reduce the pain and gradually strengthen the muscles so that the complaints do not recur.
And once you have eliminated the pain, start moving regularly and gradually, because only with strong back muscles can you prevent the back pain from coming back!
Preparations
- For full back treatment you will need 4 cables and 8 electrodes. Take these out!
- For this treatment I recommend 50×50 mm square electrodes. (the size may differ by a few millimetres)
- One end of the cables splits into two and ends in pin-like metal connectors. With these you can connect to the self-adhesive TENS electrodes.
- Connect the cable ends and the electrodes!
- The other end of the cables has a connector that allows them to be connected to the device. Plug them into the device!
- The cables may be different colors. It does not matter which colored cable you plug into which socket on the device. The colors only help you easily identify the two ends of a cable. Current flows between the two ends of the same colored cable, and that is what will act.
Electrode positions
If you do not do either exercises or stimulation, your muscles will lose strength again to the pre-treatment level within 2–3 weeks. You can maintain the effect with regular exercise.
