Lumbago Treatment

What is lumbago?

Lumbago is acute back pain that most often occurs in the lumbar spine, which is why it is also referred to as acute low back pain or acute lumbago. It occurs suddenly and often in connection with heavy lifting and turning your back a little carelessly. The back muscles cramp and the back “locks” so that it is difficult to straighten the back. It stings and you get a sharp pain in your back and you get stuck in a leaning position, often and also slightly bent to the side.

The most severe acute symptoms usually heal themselves within a couple of weeks, but often a minor pain in the back persists for several months after a lumbago. How long it takes to get rid of pain depends on which structures in the back are affected and damaged. Is there any disc, ligament, joint capsule, muscle or fascia around all the structures of the back? The fascia is always involved, it is filled with free nerve endings that can signal pain when the back is incorrectly loaded.

So what has caused the lumbago? Most of the time, no explanation is found and nothing is visible during a possible X-ray examination. Probably the back has been overworked in incorrect positions for a long time. You perform things that you are not really trained for, lift too heavy and unergonomic, you twist the poorly stabilized lumbar spine while loading with too heavy a weight. If you repeat it too often as well, the fascia will try to strengthen and tighten around the back. It becomes a denser structure that becomes less and less mobile and eventually there is a stop. The denser structure presses on pain receptors that are abundant in the fascia.

Factors that increase the risk of lumbago can be age, as the fascia loses elasticity with age. Depression, worry, anxiety cause stress and affect the fascia to the highest degree, as it contracts and tightens. Depression, anxiety, etc. can also be caused by nutritional deficiencies, such as vitamins C and D, magnesium, etc. Adequate nutritional status is of the utmost importance for the fascia and all body functions.

Good lumbago exercises

To release pain and tension in the back, it is important to breathe! Practice deep breathing through your nose, it calms down the body.

You can lie down on the floor with your legs angled on a chair or some type of box. Hips and knees should be angled at 90°. Extend your arms about 45° from your body, they should rest on the floor with your palms facing up. At first, you probably feel how you tense up in your lower back.

As the muscles and fascia relax and you breathe deeply, the body will feel heavier and heavier and the lower back will sink to the floor. Now your hip flexors, which are thick, powerful muscles, have begun to release their tension and the strain on your back is reduced.

Continue to lie down and breathe deeply for 5 – 10 minutes.

Exercises for herniated discs

If you have a herniated disc , there are exercises you can do that facilitate and benefit the healing process. For example, stabilizing core exercises and balance exercises are effective, as they strengthen the abdominal muscles and the small stabilizing muscles of the back, the multifides, which relieve the spine and discs. When sitting very sedentary, the hip flexors can become shorter, which in turn causes greater problems and puts strain on the lumbar spine, thoracic spine and even cervical spine. Therefore, it is beneficial to do stretching exercises for the hip flexors and constantly reflect on your posture. Stretching exercises can be, for example, lunges, sun salutations or yin yoga, where slow stretching exercises are practiced.

Lumbago Treatment

Breathe deeply and do relaxation exercises. Try to move around with slow walks as much as you can, rest and stillness usually make it worse. Sometimes, however, rest may be needed for the first few acute days.

See “Lumbago exercises”

Seek help at a FasciaClinic for treatment. The pain usually goes away relatively immediately, but the key is to try to get help quickly. The longer the problems last, the longer it takes to fix. In addition, you will get help to balance your body so that you do not put the wrong strain on your back in the future.

Is it possible to prevent lumbago?

Back pain can be prevented by building muscle strength and flexibility. It is good to move and to move varied and train the muscles in both the back and stomach. Circulation and flow increase when we move. Training balance and core strength is also important to protect and relieve all the tissue structures of the back.

Working posture is important, vary movements and take breaks, perhaps a short walk at lunch. Don’t sit all day, for example a height-adjustable desk is good. If you walk and stand a lot on hard floors, good, shock-absorbing shoes are a must.

Avoid heavy lifts and be sure to always use and bend your knees and not your back. Keep the weight close to your body so that it provides support and absolutely do not twist your back, but instead turn your whole body.

A good, but not too soft bed can also prevent back pain.

Varied exercise (yoga is good) and activity in the right amount, a varied healthy diet and enough sleep and rest are good ways to avoid back pain.

Finally, it is very favourable, both physically and mentally, to make sure to give your body regular treatment to maintain it and prevent problems from occurring.