Walking to combat back pain

I had some terrible back issues a few years ago. An MRI even showed I had a bulge in one of my discs. I did walk every day, and it helped a bit. I also tried a zillion other things to get over it.

Now, I know people have all kinds of opinions on this stuff, but what helped me is not super well known, probably because it doesn't make anyone any money, really.

What got me over it finally was reading and buying into Dr. John Sarno's books. Sarno was this mild mannered doctor in New York who stuck to a philosophy for many years and wrote a series of books. The basic idea of his work is that when our brain wants to distract us from something emotionally painful, it has a number of tricks, including the generation of real physical pain. Not imagined pain... but real pain. I don't want to oversimplify how you get over the pain, but it's a mental/emotional approach.

There was a quote in one of his books that I found really compelling. It said that a study did MRIs of a collection of adults and found that there was little correlation between back pain and condition of the actual spine. Many people had bulges in their discs and felt no pain. Some had nothing wrong physically, but were in terrible pain.

My takeaway from the above walking study is that walking is psychologically beneficial. It's distracting. It's physically active. It's routine. It's many things that help our minds as well as our bodies.

Ultimately to get better, you need to really figure out if you're physically hurt or not. A bulging disc may not qualify as truly hurt. If you work with a doctor to rule out a physical injury (which do tend to heal on their own given enough time), then you might consider a mindbody approach.

This video from years ago is pretty good, and the comments are quite something: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qwFjKYlbf4

Yep. My mother-in-law taught me this. Walking is a pretty great universal cure, if you’re lucky enough to be able to walk long distances.

But also: hamstring stretches. YMMV, but whenever I feel the “twinge” that used to precipitate sciatica and a too-long stint of sleeping on the floor, I do some hamstring stretches and it dissipates. I haven’t had “back pain down to the knee” since I figured this “one simple trick!” out…

And back stretches. It really helped me to think about spinal stenosis and to realize and envision that massive cabling of nerves at the base of the spine, and then to remember to stretch several times a day to give that “wiring” some more room (especially after compressing and scrunching them for twelve hours straight hunched over a laptop on the couch!).

As a person who has dealt with recurring bouts of lower back pain, here's what I have found to be effective in combating it: (ymmv, etc, etc, but I hope this helps someone else)

1. Not sitting on the couch while working on my laptop (...as I write this on my laptop from the couch)

2. Regular yoga—especially when I begin experiencing symptoms. If you're intimidated by the idea of going to an in-person yoga class, look up Yoga with Adriene on YouTube.

3. Lifting weights - Building strength has been incredibly effective at preventing relapses for me.

4. Walking or running - Any kind of movement is great. Go buy new shoes, though. Yours are probably worn out. You should be buying new shoes every 500 - 1,000 miles.

Back pain, more often than not, is caused by postural issues and your body using the wrong muscles, or aligning the spine wrong, putting undue stress on some parts of it instead of distributing it more evenly.

Yes, walking is protective and beneficial, but if your posture is bad enough, your body is going to engage in the same compensations and it can worsen your pain and hurt you. See a physiotherapist, or at the absolute least watch some postural restoration content on YouTube - most often, people have weak deep abdominal muscles, glutes, and hip internal rotation.

Best lower back pain relief I’ve ever experienced was using an “ab roller”.

Those wheels with handles on the axel where you kneel down and roll out in front of you.

They always advertised then as “ab” workouts but the effect is more strongly felt for me in my lower back.

Making even a light habitual practice of it had huge effects.

My lower back feels stronger than ever and if I do something that triggers pain I can “roll it out”.

I now use the roller as a source of relief.

I was diagnosed with severe spinal stenosis last year and I've found a combination of walking daily and working at a sit/stand desk in the standing position has helped me immensely. Our backs are designed to be under load and if you sit all day it will only make things worse.

I'm pretty sure that the reason walking relieves lower back pain is because lower back pain in developed countries is 95% caused by insufficient walking.

I walk almost every lunchtime outside, barefoot or with flat sandals, for 1 hour. I also do squats, sit-ups, push-ups and stretching exercises.

Fixed my back pain as well as my short-sightedness and hay-fever. I swear by it.

... And water is wet.

On the other hand, one can not mention this enough!

To me, aches in my back are the indicator to stop spending all my time behind a desk, and do some (light) exercise.

About an hour of swift walking or cycling is all it takes to resolve the pain. If I manage to do this on a regular basis - i.e. daily or every other day - I never experience back issues, but it also improves my general well-being.

Mens sana in corpore sano!