My lower back has been absolutely killing me today. Does anyone know of any remedies I could try to address it? I’m trying an ice pack and fixing my sitting posture right now, will be sleeping on my side to relieve pressure on it tonight, but is there anything else I could attempt?
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Honeslty - see a doctor.
The advice peole are offering here will either help or do nothing or make your problem worse and if you try all of them - chances are pretty high you’ll stumble across one that will make it worse.
Your pain is a symptom, not a problem. You need to find out what the problem is before you can fix it.
Thank you for saying this! My tail bone doesn’t bend with the rest of my spine and I wanted to say what helps me, but stopped myself. What helps me (primarily things that force a curve in my lower back), is probably going to make a lot of back issues worse. Gotta figure out the cause before coming up with a solution.
I’m sorry you are in pain. I’ve been there, and I know how terrible it can be.
Every case is different, so it’s best if you see a doctor. I’m in a country with good, socialized healthcare, so it was much easier for me than it is for most of people. I’ve seen a specialist several times, had two MRIs and 3 rounds of physiotherapy in the span of 6 months. Here are things that worked for me:
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take NSAIDs, when they kick in, start with simple, not strenuous exercise. Check YouTube for back pain exercises. Some of them worked wonders alleviating pain almost instantly. Other ones helped to build muscles needed to support the spine, so I’d do them too. Do what you can, if it’s too much, try another time. Repeat every day, even 5 minutes a day can make a huge difference. Walks are great too. Move as much as possible without exerting yourself or making the pain worse.
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get comfortable shoes. Flat, flexible sole worked great for me (I like Vivobarefoot shoes). Walk in these.
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red light therapy helped me. Lamps are affordable, easily available online.
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if you sit down for work, try to get a high quality chair. I’ve been sitting for years on a bad IKEA office chair, which made the problem worse. Once I switched I couldn’t belive how much difference that makes. Standing desk is nice too, but not a game changer for me.
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As the pain got better and better I’ve been introducing more movement. I need regular exercise to keep my back pain free. I’ve actually started enjoying my workouts and a mix of strength and HIIT cardio exercises works best for me.
I hope my advice will also work in your case, I wish you all the best.
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Not an immediate remedy, but my input here is not to mistake rest for healing.If your back pain is muscle related, rest may relieve the pain, but will also continue to allow those muscles to atrophy, potentially seeing you up for more pain. Active recovery, building back the strength of those muscles, can be very important if this is the cause of your pain.
In the end, a doctor of some sort will be your best bet for finding out the root cause of your pain, and generally the appropriate way to address it.
Fully agree. A physio once used an analogy which really resonated with me: think of your spine as the main pole in a tent. If the ropes are loose, it’ll be wobbly. When the ropes are tensioned properly the tent is solid.
If your problem is related to posture or being sedentary a lot (a common first-world problem) then gently rebuilding the strength in the muscles in your back will tension the guy ropes and make better posture happen naturally, often reducing pain at the same time.
Not medical advice - even gentle exercise could be exactly wrong for whatever ails you! But that analogy helped me understand that resting isn’t automatically good, even if it feels nice at the time.
That’s tricky because lower back pain can be due to many things.
If it’s related to muscle tenseness, have you tried stretching? Dynamic side stretches first to warm the area up, then more sustained holds. I find a combination of side stretches, sustained cobra pose, child’s pose, some squats and that hamstring stretch one does while lying down can help.
My back pain is generally much more related to my legs than I expect. Like others here are suggesting I’ve had good luck with yoga and stretching, but I’ve had the most success with poses that stretch my glutes, thighs, and calves.
Seconding this. A doctor showed me one stretch for the backs of my upper legs that got rid of my back pain. Follow the other advice here and see a doctor if it’s bad, but leg stretches are free and easy so it’s worth a try.
Stand on one leg and put your other leg up straight on a surface like a chair or bed so your legs are pointing at 6 and 3 on a clock. Keep your raised leg straight so your toes are pointing at the ceiling (not bent at the knee or twisted). Lean into it as much as you can while keeping both legs totally straight.
It doesn’t seem like much of a stretch, but if it’s hard to do, that may be your problem muscle group that’s locked up and causing the pain.
As others have said it depends on the cause. But something to think about is that if you’re an office worker or sit in a chair for long periods your core/abs are probably weak. This could lead to lower back pain. Strengthening these muscles (core/abs) might help as they support your spine as well.
Obviously this will take time and won’t immediately reduce pain but could stop it reoccurring.
will be sleeping on my side to relieve pressure on it tonight
In this position it helps to additionally put a pillow between your knees to keep your legs aligned (and thus prevent lower back from being tweaked toward your sides).
I like body or king size pillows for this
It really depends what your back pain is from. If you’ve thrown out your back you might need physical therapy or an adjustment before it starts feeling better. Ice definitely helps if it’s muscular. I’ve been on the mend myself this last week from lifting something poorly. https://youtu.be/K8SD47gLB-I here’s the yoga video I always go back to when I do this to myself, usually about once a year.
I like to do yoga, not like full-on sweaty, get the mat out, kind of yoga, more like stretching but some of the stretches are yoga poses so if you like doing regular stretches then yoga may interest you.
That being said, I like to call them stretches because they’re fast and they help with my back pain as well as with my mood. The mood part is subjective but I’ve seen some interesting science regarding stretching regularly and mood regulation.
Things like touching your toes, sitting down and doing the same, or other poses like in this video:
Not gonna promise anything but getting up and really, really stretching my muscles loose, even just my arms, helps with pain. Much of my pain may be psychosomatic but I did a lot of factory/foundry work and the back pain is definitely setting in.
It really depends on the cause. For me the answer was flat shoes and a foam roller. But I know plenty of people who that didn’t work for.
I would definitely take an anti-inflammatory of some kind. Also, something heat is the answer, not ice, but again it depends.
I may be an outlier here, but stretching aggravates my lower back. I have a little bit of a scoliosis type thing though.
What I find works for me is back strengthening exercises. Low weight and high reps. I never have back problems when I’m doing that consistently.
First go with an anti-inflammatory for a few days. But you may want to try PT. If insurance doesn’t cover it you can find a lot of videos on YouTube by PTs to address back pain
This might be on the more extreme end of pain than what you have, but since you mentioned trying to correct your posture, I thought I should share what helped me.
I have degenerative disc disease in my entire spine and was having a sudden bout of horrendous sciatic pain that nothing else would touch. I sit for 8 hours a day in a desk job, and it was pure agony, even with a gel seat cushion and lumbar roll.
What finally worked for me was getting a posture correcting seat. This one in particular, but similar ones would probably work, too. Not to sound like a shill, but I started using that as soon as I got in the car after buying it and the pain was instantly gone by like 90%. I’ve been using it regularly for a few months now as much as I can and rarely have any back pain anymore. Might be something to consider!
I’ve been a fellow sufferer of lower back pain myself.
Try this.A back doctor taught me the technique, but I found this YouTube channel that has the same style of stretching.
EDIT: Also, I think you’re supposed to apply heat, not cold, to a muscle spasm.
Try applying heat for five-ten minutes, then lay on the floor and do the stretch.Sitting yoga, talking a walk, lying flat on the ground and not a mattress for a while, changing seating position often, getting a better chair, static stretching, light aerobics, swimming.
