Oh! my back is hurting! This is the most common complaint I hear in my practice regularly. Back pain is the second most common neurological ailment in adults (only headaches top it). There can be 101 reasons for back pain from muscle weakness or spasm, sciatica, disc prolapse, stenosis, hamstring tightness, SI joint dysfunction, lumbar spondylosis etc.The good news is that by strengthening and stretching the muscles in your back abdominals and pelvis also known as core strengthening exercises you can relieve and prevent back pain completely.

These simple exercises will not only bring the pain down but will strengthen the muscle and improve posture over time. These exercises can be performed by everyone irrespective of whether they have pain or no pain.

When can I start these exercises?

For people who don't suffer from pain now can start immediately. For folks who are recovering from an injury, they can start immediately after the rest period prescribed by their doctor. Delaying the exercise can worsen the pain by leading to stiffness, weakness, and deconditioning. Remember - movement is necessary to keep the discs, muscles, ligaments, and joints healthy.

A comprehensive rehabilitation program consists of stretching, strengthening, and aerobic conditioning of the back and body. All three of these activities are important. For back pain, best aerobic reconditioning exercise is swimming as during this activity the counter impact on your body is minimum. If you can't swim, you can start with walking for 30 to 45 min every day.

Stretching and strengthening program I personally divide it into three phases:

1. A basic exercise program with minimum forward bend and more extension. Depending on your diagnosis and level of pain, the rehabilitation and exercise program will be different, and spine specialists are trained to develop an appropriate rehabilitation program and provide instruction on correct form and technique. Generally, these exercises include McKenzie exercises, lumbar stabilisation training. this phase can last for one to two months depending on the patient as each individual is different. you need to do exercises 6 days a week.

2. Strengthening with external weights and forward bend. In this phase, abdominal strengthening is equally started along with back. We add minimum ankle weights to the leg for strengthening it further. This phase lasts for two to three months. you need to do exercises 5 days a week.

3. Complete forward bend and increasing external weight. In this phase, the exercises are little tougher as we want to strengthen the core to the maximum. So that any strain does not cause the pain in the back. once you reach this phase you can just continue doing these exercises 3 days a week.

All the basic exercises I have personally demonstrated in the video.

So, its time you work towards getting rid of that back pain.