Health Bop

Exercise is very good for you, as you no doubt already know, but it's particularly powerful for chronic back pain relief, if you conform with a few user-friendly guidelines, and practice the correct exercises. Here's a list of easy and effective physical exercises that can work as an effective back pain treatment and offer up some much needed chronic back pain relief:

Shift and lift: This is an exercise that you can do to tone the muscles around your lower back and hips (in particular) while sitting in the office. This is therefore something that you can do while you are at work, owing to the nature of the 'lifting' part of the exercise, I would suggest that you don't do this while talking to others in your office, for example. It might make them think there is something wrong with you!

Even So, this is a very effective exercise for helping stop your muscles stiffening up that might happen from sitting in the same position for an extended period of time, and it will help strengthen those muscles too!

Start off by sitting down in a comfortable but upright chair, relax then clench one buttock and hold for 3 to 5 seconds, lifting your cheek slightly together. Relax and then do it again. Do this 15-20 repetitions on each buttock.

Hip sway: This is neat little exercise to do if you have to stand up for long periods of time, as it alleviates the tension in your legs and stimulates the blood flow throughout the whole of your lower body. It also helps to avoid getting the back and hip pain that many individuals are affected by if they are forced to stand up for any length of time.

Start from a standing position, let you right knee relax totally, then at the same time pushing your left hip out to the side. Pull the hip back in again, and repeat the same action 15-20 times. After that, relax your left knee, and force your right hip out in the same way.

Lifting: Get hold of a bag - a supermarket shopping bag, or anything else that has suitable handles for lifting will work for you. Put something of weight in the bag - what you put in isn't important, providing it weighs at least a few kilos (water bottles are perfect for this, as a liter bottle weighs near enough a kilo).

Start with your arm straight down by your side, bend your knees until you can reach the bag on the floor and then lift it by straightening your knees up. When you get back up straight, hold the upright position for a few seconds, and then bend your knees to touch the bag down again.

Repeat this for at least 15 times with the bag on one side of your body, then repeat it on the other side. By making sure you bend your legs and not you back - this is a great exercise for strengthening the middle and lower back, buttocks and hips, and an added bonus is that it will help tone your arms and legs.

Shrug Off: This is an exercise that as well as keeping your lower back toned, it is also a great way of releasing the tautness that can build across the back of your shoulders. It's also very good for toning your arms and shoulder muscles. It can also be done in either a standing or a sitting position.

For the starting postiion, just pull up your shoulders to as close to your ears as possible, then extend your arms sideways from your body until they are parallel to the ground and turn your palms outwards. Finally, tilt your head to one side then hold that final position for a few seconds. Return to the beginning and do the whole thing again, but this time, tilt your head to the other side.