This isn’t one of those annoying jingles or headlines that encourages you to “take the next step” and book an appointment with their specialist to solve all your problems. This is an article that describes one of the most effective treatments for low back pain and one that you can start without an appointment with any specialist. This is an article about walking.
Physical activity or walking has many health benefits including reducing your risk of chronic disease by controlling weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugars and by lowering the risk of heart disease, stroke and osteoporosis. In addition walking can play a major role in reducing and eliminating your low back pain.
Despite the presence or absence of many structural changes in our spines as we age our spinal posture and how we load our back is often the single most important reason we experience low back pain. To be clear, even in the presence of disc bulges and degenerative joint disease how we load our spine and carry ourselves can determine whether we experience pain or not.
Walking is often a great exercise for our spines because it reduces the pressures we place through our discs when we sit and bend. It helps to break up the postures that we often adopt during our sedentary lifestyles of sitting and standing still. When we feel pain the instinct is often to rest. But with back pain it is movement that works….
Regular brisk walking of up to 20minutes a day preformed with good posture and suitable walking shoes can significantly reduce your back pain. There are of course precautions that need to be heeded. Not everyone is the same nor does every low back pain respond the same. If your pain gets worse as you walk or you start to notice an increase in pins and needles or numbness then walking is not the answer for you. But for the majority of people with chronic low back pain finding a reduction in your pain may be as simple as placing one foot in front of the other.