Lower back pain and stretching exercises

dharm999

My wife is suffering terribly from acute lower back pain, seeing the doctor later this week. She's had back issues for a long time, but not as bad as this. She tried some stretching exercises yesterday, from the NHS website, and her pain is worse. Could that just be a temporary reaction to the exercises as she doesn't do much exercise normally, or could the exercises have made her back worse and she shouldn't do them anymore, at least until she's seen her doctor on Thursday?

Thanks

Tallaght

Has she tried an 'inversion table' ? I had one for a bad back and it was great.

Nicki

Keeping gently active is usually better for back pain than resting but if the exercises made her pain worse it suggests either she was a bit too vigorous with them or her technique wasn’t quite right. Can she try keep moving around gently for a few days and then perhaps carefully reintroduce the stretching and stop if it seems to make things worse rather than better.

Butch_Dingle

Have a look at this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWmGArQBtFI

The back exercises in the above video almost instantly cure my lower back pain if I've been rowing a bit too hard on my Concept2 indoor rower.....far far better than being on painkillers for days.

dharm999

Tallaght wrote: »

Has she tried an 'inversion table' ? I had one for a bad back and it was great.

Have seen very mixed reviews for them, not sure how effective they are. Which model did you have?

dharm999

Butch_Dingle wrote: »

Have a look at this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWmGArQBtFI

The back exercises in the above video almost instantly cure my lower back pain if I've been rowing a bit too hard on my Concept2 indoor rower.....far far better than being on painkillers for days.

Thanks, will get her to try them. The comments below the video seem too good to be true, hopefully they will help

Butch_Dingle

dharm999 wrote: »

Thanks, will get her to try them. The comments below the video seem too good to be true, hopefully they will help

No worries at all, hope your wife gets better soon

elsien

I think I'd wait to see the doctor before picking random exercises off the Internet. They should really be tailored to her specific situation.

trailingspouse

Received wisdom for general backache is to take painkillers and keep moving (gently) as much as possible.

If backache is a regular occurrence, then once this episode is sorted she needs to do regular exercise to increase her core strength, improve flexibility and so on.



I know that if I stop going to some sort of exercise class/gym/Pilates/yoga then my back will cause me problems. So long as I keep exercising, the back is fine. Look after your back, and your back will look after you.
first things first - go to the doctor, just to check that it isn't something other than a 'normal' bad back.

Tallaght

dharm999 wrote: »

Have seen very mixed reviews for them, not sure how effective they are. Which model did you have?

I had a Teeters inversion table.I spent just 10 minutes morning and night for a few months.Whatever she does make sure she gets an x-ray first.

Katiehound

Hands on therapy might be the route to go.
Many years ago when I had a suspected 'slipped disc' I tried everything conventional medicine had to offer- no cure. Multiple trips to osteopath sorted it out.

For future reference Pilates is an excellent regime to follow- it builds core strength and was developed by Josef Pilates as post operative exercise. Two of the local teachers had major back/knee problems, used pilates to cure them and then became instructors.

Another good exercise is swimming, particularly backstroke.