Tips for Back Pain Relief

The most common pain we come across at Bare Health is back pain! Surprisingly, if you have not had a major surgery back pain is a pretty simple fix.

The majority of our clients aches and pains come from one of these similar factors:

1. Poor Posture 
   1. Anterior pelvic tilt
   2. One hip is higher than the other
   3. Knees are internally or externally rotated
   4. Supination or Pronation of your feet
   5. Upper thoracic back is kyphotic from forward hands and rounded shoulders
2. Repetitive movements
   1. Anyone who sits at a desk for a pro-longed period of time knows back pain eventually will come up. Not only back pain but wrist pain, shoulder pain and neck pain can all become an annoying and painful factor in your day to day.
   2. Our lifestyle contributes to back pain hugely, even if you are doing something “healthy” such as long runs, bike rides and even walking can cause back pain if you are not doing the proper pre and post stretches.
3. Poor Nutrition
   1. Eating a large amount of inflammatory food can cause muscles to contract without relaxing.
   2. Inflammatory foods are any foods that your body might have a food sensitivity to. Food sensitives can react in your body up to 4 days later which is why it is important for people to get tested for IGG food sensitivities.
   3. Whats the worst foods for back pain? Alcohol, caffeine, and sugar.
   4. Cortisol the stress hormone is a major contributing factor to back pain! Excess cortisol in the body, connective tissue can get inflamed, causing pain.
   5. Other stress-causing, cortisol-promoting eating habits include skipping meals, eating large portions.
   6. So what to get rid of when you have back pain?
      1. Enriched white flour
      2. Alcohol
      3. Coffee and caffeinated tea
      4. Hydrogenated oils
      5. Cheese and all dairy
      6. Soda and flavored sweetened drinks
      7. Added sugar
4. Dehydration
   1. Are you drinking at least 3/4 of an ounce per pound of your body weight in water each day? Most people are severely dehydrated which plays into joint pain! Additionally, for every glass of coffee, soda, or glass of alcohol that you have each day you need to add an additional 12 ounces of water. For example if you weight 150 pounds and drink 1 cup of coffee and 1 glass of wine each day your water intake would be as follows:
      1. 150 pounds * 3/4 ounce of water = 112.5 ounces of water
      2. 1 cup of coffee = plus an additional 12 ounces
      3. 1 glass of wine = plus an additional 12 ounces
      4. Total water intake for the day should be 132.5 ounces
      5. This is assuming no exercise as well which you would need to add more water for every hour you workout.

If you are in an situation where you back keeps going into a spasm static back is the best stretch and pain relief exercise you can put yourself in. Ideally, you need to hold this position for a minimum of 15 mins and maximum of 30 minutes. If you start to feel numbing in your tail bone or in your back it is time to get out of this stretch. This exercise is particularly good for people with back pain because it allows your spine and hips to go into a neutral position without force. It basically helps reset your back alignment by allowing tight tendons and muscles to relax and allow gravity to pull your hips and shoulders down and back.

The hip lift pre is great for releasing the glutes and hip which often cause tightness in our back. Usually if your back is in a spasm the pre-stretch is enough but you can progress this stretch by putting one foot on the wall at a 90 degree angle.