Quickly Ease Back Pain Without Medication!

When your back hurts, you want it to stop NOW! It’s not just the pain, but the way that back pain affects everything that you do. It can be very restricting and can limit the way you live. In short, it is just no fun having a sore back! Whilst these tips will only relieve your back pain temporarily until the underlying problem is corrected, they are the best way to ease back pain without having to take medication. They may seem overly simple, but believe me, they are easy techniques that work, and you can do them almost anywhere!

1. Go for a walk. Walking is our most natural movement. If you are able to walk without too much pain, this is the one thing that will start to improve your back pain quickly, particularly if you are suffering with low back pain.

2. Use ice packs. This is most useful if you have a recent back injury. Wrap something from your freezer (ice, frozen vegetables, an ice pack if you have one) in a small towel and apply it directly onto the painful area. It should feel cold, but not ‘freezing’ or painful. Leave the ice pack on for 10-15 minutes, but no longer. This can be repeated every hour.

3. Drink lots of water. The spinal discs like water. A lot of back pain comes from injury or damage to the spinal discs, being well hydrated keeps them happy!

4. Don’t sit! More and more research is showing that excessive sitting can be damaging our backs. It is important if you have a sedentary lifestyle that involves hours of sitting each day that you get up and give your back a rest regularly.

5. Rest lying on your back with your knees bent. This can be on your bed with a couple of pillows under your knees, or on the floor with your feet and lower legs up on a chair. This position takes all the stress and strain off your back.

6. Extend yourself! Standing up with your hands on your lower back, slowly arch backwards. Just go back a little way first, then come back up to your straight position. If you are comfortable with the movement you can repeat another 3 or 4 times gradually increasing the amount you arch back. NOTE: for some people this can aggravate your back pain, so it is very important to start with just a slight movement backwards, if there is any pain or discomfort, DO NOT CONTINUE.

7. Lastly: Do no H.A.R.M. Heat increases blood flow, which is good for chronic muscle spasm, but very bad for inflammation and swelling (see point 2). Alcohol also increases blood flow and will make inflammation worse. Running, or any kind of vigorous activity could further strain the injury. Massage can be very tempting, but again will increase blood flow and potentially do more damage to the injured tissue if applied in the first few days.

These simple techniques that you can do at home will start to ease your back pain quite quickly. Aside from helping you feel better, the steps outlined here are also critical to starting you on the way to a stronger and more flexible spine. As soon as you are able, it is time to start retraining you back to move well, and to move correctly using the specific exercises that you will learn in our Total Back Pain Solution course.

Remember that the pain is not the problem. The steps outlined here are purely for pain relief. If you want to fix your back pain you need to look into the Total Back Pain Solution that provides you with a step by step action plan to strengthen and stabilise your spine for good. Get started now!

If you have any questions, or would like to share your own experience, please leave us a comment below.