The Key To Lower Back Pain Relief

The quickest and easiest way to get lower back pain relief is to take a packet of Nurofen, or if the pain is breath-takingly excruciating, a packet of Oxycontin. This is the medical industry gold standard treatment for lower back pain.

Whilst a lot of doctors encourage people to take the drug route, and to be sure, if the pain is bad enough, it might be the only thing that brings sufficient relief to start getting on with life, it will be a tortuous route if it's the only one you take.

On the one hand lower back pain is not caused by a lack of Nurofen or Oxycontin. On the other hand taking a drug to mask the pain diverts people's attention away from doing what they really need to do to permanently relieve their pain.

The medical industry logic goes like this; 'Take the tablet, pain goes away, problem fixed! Next!'

Well, it doesn't work that way. A problem masked is not a problem fixed. It's the great medical industry legerdemain. The pain in the foreground may have gone, but the problem that caused it is still lurking in the back ground, ready to flare up again at the slightest provocation.

Then there's the big worry. Not only does taking Oxycontin not treat the underlying cause of the pain, you could compound your back problem with an opiate addiction problem.

But, turning attention away from the quick fix, the key to lower back pain relief comes in two parts.

First find out what's causing the pain.

No motor mechanic would stay in business for long if they didn't know the cause of a particular problem. In fact motor mechanics are much better at diagnosing the causes of misalignment in various moving parts of motor cars than doctors, radiologists and surgeons are at diagnosing the causes of misalignment in the moving parts of human bodies.

In the sit down society the cause of the problem is rarely at the site where it's painful. So rubbing, crunching, heating and vibrating the bones in your lower back will not do much to fix the underlying cause of the pain.

It's highly likely that the cause of your lower back pain comes from a pelvis that's been drawn out of alignment. Once the pelvis moves out of alignment the bones above it are drawn out of alignment as well, stretching ligaments, tendons and muscles beyond their pain threshold and causing discs to herniate.

You think there's something wrong with your lower back, which there undoubtedly is, but the cause usually lies in weak and tight muscles attached to your pelvis - front, back and sides.

Tight muscles have taken the pelvis out of alignment. Weak muscles have fallen down on the critical job of giving support to its structural alignment.

Which brings us to the second key to lower back pain relief, which is, to start doing the strength and flexibility exercises designed to support the bones throughout your body, and particularly your pelvis, in better alignment.

Loosening tight muscles can be done with a range of exercises, some of which, like 'static back' and the 'supine groin stretch', require absolutely no effort at all. All you have to do is lie on the floor for an hour each night while you watch TV and let gravity do the work for you.

Most of the other exercises you need to do don't take much effort either, exercises like the 'hip crossover', the 'wall sit', the 'sit up straight' buttock stretch and the 'prone frog'.

So how long each day do you need to spend waiting for pain relief to kick in?

I'd say that if you spent a couple of hours a night on the stretching program and if you went to the gym three times a week to do a good set of strength exercises, in a couple of months you should be feeling a whole lot better.

Most people say they don't have two hours a day to spend on an exercise program, yet the average American spends well over three hours a day watching TV. You can do your exercises while watching your favourite programs. It's called multi-tasking and it's not all that difficult.

Large number of people have been conned into believing they can't fix themselves, so they put themselves in the hands of the rubbing and crunching industries. It doesn't work that way either. Sooner or later you have to do something to yourself.

So, if you knuckle down, buckle up and spend a couple of hours each day, on the floor while you're watching TV or reading a book, letting gravity and your own muscles do the work, then in 10 years time you'll be able to look back and say you've been pain free for the last 9 years and 10 months.

In the meantime stay tuned, highly tuned and remember, I can give you the exercises but I can't do them for you.

John Miller