5 Tips for Sore Back Muscles- Seattle Chiropractor Report
Posted by Dana Rindal on Tue, Jun 05, 2012 @ 09:00 AM
Sore back muscles can impact your daily life and leave you feeling limited as to what you can physically accomplish. Recently, I had a patient who was pregnant and experiencing low back pain. This is very common, so what can you do about it? Here are 5 tips for sore back muscles:
1. Apply Ice and/or Heat: It is important that you apply heat and ice at the correct stage of an injury as they have opposite effects. Heat increases blood flow to an injured area and relaxes muscles. On the other hand, ice decreases blood flow, and assists with reducing inflammation. If your back pain is from a recent or acute injury, apply ice. If you are in the chronic injury stage, and have experienced this pain for a while, apply heat. You can read more about application of ice in this blog post.
2. Spinal Manipulation or Adjustment: Spinal manipulation is simply pressure used to the spine to coax the vertebrae into proper alignment. There is evidence that chiropractic relieves many types of back pain, lower back pain in particular, and helps restore normal range of motion. Spinal manipulations takes stress off surrounding tissues - muscles, tendons, and ligaments - to relieve back pain and restore normal functioning. That is why it is so important to see a chiropractor for back pain. You may be interested to note that osteopathic doctor and physical therapist in most states are licensed to perform spinal manipulation.
3. Massage Therapy: Seattle Message therapy allows for increased blood flow to muscles and muscle relaxation. It is a great way to not only relax, but also decrease back pain.
4. Active Recovery: By doing exercises that are not full exertion you create a larger flow of blood to your muscles allowing for quicker recovery that helps to reduce pain felt from sore muscles.
5. Active Release Technique (ART): ART can be extremely effective when treating sore back muscles as it breaks down scar tissue, increases blood circulation and improves range of motion. Doing ART in conjunction with spinal manipulation and massage therapy can be extremely effective when dealing with sore back muscles.
Questions? Contact us!
If you have any questions, please feel free to email Kevin Rindal, Seattle Chiropractor at DrRindal@InHealthSeattle.com.