Does back pain rule your life?
Have tried all the remedies, only to have your back pain resurface?
You may be lost in the Bermuda Triangle of Back Pain, but never fear: follow these 3-steps and you’re out!
By the way, you’re not alone; over 80% of adults suffer from back pain at some stage. Almost 90% suffer recurring back pain. Without solving it, these same people will live older years in chronic back pain misery.
It sounds frightening but rest assured: your back pain is easily solved, with the 3-step Back Support Pyramid.
The Back Support Pyramid is not a product, a system or package; it is a three-sided healing approach that starts by understanding how back pain arises and then understanding the need to address all three ways.
Ready to reduce your back pain with the Back Support Pyramid?
SIDE 1: Structural Support for Your Back
The structural causes of back pain are tight muscles, weak muscles and joint imbalance. If you correct these, you correct structural causes of back pain.
Alas, cures are not structural alone. Your back pain will most likely come back if you don’t also solve the other two sides of this three-sided back pain solution.
By the way – recent research has shown that the trauma caused by lifting an object, or doing a normal daily activity (the most common excuse for back pain), is not sufficient to create back pain.
This means the physical trauma that you thought caused your back to pinch … didn’t! It came from tension, from structural misalignment, from all three sides of the back pain triangle. And you need to address all of the causes.
SIDE 2: Look To Your Health
Your general health affects your back. If you are tired, have bowel complaints (minor or major), hormonal imbalances, immune problems or are just generally not 100% healthy, back pain is more likely.
How does that work?
If you suffer from constipation, diarrhea, gas and wind, bloating, there is extra pressure on your lower back. This can set your lower back in a state of tension where when you lift, when you walk, even when you sit – so your back does not have the strength to support you. Then, seemingly suddenly, you pull your back after lifting an object you have lifted a hundred times before.
If you are tired, your muscles tire. That means emotional exhaustion as well as the tiredness of physical illness. Notice how when you have a flu/cold your muscles feel sore. My lower back is excruciatingly painful when I have a fever.
Take care of your general health and your back will benefit.
SIDE 3: How are you Feeling on the Inside?
Your emotional health – and not just the extremes of depression or euphoria – all affect your back.
If you are stressed, anxious, worried or generally not at ease, the back muscles tighten. The saying that “stress rides between your shoulders” is very accurate. Stress also takes up residence in your back.
When your mind is overactive, when you are not coping too well, muscles in your upper back contract and cause pain. If someone squeezes your shoulders after a busy day, they can feel those hard rocks.
But notice that to you, a hug can feel wonderful; it can be a chance to get the emotional support you need to finally relax and let those tight muscles melt.
The emotional affects the structural.
Stress is sometimes a deadly addition to one of the other areas affecting your back. If you are hunched over a desk, working on a project with a crushing deadline (notice the word deadline…it doesn’t even sound good), you get a double whammy of stress and structural damage to your back. And you might even be more susceptible to that stomach flu going around the office.
How to alleviate back pain by addressing the physical, general and emotional causes to your back pain? There is a system that addresses mind, body and spirit all at once: yoga.
The word “yoga” itself means “unity.”
The Science of Yoga Applied to Back Pain
In many hot yoga poses, I will tell you to “pull your shoulders down from your ears,” or to lift from your breastbone lightly, or tip your elbows into imaginary back pockets. These movements encourage those back muscles to let go.
In savasana, I will encourage you to melt into the floor, to allow the floor to rise up to meet your body, to let go of your worries if only for these short minutes in the yoga room.
I also give you permission to take a pose off by simply lying down, to imagine yourself in the pose as you breathe deeply – this is just as beneficial as doing the pose!
These are all wonderful practices for of letting down the tension that is causing your back to seize up.
And when you finally get up after final Savasana, the relaxation pose, take these lessons out of the yoga room and back into your life: your back can support you in the ways it was meant, to carry you through a pain-free life of living your full potential for health and happiness. All you have to do is support yourself by giving yourself the time and the permission to relax, breathe, enjoy. Yoga is your time for you.
CLICK HERE to share how yoga has helped your back.
Hi Solvita – yes, there are some very easy and practical things you can do physically to change your emotional state (and thus your life). Try them and comment here how they feel for you!
Hi Rob – Isn’t it fascinating? Those two moves – pulling the shoulders down and lifting lightly from the breastbone – change your entire outlook. Next time add a deep breath in through your nose hearing it resonate in the back of your throat, and exhale also through the nose hearing that HA sound in your throat (sounding like your campiest Darth Vader) and see how THAT feels!
Such a great post Rhonda!… the emotional health is key and thank you for pointing it out. Love the practical approach you offer… I’m going to use it!
Hi Rhonda.
I was reading this with more than a small amount of interest. I’m chair-bound most of the day and anything that reduces wear and tear on the back interests me.
I was reading and nodding in agreement until I hit this section ““pull your shoulders down from your ears,” or to lift from your breastbone lightly, or tip your elbows into imaginary back pockets.”
I just tried those steps right then and there. That felt good. Thank you very much!
Thank you for sharing Rhonda. Great article!
Hi Julie – Yoga works so well because doesn’t just work on the physical body, which is often the final expression of stress; yoga can relieve mental and emotional stress before it manifests in the body.
Hi Alexandra – There are so many yoga poses that relieve stress – just ask me!
Hi Norma – You’re lucky to have a body that gave you such clear messages! Sometimes we just ignore things like what you’re describing, so the body has to work harder and hurt more to get our attention. Stress is the root cause of all our pain – physical and otherwise.
Hi Sherie – We store all sorts of unexpressed emotions in the body and then, they erupt as illnesses. The back, the support of the entire body, can often feel painful if you are a person who has trouble giving or receiving support from other people. Fascinating, yes?
Great post! I do have some back pain often and these are some tips to help with that! Glad I found this through YCD!
Hi Rhonda – Stress is most definitely the cause of so many aches and pains. Thanks for your suggestions on how Yoga can relieve both!
Thank you for another great post Rhonda! I agree with you 100%! Several months ago, I ended up in emergency because I couldn’t stand up! I had pain in my tummy and after 2 days in the hospital, e-rays, blood tests & several other procedures, I was sent home. A dear friend who is an osteopath came to visit and gave me a treatment. Within half an hour, all the pain was gone! Stress was the cause and my muscles in my back were so tight, that’s what caused the pain! Imagine! So now, I’ve learned a couple of Yoga poses that relieves my stress! Love it!
What an interestig article, Rhonda! Even thought I knew that back pain is mostly caused by our emotions I had no idea that yoga can help so much! Thank you for sharing this, very inspirational!
Hi Rhonda! So related with the stress part. Several years ago, I was so stressed at one point that every part of my body that would touch something gave me pins & needles sensation. Wow! I was flabbergasted at how powerful stress is and how physical it became. Totally can relate to stress being a factor in back pain… It is so much more than just being emotional stress. Thanks for your great post! x0x
The LEARNED Preneur @ NormaDoiron.NET
It makes sense that back pain does not stem from just physical causes and you address emotional and health issues that effect it as well. Great post, Rhonda, about unifying the spirit, mind and body through yoga!