10 important steps to get rid of your backache

10 important steps to Treat lower back pain

Before we tell you how to get rid of your backache it’s important to look at some data: As we grow older we suffer more from lower back pain, so that if over 50% of 30 year olds suffer from back pain, this will increase to over 80% for people over 70.

In the US alone people spend 14 billion US dollars on lower back treatments every year. 20% of the people who seek treatment will not get rid of the pain.

Companies spend 30,000$ for every 100 employees annually over back pain in sick days, treatments, diminished capacity and so on.

Nowadays, the number of children and young adults with backache is increased dramatically, probably due to the use of technology.

In this article we will discuss important steps to stopping backache permanently. It’s highly recommended to read this article twice to internalize the changes you have to make, and if you have friends who suffer from backache, share it with them.

  1. Embrace the pain, but don’t get used to it

Every day I meet a person who tells me he had been suffering from lower back pain, has no expectation to get rid of it, and just came to see me because someone told him to.

Pain is a sign. It is a sign that we are doing something wrong with our body, with our life, especially when it comes to lower back pain, since this is our equilibrium center.

When we get out of balance because of work, relationships, overload, moving and so on, we will feel backache. It shows us something very simple – that the specific event will blow over, but we have to listen to it. If we are changing careers it will do us no good to set a sports goal at the same time. We will feel pain, fail our goal and our lower back will pay the price.

The most important thing is not to get used to the pain but to embrace it and understand that it will help us make a change in our lives.

 

  1. Genetics is no excuse

If you have a doctor who tells you that you are going to suffer from back pain your whole life due to inherited back structure, change doctors! We are born with a certain built, just like some houses are built on shifting ground, but do we let our house collapse, or do we reinforce the foundations? My mother suffered from backache for many years and had 2 surgeries, both of which did her no good. When I was 22 I got the bitter news that I was doomed to suffer the same fate, and there’s nothing to do about it. You have to understand there’s plenty to do about it. Everybody, no matter their original built, should be able to live a life without pain. It is possible!

 

  1. Set regular times for practice over a month

Some people say they have tried Yoga/Pilates and it wasn’t for them. They didn’t feel better, or the pain got worse. You must understand physiologically it takes the body a whole month to get used to a time slot. If you worked out and you feel pain, you should tell your trainer and work less hard, but don’t decide it’s not for you until you’ve tried twice a week for a whole month. Even changing your workout time from morning to evening takes time, and you might feel weak and tired at first. If you understand this you can succeed in practicing almost any sport you like. The goal is to actually write down your workouts in your calendar at fixed times, and not let any events change those times.

 

  1. Training buddy

Would you let your friend work out alone after he got up at 6 o’clock in the morning just for you? A training buddy doesn’t have to be in your level or pace. He is just the person who makes us show up to practice. It makes training a social encounter, fun, and it will help you get into a training routine more easily and keep it for a longer time.

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  1. Time management

I don’t have time! This is the most common excuse. Studies show that when you workout more your time management is much more accurate and we get 30% more done, that is, a person who works 50 hours weekly without training will have an output of 35 hours. When you workout you will have more time, and that time will be used more productively.

 

  1. Optimal time and duration of the practice

When we suffer from backache we have to set a first goal of training two to three times a week for three months. We are talking about an hour long practice, from the moment we started walking, running or jumped into the pool. It’s highly recommended to consult with a certified WEST trainer about the desired length of the practice in accordance with your pain level (in the beginning the workout may be only 20 minutes).

Times – Some people prefer to train in the morning whereas others prefer the evening. My brother and I are alike in many respects but absolute opposites on this one. He’s a night owl whereas I am at my best at dawn. You should try to schedule your workout in the best times for you, when your body is stronger and your progress will be faster.

 

  1. It’s always better to stretch more than to train more

Most people finish their workout and rush out. From our experience, when people are asked to stretch for 30 minutes after practice, most of them will do nothing. Therefore, it’s better to aim at 7 minutes stretching at the end of each practice, and if there’s no time, even an active release (recuperation while moving slowly and calmly) is better than nothing, or stretching at the expense of practice time. Eventually, what we care about when we have back pain is to stabilize the body, build the muscles and make them elastic, well balanced and strong. Another 300m of swimming will not help you achieve this goal, which is being free of pain.

 

  1. Pain is a sign

Backache is a sign we are doing something wrong with our body. The impact after practice is 6 hours. That means that if after 6 hours you feel more pain, the workout should be adjusted (not stopped!). If you feel pain right after practice there’s something wrong with the workout itself. You must listen to your pain. Don’t stop working out, but try to understand what that pain means and what you should do so that it won’t happen again. It takes a month to find the right balance. Sometimes the pain doesn’t diminish, but the body becomes stronger, and that’s a good sign, because pretty soon the pain will start to diminish.

 

  1. Swimming tailored to your body

They say swimming is healthy, but you have to know how to swim in a way that suits your body, or, in other words, use angles according to your body built and capabilities, and not like Olympic swimmers. Our goal in WEST swimming technique, which is basically hydrotherapic swimming, is to swim without moving the skeleton. That means no fast switching of the hands (like they teach in competitive swimming), no stretching on the water line, no strong legwork, and like we emphasize through this whole article – not to swim through pain. Always bring your body to the edge and pull back a little. If you don’t bring your body to the edge you won’t stimulate the muscle and make progress, but by pulling back a little we both stimulate and elongate the muscle, creating the right elasticity, and not harming the body and especially the skeleton.

 

  1. Swimming without working your neck, especially while breathing

Most of our stress in life concentrates near the skeleton and starts at the neck. In competitive swimming the goal is to breathe fast and quickly return to the flow line. In WEST swimming technique we realized that if we breathe fast it will create stress to the neck which will be translated to lower back pain, so we recommend breathing with no neck work, and to be more precise, it’s saying that the sternum should always be in line with the chin. Unlike competitive swimming, where we work on the core muscles, in WEST swimming we create the breathing position through the long stretch, and so there’s no neck work, we strengthen the abs, release the lower back and ultimately swim much faster.

How to breathe and protect lower back when swimming freestyle>>

In conclusion

There is a lot you can do, and you shouldn’t get used to living with pain. You must find a training buddy, keep regular times and not give up until you’ve tried for at least 3 months, and most importantly, no matter what you do, swim correctly, according to your body’s built and capabilities at least once a week to keep your body balanced.

A training plan using WEST technique, which is tailored to your specific needs and capabilities, will make you swim faster, but more importantly will help you get rid of your back pain for good, no matter if the cause is a spinal canal narrowing, herniated disk, scoliosis or anything else.

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