3. NO STRETCHING

        – No stretching, no exercise, no yoga means just that. You do not want to stretch the injured ligaments and tissues in your back. Do you know that a torn muscle and a tight muscle feel the same when you stretch them- a tight muscle will loosen, a torn muscle will worsen. Again, the injury is a ligament injury. Ligaments go from bone to bone and hold the joints of your skeleton in place. They do NOT like to be stretched.

     4. Avoid low sitting and laying around/resting

        – This will be Lazy Boys, recliners, sofas, car seats and most likely your office chair. Avoid sitting on the floor or propping yourself up in bed to read or watch television. All of these postures will stretch the ligaments in your low back and derange the discs in your lumbar spine, so… BAD IDEA! Walk and be as active as you feel you can. Your back will love you for it!

     5. McKenzie Maneuvers

       – These can be very helpful. On our website spineanddandy.com there should be a video of someone doing this maneuver. If not, you can see them on YouTube. While doing these maneuvers you want to feel a sensation or even pain going INTO the spine when you do them. If so, you’re good. If pain or sensation goes away from the spine or down the leg- STOP! You aren’t helping yourself.

These remedies and recommendations should help you to feel better while your body is taking care of business and repairing the injuries. And if not totally better, they will certainly keep you from making the situation worse and interfering with your body’s work.

While you are recovering you might notice a few things:

You feel very stiff and sore. Good, it means you are repairing the injured tissue- DO NOT STRETCH.

You look crooked when you look in the mirror. That’s fine, it will go away as you improve.

It hurts to get up from sitting or when getting out of bed. Yeah, you are pulling against scar tissue. This too is normal and should feel better as you start to walk and move. You might look at how you get up from sitting or out of bed and see if you can make modifications that aren’t as painful.

It is possible as you feel better you will do a “dumb” move and get a very painful jolt. Just wait for a second or two and it should go away. You did not set yourself back to square one.

The thing to remember is that inflammation and ligament injuries of the low back are real, live, honest to goodness injuries and your body will need time to repair the damage. Short walks, be as active as you are comfortable, ice as needed for pain and don’t do anything to interrupt the process!

Please keep in mind that the above are only recommendations meant to mitigate your low back pain, and keep you from making it worse. Everyone’s low back situation is different and should be checked out as soon as possible.

If you have any questions or would like an examination, please do not hesitate to call Paragon Chiropractic. We will be happy to do an examination, advise a treatment program or refer you if we do not feel that we can help you.

As a last word of encouragement, most low back pains are mechanical injuries and respond well to time and conservative therapies. Rarely are they serious or require surgery, so if you are wigging out… relax, and just give us a call.

Again, I hope this helps.

Take Care,

Dr. Dave