...those aching backs !

[Grumpy]

Experience prompts me to put in a plug for walking as therapy for lower back pain. In the episodes I’ve had over the years (muscle spasms rather than disc damage) walking invariably seems to have hastened my recovery. But I do have to be very careful about certain bend-reach-twist motions, tripping and spills while hiking, any of which could set off those wicked spasms that lead to excrutiating lower back and sciatic pain.

My guess is, there’s something to the Yoga bit. I live with lower back problems which produce a level of chronic pain. Prefer not to use and don’t use medication, if possible, although Ibuprofen can work and is taken at times. Stretching exercises recommended by a physical therapist help. But on many occasions, if the pain starts when I get out of bed, say, it responds positively to my lying back down in a (somewhat) comfortable position, and focusing my mind on relaxing my muscles. When the tension is significantly eased that way for several minutes, I usually can get up and about my business with reasonable comfort (which is a very relative term).

G.

 

[Amicus]

What cured my back pain

About six years ago back pain that at first came on for a day or two after really heavy lifting (as in piano or fridge) got chronic over the course of a year and very painful. X-rays traced the cause to two fractured vertebrae near the base of my spine from a toboggan accident (flew backward into a big tree) 20 years before - the normal curvature of the spine was "flattened" there which belatedly led to disc-compression which caused the pain.

I saw a very good PT who prescribed a regimen of crunches - a half-dozen different ones, some using a Pilates ball. They worked wonderfully. The back pains steadily subsided and after about two years were gone. I still do three of the crunches, about five sets of each a week. I'm careful about heavy lifting but not overly so.

Good luck!