Easy exercises for back pain relief

Maybe you've had a thuff day, had to shovel the walk, dig your vehicle out of the snow, collected some heavy packages, you could struggle with some overweight, or had to take your in-laws around town. You're tired, and it feels like your back is about to go out.

In keeping your back in good working order, there are a few rather simple exercises that will help loosen you up and restore your back. It is recommended that you do these before consider taking pain killers and other strong meds. There is no need for a personal trainer. These exercises can – and hopefully will - immediately make your feel better and in better shape.

The 3 exercises we present here includes, waist twists, hip rolls and knee bends. Doing these three  is a great way to get the blood circulating, release pain relieving endorphins and aiding in getting rid of toxins stored in your body which are important factors in restoring your back and prevent back pain in the future if done regularly.
Because these exercises involves in moving major muscle groups as  the core stabilizing muscles, you can do them anytime with different degrees of difficulty-adjusting as you will feel more secure in doing them after short practice.

The exercises will also relieve muscle tightness. If done on a regular basis, they will increase your fitness level, and aiding to tone your body. They make you feel warmer and could even help the digestive system to work better.

1 .Exercise — Hip Rolls: Stand a part away from your support and stand with your legs at shoulder-width away. Now ,tighten your abdominal muscles and place your hands on your hips. Try to imagine that you have a hula hoop, rotate your hips clockwise 5 times, and then rotate them counter-clockwise 5 times. Try to relax and  breathe naturally while you do this exercise, as not to strain to much. 



2. Exercise — Waist Twists: Keep your hands relaxed at your sides and with feet a shoulder-width apart, start swinging your arms right then left, patting both hands on your lower back as they reach around. This will actually massage your kidneys. Try not to swing too hard, but in a relaxed and easy motion! Breathing naturally and try to stay relax here as well. Count to ten and relax, then start all over again.




3. Exercise. — Knee Bends: In this exercise you will do gentle, relaxed knee bends. If you have knee or back problem it is best to do them with the assistance of a table, you can also use a chair. Now, stand in a relaxed shoulder-width position and place your hands on the support. Tighten your stomach muscles and exhale while bending your knees and going down as far as you can without falling or straining your knees. Inhale while standing up. We recommend that you do about ten of these. Now, you should feel better already and hopefully you have got some back pain relief from these exercises.

In support, you may want to have a look at different back pain products that can help you as well.

5 tips for a good night's sleep to take your back pain away

Been a while since you slept like this

There are some real dangers that can follow in lack of sleep. It has been well known amongst MDs and scientists for decades that our lack of sleep has more negative side effects than just making you tired and the loss of general feeling of well being. We are born with a natural ability to go into a deep, rejuvenating sleep that helps us handle the hard struggle for life. We loose this ability slowly with age.
In our modern society, we loose it probably faster than ever because of the demanding nature of our time.

A considerable amount of studies show that insufficient sleep leads to a numerous of health conditions, according to a recent study done at NIH (National Institutes of Health"rel="nofollow") even death will/can eventually follow. There are also dangers associated with prescription sleeping drugs that you should be aware of. If you are sceptical to taking such drugs, there are many ways you can improve your sleep without having to rely on potentially addictive and dangerous meds. Therefore if you suffer from difficulty sleeping, I strongly recommend you to read about and implement the strategies that follows here. Before we look into the sleep improvement tips, you must know that it is important that you understand what causes sleep problems to arise in the first place.

What can cause lack of quality sleep?

Firstly, it is a fact that many people have a harder time sleeping with age. In fact, according to the Clinical Journal of Psychiatry, about half of all people aged 65 and upwards have insomnia in one or another form.

However, insomnia does not just affect seniors; it's also affecting younger adults and even children in alarmingly growing numbers. Therefore, aging is not the only factor to consider·
 
Below is a list of the most common factors we know that has an impact on sleep:
1. Reason: Injuries and pain

If you have an injury, general illness or chronic pain, these factors will of course contribute to sleeping problems. Many people who are dealing with an illness, injury or condition physically have trouble sleeping due to pain and or the inability to feel well being.

If you have pain and illness you are more likely to feel defeated, depressed and are unable to handle stress well as before. All of this may contribute to difficulty sleeping as well. This can be a viscous cycle hard to get out of.

The happy news is that there are a number of things you can do to improve your sleep that should be effective and safe to use.

It is a myth that you need less sleep with age

It is an old saying that lack of sleep is a part of the normal aging process and that because you slept less, that meant your body didn't need as much sleep as it used to when you where younger.

Newer studies have shown that just because you may be getting less sleep, it does not mean your need for sleep has decreased. Your body still needs the same amount of sleep, but it just isn't sending these signals to the brain anymore.

What is the sufficient amount of sleep ?

This is not easy to pin point, as we are all different. Although science has shown that most people need 6-8 hours of quality sleep as a rule. That does not mean that some people you can't function on less, but in the long run, it could harm you.

2. Reason: Prescription Meds Many prescription drugs can cause insomnia. Ask your doctor if your med is one of them!3. Reason: Hormonal Changes This is more likely to affect women, hormonal changes can have a big impact on your sleep. PMS, menstruation, pregnancy and menopause can all impact the ability to fall asleep, stay asleep and get quality deep sleep. And if you are a woman, chances are the you've already experienced some of this. The good news is, this is usually short lived and can be improved with a combination of strategies and nutritional and vitamin supplements as well as different minerals. 4. Reason: Stress, Anxiety, and Depression If you have problems dealing with stress, anxiety can lead to trouble sleeping and staying asleep. Minor and major depression can also be a factor either causing and or contributing to sleep problems. And also the reverse is true· meaning sleep problems, can create stress, anxiety and depression. Again a bad spiral hard to get out of. Therefore improving your sleep is critical and many people find that their anxiety, depression and inability to deal with stress disappear when their sleep pattern changes for the better. 5 Reason: Aging With age, the production of melatonin"rel="nofollow" in our bodies decreases. Melatonin plays a major role in controlling our circadian rhythms, which regulate our sleep patterns. But, there are numerous things you can do to improve the situation Taking a natural sleep supplement with melatonin could actually work very well for you. Also, you can read about our recommended back pain relief products here.

Here you can see a list of normal symptoms of lack of sleep:


• weakened immune system
• lack of energy and fatigue
• inability to focus and concentrate
• accidents and falls
• infections
• irritability
• confusion
• stress and anxiety
• depression
• memory problems

I present to you 5 things that should help you falling and staying asleep that has proven to help many others in your situation:

1) Skip the coffee in the late evening. Only a small amount of caffeine even up to 10-12 hours before bedtime can make falling a sleep troublesome! Try to skip the coffee and brown tea (not green).
 

2) Acupuncture. Has been used for over 3,500 years in China, acupuncture has shown to be effective in studies at improving sleep. While not everyone get desired results, it is certainly somethingworth considering. 

3) Try some mind- body techniques. After a long day, your brain and body needs to unwind and slow down before you hit the bed. Try to create a ritual for bedtime. Take a warm bath an hour before bedtime, meditate, do some easy exercises or yoga. Try to do your ritual in the same way every evening, preferably in the same place and at the same time. The repetition will tell your mind and body that it is time to relax and sleep.
 
4) Listen to relaxing music. Research shows that listening to easy music, could be reducing stress and induce sleeping hormones I our brain. So listening to easy music before bed time signals to your body it is time to rest. Therefore, dim the lights and throw some slow jazz or get a copy of some "relaxing sounds" CD’s available out there to help slow your mind and body down for a night of peaceful sleep and relaxation.
 
5) You can try a natural sleep aid. If none of the above tips and suggestions helps, and if you are one of those people who really have a hard time getting to sleep and staying there, you may want to try a natural sleep aid of some kind. As mentioned before, there is always a risk taking prescription medication. Herbs, vitamins and minerals should always be considered first. One to recommend is the one from The Healthy Back Institute called “Sleepzyme”, which is all natural, and is said to have helped many.We will soon test and review it our selves.

Neck Pain Relief Products

If you are a sufferer of severe neck pain, you might find help in some of the neck pain relief products we present to you here. We have collected some well proven products from reliable online stores. But it's up to you to consider which of them suites your neck problems the best.


You can read our short reviews/opinions on some of their most popular products further down on this page.

Keep in mind that none of these products should be a replacement for a healthy life style, neck exercises or a healthy diet (read more on "Fight Neck/Back Pain with Food")

We are providing direct links to the products we list here. All from reliable manufacturers and resellers. They all have competitive prices. Of course you can google around to check if you can get neck pain products cheaper elsewhere, but we believe we already have done that job for you. All of this for your convenience.


Our partner, The Healthy Back Institute just launched a new product line targeted specificly towards neck pain. Take a look at it:




Our Recommended Products are:
Less expensive alternatives to reduce stiffness and relieve mild to moderate neck pain. These are mostly the same products that we have recommended for back pain relief earlier:

• For the less severe and acute pain, a really cheap alternative is the Stopain 8 fl oz Liquid from Amazon
• The famous "Heal-N-Soothe" is an all natural pain reliever, containing selected herbs, vitamins and minerals and has proven to have good effect on less severe neck pain.
• The "Rub On Relief Cream" is said to have a calming effect on the muscles and making the joints more flexible. If you have tried Tiger Balm without the desired effect, this could be the answer for you. The ingredients are all natural in this one as well.
• The Raymac Medic-moist Super Strength Pain Aid * Therapeutic * 16 Oz.This is also a cream to rub on the painful area of your neck. We include this on our list because of the nice reviews we have seen on this product on online forums.

How to Fight back pain with food?

In this first lesson we will consider the relation between what you put in your body, and how your body reacts to it. And in our case, look into how this can relate to back pain. We know that somewhere between 80-90% of us will experience lower back pain once or more in our life time.

There is not enough scientific evidence yet to claim that one particular diet will cure or even prevent back pain. One obvious factor that can cause you not only back pain, but pain in general, is of course obesity. We also know that smoking can contribute to this, by thinning of the blood vessels, and thereby preventing blood flow. If your back pain is caused by muscle tightness, you may already know that a nice massage could ease your pain due to increased blood flow to the parts of your that hurts. You could say, you will have almost the same effect if you quit smoking.

So - to the food, can you really eat your pain away?

Let's suppose you are familiar with what kind of food containing the following vitamins and minerals. You can of course take them in form of pills, and if this is for you, I can recommend these full spectrum vitamin/mineral tablets, Centrum Multivitamin and Multimineral Tablets.

Vitamin B12 - have shown to alleviate some forms of back pain, particularly in the lower parts of the back. Why? Well, probably mostly because B12 is important for the nervous system function. It also reduces the risk of heart diseases and strengthens your hair and nails.

Vitamin D - is found in some, fish oils and fortified foods as well. Our bodies is even capable to produce it by itself. But it needs some exposure to the sun, you can have the same effect by only 10 minutes in a sun-studio. Vitamin D is crucial in maintaining healthy, strong bones and eye sight.

Vitamins A, C, and K could also play a role in maintaining a healthy back, but no concrete evidence has been produced yet.

Calcium - the key factor for strong bones. It is found in dairy products, green vegetables (spinach is a very good source, as well as nuts of different kinds).

Magnesium - The mineral is found in many green vegetables, nuts and whole grains. Magnesium is important for strong bones, and most importantly, for building up strong and flexible back muscles.

You should also consider these if you already experience back pain:

Water and even more water! - that is so important to all our cells in the body. Maintaining hydrated cells is important at any age and any stage of life. With age, our intervertebral discs (in the lower back in particular), loose water and dehydration takes place. Therefore it is so important to keep your body hydrated to preserve the moisture left in the discs at all times. 

Some research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could be enough to significantly ease back and pain for up to 80% of the sufferers, including all ages.

Last, but not least, we could also mention Proteins. Proteins are an important factor in building and strengthening the muscle tissue, and thereby enable us to build up our precious back muscles. It is important to keep a balanced diet of high protein foods at all times, this is maybe most important when you are recovering, from injuries leading to back pain. Also, you might want to consider having a look at some well tested products that can relieve back pain.

What causes Back Pain?

Pain in the lower back area

There is an ongoing discussion, even among doctors about what actually causes back pain. When it comes to injuries that could be identified, a little more could be said. The reason why it's so difficult to find the cause is why, most back problems are a result of a combination of factors. Some factors are not preventable at all, such as genes and family history. You can control other factors, such as weight control, keeping fit and flexible. This however might force you to change your way of living. We must also look for factors related to your work situation. It is important to be able to identify what causes back pain and even serious injuries in your back.

Here are some normal causes and situations associated with increased risk of back pain and injury:

• Repetition. Repetition is the number of times you perform a certain movement. These movements will over time become static. Repetitious tasks can lead to muscle fatigue, pain or injury. Standing, sitting, writing - all positions could put you at risk. Many of us spend most of our time in front of a computer; you may experience occasional aches and pains from sitting still for extended periods. Now, and this is important; our bodies are not designed to put up with a static position for more than twenty minutes at the time.
• Stress. Social and mental pressures at work or at home contributes to increase your stress level and lead to muscle pain, tension and tightness, which may lead to back pain - for most of us it will!
• Force. Exerting too much force on your back may cause injury. In a physical, demanding job, you might face pain and injury if you frequently lift or move heavy objects. This could happen over time even if you are lifting correctly. This is because the movements are repeated. Again: Static movements leads to back pain.
Some tips to avoid back pain and injuries
The first and most obvious steps you can take to prevent back pain, is of course to keep in shape, so the muscles are prepared for al the pressure it encounters.




Fit for pain
You do need to exercise. Regular activity is your best bet in maintaining a healthy back. You can do strengthening and stretching exercises targeted directly to your back muscles, strong and flexible muscles will help keep your back ready for what comes.
Right posture against back pain - the great relief.

A poor posture stresses your back. Such posture can lead to muscle pain and mainly upper back pain and injuries you don't want. On the other hand, a good posture relaxes your muscles and requires minimal effort to balance your body, so why do we carry on the bad habbit of poor postures? Maybe for the same reason that we don't smile more even though we know that a smile takes less effort and muscle activity than an angry/depressed face. To do something about it, you really have to think different.

• Sitting right to relieve and even avoid back pain. Here, we have to start with what you are sitting on. The chair. A good chair promotes comfort and good posture while sitting. First of all, make sure that the chair supports your back. You also need to adjust it, so that the soles of your feet touches the ground. If the chair doesn't support the curve in your lower back, you can easily adjust this by putting a pillow, towel etc in your lower back region.

A few things to remember to relieve and avoid back pain in daily life

• Put your self out of hazards. It sounds obvious, but think of a fall. A fall can seriously injure your back for life, and give you intolerable pain for the rest of your life. It doesn't have to be that dramatic, to give you life long back pain. Again; everything static can cause back pain and injury. Think twice before wearing high heels. Low-heeled shoes with nonslip soles are a better bet. Of course, independent of age; remove all objects than you can trip and fall on. Both at home and at work, there are plenty of cables and other stuff that can hurt you. You kids new toy car, can be a pain in the back if you should take an involuntary ride with it.

• Why not hear what your body has to tell? If you must sit or stand for longer periods, change your position as often as you possible can. You need to take at least a 30-second timeout every 15 minutes or so to stretch, move and relax. You can try to stand up when you answer the phone. If you are talking in a mobile or wireless phone, it's a perfect chance to stretch a little, change positions a best off all, walk a little around. If your back hurts, you must of course stop those movements that aggravates it. You do this to prevent pain, not to aggravate pain.

• Walking against pain. Well, walking, besides of swimming might be the best remedy to prevent back pain. Walking regularly can help you maintain your coordination and balance. You don't have to spend ours walking to see results. Only 20 minutes easy walking a day, has shown to be working against back pain. If you live in a city, try to walk in a park with varying terrain, the best you can do is to seek out for the forests. This terrain is much better for you to prevent back pain than the city’s asphalt. If you already have severe back pain, there are many different tools and remedies that can help as relief. How to find the best products? You will find some well tested back pain products here