You can easily start to rehabilitate your back and get rid of back pain in a swimming pool or any body of water where you can move your arms and legs.
If you have pain in your lower back it may be because you have lost the natural curve behind your waist.
Do you slouch and slump? Does the area behind your waist feel flat rather than slightly curved inward?
Water movement can help.
If your pain is in your upper back that can be for the same reason; you have lost the natural curve in your low back. That makes your head move forward and causes strain on your upper back muscles.
Water movement can help.
Water acts as resistance and also massages your muscles as you move through it. Swimming is excellent if you know how and IF it doesn’t aggravate your pain.
Any body of water is good to exercise in but a swimming pool has the advantage of edges to hold onto.
Hold onto the edge of the pool with your arms outstretched and kick your legs. That will help strengthen your legs and hips. And guess what?
Your legs are attached to your back via muscles!
When you are kicking in this position you dropping your belly and lifting your tail–you are making a forward curve behind your waist. Your muscles will start to remember where they used to be. 🙂
Every now and then reverse the curve in your lower back. Give it a break. Move into the opposite position but only to your comfort level.
The idea is to keep using ALL of the muscles in your spine in ALL directions. That’s what keeps spines flexible and back pain levels down.
If you don’t have access to water, yoga can help.
There’s a movement or posture in yoga called cat-dog or cow-camel. It has you on the floor on all fours. Drop your chin to your chest thoughtfully (always move thoughtfully) and arch your back like an angry cat.
Then lift your head, elongate the front of your neck, and let your belly drop like an old cow. You’re now flexing and extending your whole spine.
When you do that, it warms, loosens and relaxes the muscles that attach to your spine in a similar way to water movement.
Keeping or re-gaining the natural spinal curves that you had when you were a toddler and small child is KEY to natural back pain relief!
