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How to Decompress the Lower Back?
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Out of all three regions of the back, the lower back is the most susceptible to pain and injury. This is due to its remarkable flexibility, as well as its responsibility to support a significant amount of body weight.
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Nerve compression in the lumbar spine can lead to pain, numbness, tingling, and weakness. If you’re experiencing these symptoms, it’s time to look into how to decompress the lower back.
Why is My Lower Back So Tight?
Your lower back may be tight because of trauma from a sudden accident (auto accident, sports accident, or fall), an overuse injury, poor posture, or one of several possible spinal conditions.
The spinal conditions that can cause lower back tightness include:
- Back sprains (torn or overstretched ligament)
- Back strains (tears in muscle or tendon tissue)
- Herniated disc, an injury involving a damaged intervertebral disc
- Spinal stenosis, a condition involving a narrowed spinal canal
- Spondylolisthesis, a condition involving a vertebra that slips out of place
- Radiculopathy, a condition involving nerve root compression that can involve the spinal nerve roots
- Sciatica, a type of radiculopathy affecting the sciatic nerve
- Scoliosis and other skeletal irregularities
- Arthritis affecting the joints of the spine
From the list above, lower back tightness can clearly stem from various causes. So, if your back tightness doesn’t resolve with at-home methods, visit a medical professional for a diagnosis.
Is It Good to Decompress Your Spine?
It is good to decompress your spine so long as you use safe, physician-recommended techniques. You may also want to consider seeing a certified chiropractor for professional manual decompression.
How Do I Decompress My Lower Back By Myself?
To decompress your lower back by yourself, there are a few different methods to choose from. Here are some of the most popular at-home spinal decompression techniques:
- Side-Lying Technique
- Start by lying on the side of your body, either on a couch or bed, with your knees bent and your heels stacked.
- Dip your shins down, off of the couch or bed. This should provide a sensation of your pelvis dropping to one side and a lower back stretch. Hold the position for 20 to 30 seconds.
- Return your shins to the couch or bed. Take a 30-second break and repeat.
- Continue to repeat the stretch for 10 to 15 minutes, with 30 seconds between each repetition.
- Overhead Stretch
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Extend your arms above your head and interlace your fingers.
- Straighten your elbows so that your palms are reaching toward the ceiling.
- Slowly bend to either side to stretch the sides of the back.
- Hold the stretch for 10 to 30 seconds and repeat as needed.
- Hanging Technique (requires access to a pull-up bar)
- Make sure that your bar is sturdy enough to hold your full body weight.
- Grab the bar with both hands so that your feet lift up off the floor.
- Hang from the bar, gradually relaxing your muscles so that your full weight is hanging from the bar.
- Remain in this position for 10 to 30 seconds, then release the bar so that your feet return to the floor.
- Relax for a minute, then repeat the exercise four to six times.
What Exercises Decompress Your Spine?
Various exercises can decompress your spine, including:
- Pelvic Tilts
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and the soles of your feet flat on the ground. Your lower back should naturally lift slightly off of the floor.
- On an exhale, press your lower back into the floor using your abdominal muscles and gently roll your hips upward, off of the floor.
- Remain in a lifted bridge position for a few positions, then slowly return to the starting position.
- Repeat five to 10 times.
- Cat-and-Cow
- Get on the floor on all fours, with your hips in line with your shoulders, your hands right under your shoulders, and your knees directly under your hips.
- Gently arch your back by moving your head down. Breathe deeply.
- Slowly move into a reverse arch by bringing your head and tailbone up toward the ceiling.
- Repeat five to 20 times.
- Prayer Stretch
- Get on the floor on all fours.
- Sit back on your knees so that your buttocks touch your feet. Drop your head and reach forward.
- Bring your weight forward onto your hands, stretching as far forward as you can without experiencing pain. Hold this stretch for 15 to 30 seconds.
- Repeat two to four times.
How Do You Sleep to Decompress Your Spine?
To sleep to decompress your spine, opt for a chiropractor-recommended sleeping position. While sleeping on your stomach is never advised for spinal health, you can choose either a side or back sleeping position to decompress your spine.
Side Sleeping For Spinal Decompression
Lie on your side with your hips flexed around 30 degrees. Then, bend your knees to a 30-degree angle and flex your knees around 30 degrees. Place a pillow beneath your neck and a small pillow under your knees.
This position is an excellent way for side-sleepers to decompress their spine while they sleep.
Back Sleeping For Spinal Decompression
Lie on your back and place a pillow under your knees, keeping them at a 30-degree angle. Place a pillow under your neck and maintain a neutral position of the head.
Sleeping on your back is widely considered to be the best position for spinal health. Using a pillow under the knees to relax your lower back can help decompress the spine while you sleep.
Is Lying on the Floor Good for Your Back?
Lying on the floor may feel good for your back, as it does for some patients, but there’s little evidence to prove that sleeping on the floor is healthier for your back than a firm mattress.
Is Hanging Good for Your Back?
Yes, hanging is good for your back in certain conditions because it can help stretch and decompress the spine. Make sure to only hang for a limited period, such as 30 seconds, and only hang on a bar that’s made to support your full body weight. Don’t jump off too hard since you can compress the vertebrae back. Please consult your doctor to identify the individual preferences for your lower back problems.
When Decompression Surgery is Required?
Decompression surgery is required for patients who don’t improve after six to 12 months of non-surgical treatment. It may also be required for patients with a spinal condition that’s causing severe pain and/or disability.
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What is L4 L5 Decompression Surgery?
L4 L5 decompression surgery is a form of spinal surgery that involves creating more space around compressed nerves at the L4 L5 level of the lumbar spine. This is most commonly achieved through a laminectomy, a form of decompression during which the surgeon removes some or all of the lamina to create more space in the spinal canal.
Is Lumbar Decompression Major Surgery?
Traditionally, lumbar decompression has been a major surgery involving a lengthy recovery period. This is because decompression is typically done with spinal fusion, a procedure that fuses the affected vertebrae to prevent spinal instability. However, with recent innovations in spinal medicine, minimally-invasive lumbar decompression methods are available, such as the TOPS System.
What Is the Recovery Time for Spinal Decompression Surgery?
The recovery time for spinal decompression surgery can last between one month and a year, depending on the method of decompression and the patient’s overall health. If spinal fusion is involved, the patient may need a full year to recover. With the TOPS System non-fusion implant, on the other hand, patients return to a full range of motion immediately after the procedure.
To learn more about lumbar spine decompression and the available treatment options, talk to a spine specialist in your area today.
Treatments and Causes of Lower Back Pain
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Lower back pain is possibly the most common type of lumbar issue that people face. There are a massive number of different causes, symptoms, and solutions to lower back pain, depending on the severity of it.
In a lot of cases, the cause of your lower back pain isn’t overly serious and more the result of things like having poor posture while working at an office desk.
Even with causes that may seem insignificant, the damage that your lower back can undergo over several years of this can become serious and permanent, meaning you should be trying to actively treat your lower back pain before it’s too late.
However, there are times when more serious issues can be the cause of your lower back pain, in which case it’s critical that you receive treatment as soon as possible before any permanent damage is done.
Your spine is a remarkable structure designed to support the movement of the entire body. However, the makeup of it leaves the lower spine susceptible to more damage than the rest. This is typically why so many people feel pain in their lower back rather than anywhere else.
In extreme conditions, this pain can be so severe that it prevents you from standing up. If your body and spine have been conditioned to rest at a bend, like it is for anyone who works an office job, then keeping it straightened for any significant period of time may present a problem.
In this article, we’re going to look at lower back pain causes, lower back pain treatment, as well as various methods of lower back pain relief, and how to cure lower back pain.
Before you try any method of treatment for yourself, make sure you consult your doctor to receive a physical exam and a professional opinion on how you should proceed.
Causes of Lower Back Pain
Typically, back pain is going to develop without a particular cause that your doctor can point to without a test or form of image study. In the event that your doctor believes your pain to be more serious, you may be sent for an X-ray or an MRI to determine the cause of the issue.
There are, however, several different conditions that are common causes of lower back pain:
- Osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis is one of the more serious causes of lower back pain that should be identified and treated as soon as possible. In this condition, the vertebrae of your spine can develop fractures due to porous and brittle bones.
These fractures can be excruciatingly painful, making treatment of the condition a priority.
- Arthritis.
Arthritis actually leads to a separate spinal condition known as spinal stenosis. While osteoarthritis affects the lower back at times itself, there are cases when it narrows the space surrounding your spinal cord, which leads to the aforementioned condition.
- Ruptured disks or bulging disks.
The disks in your spine act as a type of cushion between your vertebrae. These disks, or cushions, are made up of soft material to reduce the friction between your vertebrae when you move.
However, this material and either bulge or rupture, in which case it can end up pressing on a nerve.
While this type of condition can cause lower back pain, it is entirely possible to have it without feeling any sort of back pain. Oftentimes, an issue with your disks is found while undergoing an X-ray for a different purpose.
- Ligament strain and muscle strain.
This is possibly the most common cause of lower back pain.
Continuous and repeated movement of the spine, particularly when heavy lifting is involved in any sort of labor job, can strain your spinal ligaments and back muscles. This can also happen due to sudden awkward movement.
For those with a below-average physical condition, this constant strain can also lead to painful muscle spasms.
These four are the main causes of lower back pain that you should be aware of, but there is an exceedingly larger number of different causes that can lead to it.
Avoid giving yourself a self-diagnosis and seek the opinion of a practiced healthcare professional. Follow your doctor’s advice on how to treat your back pain going forward.
Lower Back Pain Treatment
There are a number of different ways to both prevent and treat lower back pain, depending on the severity of it.
In extreme circumstances, surgery may be required. However, the majority of cases can be resolved through a combination of exercise and NSAIDs – non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
In particular, lower back pain is heavily connected to your physical condition. This means that certain exercises are great for relieving back pain, preventing it, as well as treating it.
In particular, low-impact aerobics is a great way to increase the strength of your back muscles, helping to provide more support to your lower vertebrae.
Common low-impact aerobics include the likes of walking and swimming. Alternatively, yoga and stretching are also great activities for stretching your back out and helping to build your strength back up.
As well as low impact exercises, building abdominal and back muscles can be a good way to help relieve your back pain and increase flexibility.
Both of these muscle groups make up your core, which helps to support your back. Keeping these muscles healthy and tight allows them to act like a corset for your back, propping it up straight, improving your posture, and by extension, helping to relieve pain.
You can speak to your doctor about what exercises they recommend for your back pain.
In line with exercise, losing a bit of extra weight can help relieve the stress that’s being put on your back.
In a lot of cases, a difference of a stone or two can make a massive difference in how much work your back muscles are doing, relieving some of that strain and allowing you to work on increasing your core muscle mass.
As is the case with almost every single health-related issue, quitting smoking is going to help.
Smoking causes extensive coughing and decreased blood flow which can have exaggerated effects on your disks. By quitting smoking, you’re stopping this external force from acting on your spine, decreasing the risk of developing back pain.
If You Want to Relieve Lower Back Pain, You Need Posture
If you want to try and relieve the lower back pain that you feel, you need to use and hold your body in the proper positions.
When you’re standing, make sure you don’t slouch. Keep your pelvic condition neutral, and alternate feet to move the weight of your body from one side to the other regularly.
Sitting correctly is also critical to relieving and curing back pain.
If you can, use office chairs that have been built with lumbar support. These chairs are naturally going to help prop you up, taking a lot of the stress off of your spine. You can make a homemade lumbar support equivalent using a pillow.
The TOPS System Can Relieve Back Pain
At Prima Spine, our TOPS System has been hailed as a viable alternative to spinal fusion.
In the extreme event that a lower back pain condition leads to something more severe, we’re here to support you through your surgery, as well as to provide you with a flexible alternative to outdated lumbar surgery practices.
If you have any questions about our TOPS system, the work we do, lower back pain, or anything spinal-related, feel free to get in touch.
Our experts are always ready to help you and answer any queries you might have.
You can contact us through our website, either by emailing us or talking to an agent through live chat.
Lower Back Pain Solutions
Lower back pain is an issue that is plaguing countless people around the globe. As we continue into a more corporate world where there is an abundance of office jobs, the number of lower back pain cases is going to increase exponentially.
This is why it’s so important for you to look after your back. It’s the part of your body that enables you to move and houses your central nervous system.
Both desk jobs and labor jobs impact your back in big ways, so you need to be taking active care of it if you want to prevent the onset of lower back pain.
If you work in an office, make sure you’re using a chair with lumbar support and maintaining proper posture. If your working environment isn’t suited to this, speak with management about the issue.
For those in labor jobs, you should try to make sure you’re following proper lifting techniques. Lift with your knees and keep your back straight.
This keeps the weight of whatever it is you are lifting off of your spine, helping to increase the longevity of your lower back.
Prevention is the best treatment of lower back pain, so even if you don’t suffer from it, or you’re only starting to feel the effects, make a point of exercising your core muscles regularly to help support your spine and keep the pain away.