If you’re like me and in your forties, you are not as active, flexible or in your physical prime anymore.
Naturally with all things related to age, you are not as fast, limber, strong or agile as you once were when you were younger.
One reason for this is that Father Time is undefeated and that no one outruns age. Despite all of the medical advances here in the 21st century, one sign of age catching up to us is back pain.
It can come in a series of blistering spasms, or gradually after playing sports. Back pain is the biggest sign of one simply getting older.
One of the leading hospitals in the areas of back pain, London-based West12 Health Centre offers a variety of services ranging from low back pain and sciatica, chronic pain, hip, foot and ankle pain to shoulder and knee ailments and sports injuries.
As a former high school athlete that played men’s lacrosse, baseball, volleyball, soccer and martial arts, I can recommend—based on my own personal experience—simple ways of combating back pain in the forms of walking, stretching and yoga
Walking: We do it every day. From getting up in the morning to work to moving about throughout the day, walking is the simplest and best exercise, one can do in combating back pain.
How you ask? Simple, because when you are walking—whether to the park or even around your own neighborhood block—you are using quad muscles that support your back—and also keep you upright—actively, thus help alleviate it.
Per a 2004 study in the Spine Journal, a single session of an exercise such as walking can reduce low back pain 10 to 50 percent via BHG.com
Stretching and Yoga: Since both stretching and yoga are intertwined, I’ll go this route. One of the best and simplest common-sense ways to combat back pain is to stretch regularly.
While a lot of today’s stretching methods are yoga-based, the best ones I’d recommend to help are the pelvic tilt, knee-to-chest stretch and the lower-back twist yoga poses, just to help get your proverbial feet wet, and some of the lower back muscles some relief.
Honesty, the best exercise is keeping things simple and being active.
If you do any of these recommended ways above, you will be just as fine and limber as you were in your twenties or thirties. the rest is up to you.