Top Natural Back Pain Remedies for Holistic Relief

https://youtu.be/SqJJygksQYY?si=y7_NAXcPxDTtaXFB

I apologize but I don't have a picture of this technique. Actually, I'm not sure a picture would help because all it would be is a person bending over and straightening up -again and again.

However, it's not complicated. My back pain was concentrated in my lower back so that's the area this exercize focuses on. If you bend over, your upper body is heavy. Raising and lowering your upper body will work your lower back. When people stand, they generally have a natural curve to their lower spine.

This curve points to the front, the way they are facing. (I have seen people who have poor posture have a backwards curve to the spine). Anyway, when you bend over, your body should bend like a folding knife, two straight lines at an angle to each other, and the natural curve of your lower back should now point downward.

Your legs should be straight and, when you bend, you should feel a stretching all the way down the backs of your legs. When you lower your upper body (start to bend) you should feel it pull the muscles in your lower back which was a scary feeling - at the time - for a chronic back sufferer like me. That is why you only bend over just a little bit at a time.

Do not use the middle of your back to bend and do not round your back. Keep your back straight all the way from your butt to your neck. As you lower your upper body to touch the marks on your legs, you will feel the muscles in your LOWER BACK stretch as you move downward to the marks. This means you are using only your lower back muscles to lower your entire upper body.

Then as you raise your upper body back to an upright, erect posture, you will feel the muscles in your lower back contract. If you keep your entire back straight - all the work is being done by the muscles in your lower back. This felt strange to me when I first tried it and I realized that I had been avoiding using these muscles for years. In my case, when I used to have back problems, these muscles were constantly tense and I used the muscles in my middle back or sides to bend - if I did any bending at all.

The 'ball point pen method' is pretty much exactly what the doctors tell you not to do when they advise 'pick up something by bending your knees and not your knees - not your back'. Well, I agree with them that if you are picking up something really heavy then you don't want to overload your back but, excuse me, your upper body is definately supposed to be lifted by healthy strong and flexible lower back muscles.

One more way of looking at the exercize is this: Think of the natural curve of your lower back pointing downward as you bend. You will feel this curve increase as you raise your upper body. You will feel this curve flatten as you lower your upper body. You will feel your lower back muscles expand and contract. You should not feel the muscles in your middle or upper back doing anything.

I hope this helps, good luck, Redou.

This post will probably be too long for most readers, but if you have LOWER BACK PAIN, I want you to know that I understand what you're going through.

I fixed my LOWER BACK PAIN with a BALL POINT PEN - no, I didn't write a check. First some background and then I'll get to the point. I had back pain for 28 years - from age 17 to age 45. I'm 53 now and except for a couple of 'twinges' NO PAIN IN 8 YEARS. I spent an average of 3 days a month on my back. I had pain 75% of the time. I used to pee in a jar because it hurt too bad to get up and go to the bathroom.

My wife had to put on my shoes and tie them for me. To pick up something, I had to get down, slowly, on my knees and only if it wasn't heavy. I used to pay $80 for a hotel room just to get out of the car. I never slept in the hotel bed. I slept on the hard floor.

I couldn't do a lot of things like camping or hiking or dancing. I thought of myself as a cripple. I lived in fear of that pain, like a knife in my lower back, making me go to the ground. I never knew when it was going to hit.

I went to doctors and chiropractors and spent a lot of money. Had a lot of X-Rays done. I'll probably die of cancer. I was told that: - one leg was longer than the other (chiropractor) - I needed special shoes or lifts in my shoes (chiropractor) - I had a herniated disc (doctor) - I had soft tissue damage (doctor) - I had cracked vertebrae (doctor) - I needed surgery (at least 3 doctors)

I tried:

- heating pads (temporary relief)
- popping my own back (sometimes temporary relief, sometimes made it worse)
- bed rest - or on the floor rest (sometimes back to work the next day, sometimes 3 days to a week on my back)
- stretching exercizes prescribed by doctors (useless)
- very hot baths (temporary relief often followed by worse pain)
- TENS unit - electric stimulation - I bought one (temporary relief)
- heat, TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation)followed with 'manupulation' (back popping) by chiropractors (temporary relief, usually followed by pain shortly thereafter or the next day
- hard mattresses, soft mattresses, hard chairs, soft chairs (hard chairs worked better for me)

I never ate any pills except over-the-counter muscle relaxors. I won't eat a pain pill. Too easy to get addicted.

Ok. I'm getting to the point:

One day I'm lying on the floor, missing work. My girlfriend is looking at the computer and trying to help me. She is reading about a home remedy for back pain. I'm telling her don't waste yourtime, go in the bedroom, there's a stack of books in there about back pain. Some by a girl named Zimmerman, if memory serves. I think it was a British physical therapist that told me about this cure, but with the pain, and not thinking clearly I really can't remember. Whoever it was, they have my eternal gratitude.

What the person on the net was recommending:

- wait until your pain gets better, don't start fixing it while you're having a lower back pain episode.
- Once your back gets back to 'normal' (for me that meant I was able to work around the pain, go to work, go somewhere)- Then get a ball point pen.
- Drop your drawers, bend over until you just start to feel scared. (most back sufferers don't like to bend over, that's often when the pain hits you)
- Place your fingers on your thighs, flat in the front, and make a mark with the pen where your middle finger touches your thighs one mark on each leg. Don't bend below where you feel comfortable (meaning don't go below the mark)
- DON'T Wash the marks off.
- For the next week, BENDING ONLY AT THE HIPS, KEEPING YOUR LOWER BACK STRAIGHT - TOUCH THOSE TWO MARKS 100 TIMES EVERY DAY.
- Don't do it all at once, ten here, twenty there, and only if you feel safe doing it.
- After a week , if you feel comfortable with it, make a mark 1/2 inch (THAT'S ONE HALF OF AN INCH) below the first marks and now spend a week touching those new marks 100 times a day.
- You can see where this is going - All the way down to your toes.
- I took three months to do it.
- If you do it at 1/2 inch at a time it will probably take you a year, (I think the person who invented this was being overly cautious and trying to make sure no one got hurt)

Anyway, after 3 months of touching the slowly descending marks 100 times a day, I could touch my toes. Without fear. (But I would kind of work my way down each day) I had not bent over and touched my toes for 28 years. Now I could do it every day. And I still do it now. The lower back pain was (and is) GONE.

1) My theory - the reason this works - is that I had babied my back for years and the right muscles, the ones that are supposed to hold you up and aid in flexing and extending a person's back - were WEAK. I realized that all the treatments I had tried only treated the SYMPTOMS and did not solve the PROBLEM - my WEAK back. Also, I was able to function for many years with a bad back, but I believe I was using the WRONG MUSCLES. When my back was locked up, my spine was crooked, the wrong muscles were trying to do a job they were not intended for. Also, and this is important, I don't believe I had any real DAMAGE to my back, nothing broken or torn, that is why I think anyone who wants to try this should go to their doctor and make sure nothing is broken first.

I still touch my toes 100 times a day, twenty here, ten there. I keep a concrete block outside my back door and every now and then I bend down and lift it WITH MY BACK, not with my knees like the doctors say. DON'T TRY THIS YOURSELF. Now my back is strong, my muscles are flexible, and circulation in that area is good. Weak muscles are TENSE and have poor circulation. STRONG muscles are flexible and have good circulation.

Another thing I believe is that many back sufferers are stressed out people, their stress shows up in muscle tension. I don't think that is the only reason for back problems, but I believe stress is a major contributor.

GOOD LUCK
REDOU