Despite what you may think, it is rarely the cause of low back pain where it hurts. Most people and their therapists believe that it is. That is why they want to heat, rub, crush, vibrate and cut the place where it is most painful.

In fact, you can tell how good a therapist is by observing where they go to find the cause of pain. Simply attacking the place where it hurts sends out a huge amber light.

Surprisingly, low back pain is simply a symptom that some of the bones in your lower back are misaligned. Your immediate task is to realign them. Do that and the pain will most likely go away.

When the vertebrae are misaligned, the ligaments, tendons, and muscles are stretched beyond their pain threshold. The core of the discs is squeezed and the disc collapses. The nucleus often hits the spinal cord. That’s when the pain really starts. You can’t sneeze or cough without feeling like a red-hot poker is digging into your back. You cannot lean over the basin to brush your teeth. You can’t bend over to put your socks on.

So what causes the vertebrae in the lower back to go out of alignment?

Answer! If the pelvis has been misaligned, it is very likely that the bones above it have also become misaligned.

Treat the pelvis as the base of the bones above it and consider this analogy. If the foundation of your house shifts, the walls will crack. You can mend or paper the cracks, but you will probably have to keep mending and papering until the kingdom comes. The solution is to prop (and square) the base so that it cannot be moved.

So the precondition for an aligned spine is an aligned pelvis.

So what causes the pelvis to misalign?

Answer! Tight calf, hamstring, glute and hip flexor muscles.

Which brings us back to the question of what are the best exercises for low back pain relief.

Answer! Flexibility exercises that influence the alignment of the pelvis, particularly exercises that loosen tight calf muscles, hamstrings, glutes, and hip flexors.

But that’s not the whole story. You also need to strengthen your entire musculoskeletal ecosystem by going to the gym regularly and exercising, or if you are reluctant to lift weights, start with a regular and systematic strength training program at home that includes sit-ups, push-ups, squats, and exercises. Superman’s back bow.

It makes sense to have a body strong enough to keep the bones of your spine in proper alignment.

Interestingly, one of the best predictors of low back pain risk is the ability to do push-ups. As you do push-ups, all the muscles in your trunk get stronger: the front, the back, and the core.

If you’re looking for goals for sit-ups, push-ups, and squats, 20 of each is good, 30 is better, and 40 is better. Build Superman’s back arch up to a couple of minutes of gentle ups and downs without your chest or legs touching the ground.

The final piece of the lower back exercise puzzle is some relaxing spine-down exercises, exercises in which you lie on your back with both legs bent at 90 degrees and your lower legs propped up on an ottoman. This is known in the trade as the static back exercise and lying in this position for 20 minutes will provide temporary relief from back pain and, over the weeks and months, help the vertebrae to gradually return to better alignment. .

Another relaxing pose with the ottoman is to lie on the floor with one leg on the ottoman and the other extended over the flood for 20 minutes, then switch legs. This is the supine groin stretch. Over 20 minutes, the hip flexor muscles will gradually relax and, over the weeks and months, allow the vertebrae to re-align themselves better.

If you are diligent, you will spend a couple of hours on the floor each night while you watch television, read a book or simply let yourself be carried away by the fairies doing the flexibility and relaxation exercises.

Strength exercises you can do after you’ve gone for a walk, shuffling, jogging, swimming, cycling … in the morning.

Now, just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, your low back pain wasn’t caused in a day. For most people it occurs for decades, due to poor sitting posture and a lack of strength and flexibility exercises. Being 20 kg or more in weight does not help.

Your back pain will not be cured in one day either. Depending on how out of alignment your pelvis and the bones above it are, it can take a couple of months for you to experience real relief and up to a year before you can say, ‘I don’t have low back pain anymore.

But the good news is that if you start doing something now, there is an 80% chance that 80% of people will regain 80% of a good nick in one year. If you have back pain, chances are good.

In the meantime, stay tuned, highly vigilant, and get started on a serious strength and flexibility training program right away.