Do you have aches and pains that commonly happen in your back? If so, you’re not alone. Most people experience back pain in the lower back area. This can happen from simply sitting each day without proper back support, among many other reasons. Improving your flexibility and range-of-motion in your back can help you to have fewer aches and pains. Increased flexibility will reduce your risk for injuries and can help keep your muscles, ligaments, nerves, spine and back healthier.
Improving Back Flexibility
Did you know that at least 31 million Americans experience back pain on a daily basis, according to the American Chiropractic Association? That back pain is most commonly centered in the lower back region of the spine, also known as the lumbar spine. This center point of the body can take tons of pressure from all your limbs each day or simply carrying your body weight. Back pain doesn’t usually happen without other symptoms. Two common friends to back pain is a lack of flexibility and range-of-motion. Some pain can become so severe that it can hurt to move at all, or the body seems like it’s “frozen” in place.
What can you do to help your body move well again? Stretching is key when it comes to back flexibility. However, you don’t want to just guess at stretching, because you never want to do too much or stretch an area wrong, which could damage the muscles and tissues. Doing stretches every single day can help loosen up your muscles and joints. Stretching safely and consistently will not only improve your flexibility in your back and limbs overtime, but can keep them flexible because those muscles aren’t shrinking.
If you don’t currently exercise, start following the American Heart Association’s recommendation to get at least 150 minutes of exercise in every day. That’s about 30 minutes, 5 days a week that you can split up throughout the day. Stretch after a good warmup or workout of at least 10 minutes. Start with small stretches first and listen to your body as you go. Set aside time each day to stretch and you will notice more flexibility and even range-of-motion over time.
What About Range-of-Motion?
Range-of-motion in the back is very much connected to having good back flexibility. You’ll likely have problems with one if you have problems with the other. Being flexible means that you have a certain range-of-motion. Your range-of-motion is the direction and distance that your joints are able to move. One goes hand-in-hand with the other. In fact, as you age, you can find yourself becoming less flexible if you are inactive. Inactivity quickly leads to muscles losing their strength, which causes them to shrink over time. When that happens, your range-of-motion goes along with it.
A good way to keep range-of-motion is to exercise, just like with flexibility. But what if you already have hardly any range-of-motion? The answer is to exercise! When you don’t move or stretch, your muscles start to contract. If you never do anything to raise your heartrate, which circulates blood, oxygen and nutrients, your muscles will get limited nutrients. If you don’t exercise, you’re never building new muscle cells and it’s quite hard for your muscles to get stronger in order to promote more movement. We recommend working with a professional to realign any body misalignments (more on that below) and then work on your flexibility.
Reducing Back Problems
Some studies suggest that simply improving your back strength and back health will improve normal flexibility and range-of-motion. Taking any positive strides towards better back health can definitely help reduce the back problems you have. Exercise will help speed up circulation, which brings more nutrients and oxygen to tissues, muscles and cells so they stay healthy. This will keep the tissues and muscles in your back healthier.
Muscles and joints that are nourished with proper vitamins and minerals are ones that are stronger and better able to move how you want them too. Having good nutrition can also decrease nerve damage and dysfunction that leads to numbness, tingling and pain in your back and spine. However, your body simply gets out of line sometimes, and it commonly happens in the back and spine. This area of your body takes so much pressure and stress from holding up the rest of the body that it’s normal for joints and bones to shift over time.
That shifting can start to cause inflammation and swelling caused by misalignment and strain to joints. Over time, this can lead to joint deterioration, chronic pain and a lack of flexibility and range-of-motion. That is one reason why we provide natural treatments for the spine such as chiropractic care. This is a drugless, surgery-free method of realigning the spine when joints and bones are out of place. Gentle, forceful pressure is placed on the back in specific areas, where we then place your spine back in line. Some patients feel relief of pain immediately, as well as improved flexibility and range-of motion.
Better Back Health Today
If you have back problems, you can help reduce those problems with chiropractic and rehabilitative services. Done every so often, these services keep your back working correctly in optimal position. That proper alignment helps athletes to have good performance, while allowing everyday patients better flexibility and range-of-motion. To see how your back alignment is doing and to assess health problems with your back and spine, call Spine Correction Center today at (970) 658-5115!
