February 16, 2024
A lot of people suffer from sudden bouts of lower back pain.
A sudden onset of severe lower back pain can often take you down and leave you unable to move.
The defining characteristic of this type of back pain lies its tendency to recur.
In this article, we will explain how to prevent repeated episodes of back pain and what lifestyle habits you should be concerned about.
Symptoms of a strained back
The symptoms of a strained back are limited to pain in the lower back area. They can occur suddenly as you lift a heavy object, twist your back, bend over or arch your back.
Causes of a strained back
The causes of a strained back can be broadly divided into three categories: (1) damage to the intervertebral disc, (2) damage to the intervertebral joints, and (3) muscle damage.
The trigger for such damage lies in our daily lifestyle. To be more specific:
Lack of exercise, which leads to stiff muscles in the lower back and surrounding areas
Daily posture, such as sitting on a chair with your legs crossed, sitting for long periods of time, stooping, and often sleeping on the floor
A poor diet
Stress
If you are careful about all these points, and improve each one individually, you will be able to prevent a strained back.
How to prevent a strained back
Since your daily life is closely related to the onset of a strained back, you can prevent its occurrence or recurrence by paying attention to your daily lifestyle.
Stretching
By making your muscles more flexible, you can prevent sudden back pain.
By doing these stretches, you can improve the movement of your lower back, correct the habit of arching your back, and improve the stretch of the muscles in the back of your thighs and calves.
Lie on your back with your knees up and slightly apart.
2. Hold a hand towel in both hands and pass it through the sole of your right foot.
3. While lying on your back, stretch the leg with the towel through it towards the ceiling.
4. Hold the position for 10 seconds while exhaling.
5. Repeat the same exercise on the left side.
Strengthening your inner muscles
An effective way to prevent a strained back is to strengthen the erector spinae muscles using the deep inner muscles of the body, such as the transverse abdominal muscle and multifidus muscle, to reduce the strain on these muscles.
One exercise that is often recommended for strengthening the transverse abdominal muscle is drawing. This is an exercise that can be done even if it hurts a little.
1. Lie on your back and raise both knees
2. Breathe in and out deeply, using abdominal breathing techniques
3. As you exhale, make your stomach sink in.
When exhaling, try to make your mouth look like a small circle and exhale slowly and for a long time.
Repeat about 10 times.
Reconsidering your posture
If you have poor posture on a daily basis, you will be more likely to suffer from a strained back, so be aware of the following points to improve your posture.
When sitting in a chair, sit back as far as you can and lean your back against the back of the chair.
Make sure to sleep on a futon or in a bed, and not on the bare floor.
Avoid crossing your legs. If you do cross your legs, try crossing them the other way for the same amount of time to balance out your left and right sides.
Avoid sitting cross-legged.
If you often have to sit for long periods of time at work, try putting a cushion between your legs
Reconsidering your diet
Excessive drinking and eating, eating too much sweet, oily or salty food, and eating late at night can lead to fatigue of the internal organs and weight gain, and make you more susceptible to a strained back.
By reconsidering your eating habits, you can prevent back strain. Try to eat until you are 80% full, eat less sweet, oily and salty foods (it’s best to limit these to once a week), and don’t eat anything within 2 hours of going to bed.
Relieving stress
Stress not only causes sudden back pain, but also makes you more susceptible to all kinds of illnesses. It is important to relieve stress properly.
Make time to relax during the workday and refresh your mind. Also, try not to negate your own feelings or sense of self-worth, such as by thinking “I’m no good because of such-and-such”.
If you have a strained back, it is also important to receive a fundamental treatment
If you have backache, it is important to have the cause investigated at a hospital and receive treatment to prevent a recurrence.
Our clinic provides treatment for strained backs.
The nucleus pulposus, which is the cushioning component of the intervertebral disc, gradually leaks out and the intervertebral disc gradually loses its shape and volume. Doing so can cause various diseases.
In our clinic, we use the Cellgel method, which involves injecting a drug that gets in the cracks in the intervertebral disc, causing it to become gel-like and filling it, thus providing a fundamental treatment. The volume of the intervertebral disc does not decrease, and the drug remains in the intervertebral disc as a gel-like implant after treatment, so the intervertebral disc is preserved.
The Cellgel Method
We also offer specialized back pain rehabilitation and can treat both strained backs and back pain caused by fascia or muscles.
ILC’s specialized low back pain rehabilitation
If you are suffering from a strained back, please consider taking a consultation at our clinic.
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