How to walk the right way to improve your health 1:56
(CNN) --
Too often, after searching unsuccessfully for a magical answer to eradicate chronic back pain, people decide that living with it is a normal part of life.
But living with back pain is not normal, nor is it necessary.
This article will enable you to create your own personalized long-term strategy for maintaining back health and leading an active, pain-free lifestyle.
Reduce back pain with these 5-minute home exercises
Back pain is a highly personal experience, with diverse causes and equally diverse treatment options, but studies have shown that exercise is the most effective means of achieving lasting relief.
It is also important to establish a mind-body connection and harness the power of the breath to not only calm the pain response, but also restore proper alignment of the ribcage, pelvis, and spine to relieve pressure. on the back.
The body needs movement to heal itself.
Here's how to make a long-term, exercise-based plan to keep back pain at bay.
Important Note:
As with any exercise program, consult your physician before beginning.
Believe in yourself
Throughout the previous articles and videos in this series, I've shared over a dozen exercise options, encouraging you to try them all while listening carefully to your body to determine which ones have helped you achieve relief and begin to regain your strength and fitness. Mobility.
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To craft your long-term back care strategy, you'll need to continue to trust and develop your instincts.
Don't be afraid to trust your mind-body connection to guide you in selecting the right exercises to incorporate into your daily life and to address specific needs, as your back occasionally sends you signals that it requires extra attention or slightly different approaches.
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These signals can be as strong as the temporary return of sciatica symptoms or as soft as the whisper of a back muscle that feels a bit out of place.
Since you've already invested time and energy in learning how your body responds to different exercises and techniques, in each case, you'll simply have to go back to what has worked before.
You should feel able to be proactive and confident in your own care.
exercise daily
There is no passive approach to keeping your back healthy.
Since your body is designed for movement, daily exercise will be your most effective preventative medicine.
In fact, in addition to keeping you pain-free, as little as 11 minutes of moderate exercise a day can help you live longer, according to research.
Do you want to measure the intensity of your exercise?
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There are many ways to get those 11 minutes or more of daily exercise.
Since we are focusing on your back health, you should choose three of the exercises from the previous articles in the series that have helped you find relief and incorporate them into your daily routine.
According to fitness
expert
Dana Santas, identifying the daily exercises that are right for you is a key part of staying pain-free.
Credit: Konstantin Postumitenko/Adobe Stock
Due to the role your breathing pattern plays in maintaining posture and alignment, I strongly advise you to include the Breathing Bridge exercise as one of your three.
Your three back-care exercises should only take a few minutes, so you'll need to incorporate some other daily exercise to help you reach that minimum threshold.
Consider this 10-minute bodyweight workout routine, or if you're new to exercise, my "Reboot Your Workout" series can help.
Practice mindful walking
Whether as a daily exercise or as a complement to it, I recommend at least eight to ten minutes of mindful walking each day.
As you take each step, be aware of the timing of your movements and your ability to breathe well as you walk.
Walking can reduce the risk of premature death, but it goes beyond the number of steps, according to a study
Walking is an alternative and reciprocal pattern, which simply means that while one side of the body does one thing, the other does the opposite to create a complete movement.
This includes the upper and lower halves of your body and incorporates all of the supporting spinal muscles.
The correct position of the feet and the strike of the heel allow to absorb the impacts and to move the weight of the body with balance and control.
Arm swing is essential to a functional walking pattern, as it creates healthy movement of the rib cage in coordination with each step, providing needed abdominal, hip, and trunk power that helps prevent lower back strain. spine.
Walking may have been painful in the past, but it's likely that the muscles that contributed to your back pain were to blame.
By mindfully training your gait to be a symphony in motion, you can initiate and maintain healthy movement to prevent future soreness.
hold yourself accountable
Living without pain doesn't mean limiting your activities or numbing your pain with drugs.
It is important to keep moving proactively.
Take note of when you've been sitting for an hour or more and proactively get up, stretch and move to counteract the impact of sitting on your back muscles and posture.
Once you've discovered the right daily exercises to stay away from pain and begin to experience consistent benefits, you'll find that you're more and more motivated to exercise.
This is because your body is designed to reward you for giving it what it needs to be healthy and strong.
Exercise influences our physiology, increasing the production of feel-good hormones and decreasing our response to stress.
And, like anything that feels good and produces positive results, you'll want to do more.
Back pain
