Spine Exercises

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If youre experiencing back pain, spine exercises can help relieve your pain by a surprising amount. Strengthening your spine and core will help support your body from within, and prevent future injuries. It will also help increase blood flow to the area and speed the healing process.

Here are a few exercises you might try to strengthen your back. Keep in mind if these exercises ever become painful youre overextending. Pull back and take it a little easier to prevent further injury to the area.

Upper Back and Neck Pain
Many people carry a lot of tension and stress in their shoulders and neck. These exercises will help release that tension and help the area heal and prevent future injuries.

Each of these exercises can be repeated as many times as you like, but use 10 repetitions as a basic guideline if you like.

• Slowly roll your head from side to side, taking care to keep your chin down.
• Roll your head slowly in a complete circle.
• Roll your shoulders together, or one at a time to loosen the muscles and release tension in the area.
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... • Place your chin on your chest, or as close to your chest as youre comfortable with. Hold the pose for several seconds.

Lower Back Pain
Lower back pain can be caused by any number of things, including poor posture, a pulled muscle or a herniated disc. Doing light exercises can not only help the area heal, but will help you to keep it healthy.

• Lie flat on the ground with your arms perpendicular, so that your body creates the shape of a "T." Pick your left leg up, and bend it at the knee. Rotate your hips so your knee comes over your right leg and ends up on the floor (or near to it if you cant stretch that far). Your hips should be sideways now, and your legs should be creating the shape of a "4." Hold this position for about 10 seconds, release and repeat with your right side.
• You can also achieve this stretch while sitting up. Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the ground. Place your left hand on your right knee and pull your upper body to the right. Hold this position for 10 seconds and repeat on the left. |
• To stretch your low back, stay in that same chair and just bend forward, trying to touch your toes or the floor. Again, its important not to stretch too far when doing any of these exercises. If it starts to move from the feeling of a stretch to pain, pull back and hold that spot for about 10 seconds.

All Over Exercises
Other things that will help the overall health of your back include yoga, light walking or swimming. All of these methods are fairly low impact on your muscles when practiced properly, and will help your muscles become stronger and healthier over time.

The Healthy Back Institute supports natural remedies for back pain, and has all kinds of DVD programs and books to help you maintain a healthy back. For more information on spine exercises, visit www.losethebackpain.com today!