If you have ever suffered from lower back pain, you know how it can affect your whole life. You will do anything to find pain relief once you are stricken. If you go to the doctor, they generally prescribe muscle relaxants and heavy duty pain medications. This usually does not address the true cause of the lower back pain. Most of the time the back pain is caused by lack of core support, muscular imbalances, pelvic instability, poor posture and overall lack of body awareness.
Body awarenesss therapies for the treatment of lower back pain consists of several different exercises and treatments. They are all designed to strengthen the body in the places it is weak which are causing the pain. Treatments also loosen tight muscles and center the body so that the back pain just melts away. Both the exercises and the treatments offer a long term solution to your lower back pain.
One of the best body awareness exercises is Pilates. It helps to correct posture by paying attention to the body's alignment when you are going through the specified movements. It enhances your core strength by developing all the muscles, both large and small, in the trunk area of the body. Not only does it strengthens the muscles, but it balances them and makes them more flexible to help stabilize the spine. Pilates promotes overall flexibility so that the spine can maintain its proper curves while moving forwards, backwards and with twisting movements. It is easy to modify the Pilates exercises so that your body can increase its flexibility at its own pace. Overall, Pilates is a great training tool for body awareness because you need to pay attention to your form while doing the exercises. You can transfer this form to your daily life so that you can move properly throughout the day to protect your spine.
Yoga can also help with lower back pain through body awareness exercises, but you need to let your instructor know about your issues. There are some yoga moves that would not be appropriate for a person with lower back pain. With the proper yoga exercises, you can increase flexibility and strengthen muscles that support the lower back. There is another method that combines functional movements with focus on the mind/body relationship. It is called the Feldenkrais Method. It involves teaching people how to move properly while performing daily tasks and it combines movements that massage and stretch the muscles.
There are many body awareness treatments; massage is probably one of the most popular for obvious reasons. Having someone loosen, realign and relax tight and tired muscles can make a person feel like a million dollars. Reflexology involves stimulating points in the hands and feet with deep compression to trigger increased blood flow throughout the body to balance out the imbalance causing a person's back pain.
You could also use Reiki or Qigong to balance out the energy in the body. This hands on energy work teaches a person to become aware of their body on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. Other body awareness techniques would include polarity work, shamanic healing and chakra balancing. There really are many natural long term solutions for lower back pain instead of the quick fix medical treatments. Becoming aware of your body so that you can strengthen and maintain it for a lifetime is really the best way to deal with ailments like a bad back.
