Research continues to show that the best treatment for back pain is exercise. But what do you do when exercise hurts your back instead of helping?
What most people do when exercising makes their back sore is simply stop. They just wait for the pain to go away and start the cycle all over again. This is not the best strategy. Instead, why not find out why exercise might be hurting your back and do something about it?
Here are five reasons exercise might hurt your back instead of help.
It’s the wrong kind of exercise.
While the research isn’t wrong about exercise and back pain, the type of exercise you choose is important. For example, walking is generally considered one of the best exercises for back pain sufferers. But there are certain types of back pain where walking makes you inflamed. In these cases, it doesn’t mean walking is “bad” for you, and it doesn’t mean you have a serious problem. Many times, it simply means that you need a different type of exercise first to get back to normal walking. The same goes for strength training and core training. Exercise is good for back pain, but if you get inflammation, don’t be too quick to blame exercise. You may be doing things in the wrong order. Working with a back pain expert can help minimize this and make sure you’re doing the right exercises at the right time, and it won’t irritate you.
Stability training is introduced too soon
Stability training is an important part of back pain recovery, but I often see it introduced too early, and usually before good mobility is fully restored. Mobility is something you always want to look at first. If you don’t have full mobility in your spine, there’s a reason. And when your spine doesn’t move well, you’re at risk of developing compensatory movement patterns that cause structures in and around your spine to become irritated. When it comes to stability training, there is often resistance or loading involved. The last thing you want to do is add load to the column that is already compensating and irritated. Here’s a surefire way to show off your back and why exercise might be hurting you instead of helping you.
You are not activating your core
Knowing when and how to properly activate your core is different from having a strong core. You can have the strongest abs in the world, but if you can’t use them when they count, it’s useless. Knowing how to correctly activate your core is essential when you exercise, but especially when you have back pain. If you’re not activating your core properly when you’re lifting weights or performing complicated movements that require good coordination, you’re setting yourself up for injury. The ability to activate your core properly is developed through motor control training. It’s where we teach your mind how to recognize and activate specific muscles, during specific activities, so that it eventually becomes habitual. If you constantly have back pain every time you exercise or try to strengthen your core, it could be that you don’t have the ability to activate it when you need to.
you’re not breathing well
Not breathing properly can significantly affect the effectiveness of your exercise routine and impede your ability to perform an exercise correctly. As mentioned above, knowing how to activate your core is crucial when you exercise, and in order to activate your core properly, you need to be able to breathe properly. Your deep core is made up of four parts: your deep abdominals, your deep back muscles, your pelvic floor, and your diaphragm. Your diaphragm is what controls your breathing. Let’s say you hold your breath when you exercise. When this happens, it means your diaphragm isn’t expanding or contracting in the way it needs to for your deep core to be fully functional. Also, when your diaphragm doesn’t work the way it should, it puts unnecessary stress on both your back muscles and your discs. If you’re out of tune with your breathing and not timing it correctly, that’s another reason why exercise might be hurting your back instead of helping it.
You are using the wrong way
The last, and most common, reason why exercise might be hurting your back is because you’re not doing it right. There are a lot of people who think that posture and form don’t really matter. But they do. If you’re lifting weights, especially when it’s frequent and repetitive, you want your spine to be in good alignment. It may not hurt the first time you lift incorrectly, but it will hurt after several weeks or months when you hit your 100th rep. The same goes for bodyweight exercises. Just because you’re not adding an external load to your spine doesn’t mean you can’t aggravate it by doing something with poor form over and over again. This is where I see most people getting into trouble. If you’re going to exercise, and you want to do it every day, do it with proper form and posture or you’ll catch up and continue to cause your back to swell.
If exercise actually hurts your back instead of helping it, it could be for one of these 5 reasons. Get expert help to find out what it could be. Because at the end of the day, exercise really is good for your back. If done correctly, on time, and in the right order, it will help your back instead of hurting it.
Dr. Carrie Jose, a physical therapist and Pilates expert, owns CJ Physical Therapy & Pilates in Portsmouth and writes for the Seacoast Media Group. To get in touch or to receive a free replay of his Back Pain and Sciatica Masterclass, email him at [email protected] or call 603-605-0402.
