Scientists long concluded the human body is made for motion, especially walking, to keep a strong and stable lower back. This was after lengthy studies of its design and upright good posture. Despite this fact, many people rarely every walk. Gone are the hunter-gatherer days when a human being would trek for miles to search for food. These days, an average human being is seated most of time at an office desk, in the car or simply relaxing on the couch in front of a television.
The effect of prolonged sitting on your lower back is muscle atrophy and weakness of the same muscles we need strong to stabilize your back and pelvis. Our gluteal or “butt” muscles and other postural muscles waste away from lack of use when we sit on our “butts” all day. Walking is just what the back doctor ordered for this as it engages and gently activates these gluteal and postural muscles in a functional way to create better muscle balance for your pelvis and low back muscles.
As you walk, you activate and engage your gluteal, pelvic, and hip muscles, bringing your posture and spine into better alignment. A twisted, weak, or dysfunctional pelvis causing back pain is often alleviated with gentle walking exercise and gluteal contractions.
Studies of kids in Norway revealed that over 50% suffered with back pain over the last year. This is in spite of the fact that most parents think their kids are immune to lower back problems by virtue of their young age. It would appear that lower back pain begins early and continues into adulthood.
It was also noted from research that lower back pain is inversely proportional to physical activity. The more time children spent in physical activity the less back pain they experienced while the more time they spent in front of a television, computer or video game the more likely they were to have back pain; walking was found to reduce back pain considerably. This is why doing regular, daily walking exercises for lower back pain is often great to relieve your pain.
In another study of adults who were regularly active through moderate exercise such as walking, major differences were seen between them and people who were inactive. The exercise group had better emotional states of being, used less pain reliever medication and had less need for physical therapy for back pain. They also had much less workplace disability.
The advantages of walking are seen even in old age. Older citizens who walk regularly have less incidence of lower body disability. Walking can help to lose the back pain because it’s what the human body is designed to do. The blueprint design of our bodies is for motion, not stagnation.
Not everyone in the world lives a sedentary lifestyle; there are others – blue collar workers – who engage in strenuous repetitive tasks. This category of people is at risk of muscle imbalances, trigger points, injury and spasms. Thus, both a sedentary lifestyle and strenuous work can lead to back pain. The fact of the matter is that 90% of people will experience back pain at some point in their lives.
In the past, conventional medical wisdom said that a week’s bed rest was good enough to fix back pain. However, research continues to contradict this position. It would appear that the best way to end back pain and keep it away is first through neuromuscular trigger point therapy, posture alignment exercises and regular physical activity. Nothing beats walking as a form of exercise for back pain.
If you’re a Los Angeles Back Pain sufferer or looking for a pain management or pain relief specialist, call now.
