Alleviate Back Pain
What are your current practices to alleviate back pain? Often times people with persistent back pain stop moving in ways that increase their pain. Others push through the pain, ignoring it. Some are told by doctors to stop doing forward folds because it is dangerous. Others are given pills or steroid shots to alleviate back pain. Most of these things are temporary fixes or ways to mask the pain. Despite the fact that persistent back pain is one of the number one reasons people seek medical care, there is hope to live pain free again.
First of all, persistent pain is not necessarily an accurate indicator of tissue damage to the body. Pain is a protection mechanism or an alarm system that is designed to protect our body from potential threats. Our pain can be influenced by physical, psychological, social and environmental factors to include your own experiences. When our nervous systems are amped up because of pain, our pain tolerance threshold decreases causing us to feel an increase in pain with less movement.
To Live is To Move
Lets discuss why no longer moving in ways that cause pain is not a great option to alleviate back pain. Avoiding movement or eliminating movement that increases pain will eventually lead to stiffness, further immobility, and a possible increase in pain. The spine is intended to move into a backbend, forward bend, twist, and side bend position. You will always need to bend over to pick up something, or reach for something on the top shelf, or need to twist to look over your shoulder when changing lanes on a busy interstate. As long as you are living, mobility is needed to do all things and live joyfully. When we stop or change our behavior because of pain, it only leads to further pain and inflammation decreasing our overall range of motion. Therefore, eliminating movement is not a solution to decreasing your pain.
Myth: No Pain No Gain
Secondly, pushing through the pain is not an option. While no pain no gain is a common saying in our culture, the saying doesn’t make it right. When we ignore our pain, we are telling our nervous system to amp up even more, by ignoring the warning signs. Pain is not an off and on toggle switch. It is rather like a dimmer switch. When we learn to work in a way that tells our nervous system it is safe, we can lower the alarm. Therefore, decreasing our nervous system response with yoga techniques. Pain dimmer techniques such as body awareness, breathing practices, and gentle somatic movements can be the answer to regaining movement with less pain. Rather than ignoring the pain, we learn to meet the edge of the pain, acknowledge the pain, and offer our nervous system ways to calm the pain signals.
Medication Band-aid
Lastly, medication is not a long-term solution to decreasing pain. When taking medications or steroid shots, we mask the root of the problem. Over time the body gets used to the dosage and a larger dosage or new medication is needed to decrease the pain. Western medical physicians are not usually trained in pain science, nor are they often trained in natural treatments. Yoga therapy works alongside western medical treatments to give you options of decreasing pain in daily movement from the level of your nervous system.
Luckily, yoga therapy can change your pain by decreasing the sensitivity of your nervous system. Yoga therapy helps you recover ease of movement as your body was intended to move. Our nervous system is changeable. Yoga is one of the pathways to changing your pain through changing of the nervous system response.
Schedule a free consult to reduce your back pain with me here. Private yoga therapy tailors to your unique needs and abilities on a timeline that fits your schedule. Learn more here. In addition, try this free breathing technique or meditation technique to reduce your pain. You can change your pain, let me help. Hear a testimonial from someone who worked with me virtually to decrease their pain here.
