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After several months of confinement, many of us find that we have back pain that did not bother us before. There can be many reasons for this, including increased stress during the pandemic, moving less, and spending more time sitting in one position.
But while you might think you should rest your back if it hurts, being active can actually help ease your pain and protect you from back pain in the future. This is because our spines are designed to move, bend, and lift, which keeps our bones and soft tissues strong and flexible.
Regular movement and exercise can help improve and restore strength, endurance, and flexibility, and help us recover from acute low back pain more quickly. That’s why staying physically active is one of the most consistent and widely recommended ways to manage low back pain.
Why physical activity works
While exercise and physical activity are widely recommended for people with pain, researchers are still examining how and why it works, and what dose is best for pain relief.
The traditional view of how exercise helps relieve pain has focused on the impact of exercise on the structures surrounding the spine, for example by increasing the strength of the muscles of the spine and the body. ‘abdomen. While these ideas are partially supported by research, they don’t fully explain why exercise can relieve back pain.
A growing body of evidence suggests that exercise causes beneficial changes in certain functions of the nervous system, including the brain. Essentially, exercise directly influences the way we experience pain by decreasing our sensitivity to potentially damaging stimuli. This phenomenon is known as exercise-induced hypoalgesia.
In research on pain-free adults, a single high-intensity aerobic exercise (such as cycling or running for 15 minutes) is able to trigger these pain-relieving effects for about 30 minutes afterward.
These analgesic effects are underpinned by several interacting mechanisms – including the release of analgesic agents naturally produced by the body, such as endocannabinoids, epinephrine, norepinephrine, endorphins and serotonin – into the nervous system and via the circulatory system.
These chemical signals not only help reduce pain directly, but also have the added benefit of improving mood. This is an important benefit because the experience of pain is known to be influenced directly by our thoughts and feelings and by our perceived control over pain.
Another key mechanism believed to be involved in exercise-induced hypoalgesia involves the formation of useful new connections within the nervous system, a process called neuroplasticity.
These structural changes in the nervous system operate on slower timescales than the chemical alterations that occur as a result of exercise-induced hypoalgesia, but are believed to result in decreased pain associated with movement. over time.
As research to establish the exact mechanisms underlying exercise-induced hypoalgesia continues, the good news is that exercise, even in spite of pain, helps activate these analgesic effects.
To move
Fortunately, no specific type of exercise or activity is needed to relieve lower back pain. The combination of physical activity (the cumulative amount of movement we get daily) and exercise – regardless of type – can be helpful.
But that doesn’t mean you should just start running or lifting weights hoping it will cure your back pain. It is important to adapt what you are doing to your current abilities and gradually increase the intensity to avoid injury. Most importantly, do things that you love and are likely to stick with – this will help ease the pain better and hopefully keep it from coming back.
There are also many easy ways to get more physical movement every day interspersed with short periods of activity throughout the day, such as walking up and down stairs a few times every two hours. Try to cut down on the time spent in one position or even consider a standing desk.
Back pain is rarely caused by anything serious. Typically, this is the result of simple sprains or strains and will set in within a few weeks.
Staying active and exercising are the best things we can do – and are generally recommended over going for injections or surgery. Even if your back pain is persistent and lasts a few months or more, increasing physical activity and exercise is one of the best ways to manage it.
Suzanne McDonough, professor of health and rehabilitation, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences; Joanne Marley, Senior Lecturer in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy, University of Ulster, and Michael Thacker, Professor of Pain and Rehabilitation, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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