Do you suffer from Lower Back Pain? Would you like to move around free and easily, being able to do sport or just play with your children… without the fear of your lower back pain getting worse?

Well, you are in good company. Over 80% of adults experience lower back pain at some stage. Most leave it for months or years before they do anything about it. Yet there are some simple steps to follow that can eliminate your lower back pain - completely and permanently.

Step 1: Muscle Stretches

Yes I know you know about stretches. There are countless ones about and all say they are the miracle cure to your lower back pain… only if you do them this way or that.

But there are no miracle stretches. Sure there are better ways to stretch, but the most important aspect is not how to stretch. The most important aspect of stretching is stretching the right muscles at the right time. There are certain muscles that cause lower backpain. Stretch these and lower back pain will ease, stretch them at the right time and you will not only remove lower back pain you will improve your flexibility in half the time or quicker.

Step 2: Muscle Strength

So which gym am I promoting or which type of exercise is best. In fact - if you don’t improve the nerve supply or the blood supply to your muscles, no exercise will create the benefits you need. If a muscle has its’ nerve or blood supply compromised, then no matter which exercise you do, the muscle will not gain strength.

Without muscle strength, you fail to have your joints supported. Also if one muscle is too weak it can callow another to tighten. So you need to know the best stretches and strengthening techniques or your muscular system will not heal 100%.

Step 3: Joint Mobility

Your joints need to move freely and easily. If the joint gets “sticky” then the muscles around it will tire out or tighten up. If a joint moves well the muscles are able to function correctly and stay in their ideal state of tension.

But… surely moving joints is in the domain of Chiropractors, Osteopaths and Physio’s. Actually there are many techniques that you can use at home to get your joints moving freely and easily. Add in the muscle techniques and the major causes of lower back pain are eliminated, simply and easily.

Step 4: Inflammation

Inflammation can be removed through medication, supplements, Homeopathics and other natural products. You can also use Acupressure or Acupuncture (although Acupuncture is hard to use at home - who wants to stick needles in themselves anyway) which are both highly effective at removing inflammation.

If your joints are tender to touch, if your muscles are sensitive also, then inflammation is likely there. Removing it helps the area heal faster. Left there too long and the area will stiffen and become slower to heal, and even scar tissue can form as a protection.

Step 5: Posture

Is you posture correct, do you stand up straight? Well don’t be alarmed, neither of these is important. Posture is a function of lower back pain, energy levels and general health. If you are suffering lower back pain, then your posture changes to accommodate it. If you are tired then you will slouch and have a less ideal posture. Posture is important to help the long term removal of lower back pain and the next step is vital in all postural issues.

Step 6: Rest

Rest means rest. Yes you should relax and rest, stop using your spine each day for at least an hour. Take time here and there to lie down and stop fighting gravity. Gravity is the biggest cause of stress on your spine and muscles.

Lying down is the only way you can rest against gravity. If you lie down a few times a day then your muscles will not tire as easily, joints will have less pressure on them, your disc in your spine will not be squeezed as often and your energy levels in general will be better.

All you need to do is every few hours, take a 5-10 minute break and lie on the floor. When you get home and watch TV, lie on the floor or sofa to rest while you watch the TV. All these help to ease tension off your spine and will also benefit your posture - as if you are less tired, if your muscles have more energy - your posture will improve.

Step 7: Seek Help

If in doubt seek help, if lower back pain persists see your doctor. Lower back pain will usually ease itself within a few weeks. If you use the steps above then you can shorten this time considerably. However if lower back pain persists… seek help. If you follow these 7 steps to eliminate your lower back pain, you will find pain disappears quickly and easily. If you fail to complete any of these steps, or worse if your practitioner does, then lower back pain will return at some stage. To find out which muscles to target, how to move your joints and all the details on the other steps just visit our web page on lower back pain.

• Explain to interested patients that the assessment of back pain in this study was based on self-report, and thus, subject to bias.

Healthcare workers who fear job-related pain may be more likely to develop it, a prospective study from Denmark showed.

Among Danish workers who had no history of backache when they took jobs assisting the sick and elderly, fear of work-related pain, and not physical workload, was associated with a greater chance of developing low back pain on the job, according to Jette Nygaard Jensen, a PhD student at the National Research Center for the Working Environment in Copenhagen, and colleagues.

For those who had experienced low back pain before the study, both actual physical workload and fear of work-related pain were related to the development of low back pain, the researchers reported online in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders.

“From a treatment perspective, focusing on changing fear-avoidance beliefs among those with more or less chronic low back pain may be beneficial,” the researchers said.

“Healthcare professionals may benefit from additional education or information about how to cope with acute or chronic low back pain,” they added. “Particularly, information about the potentially harmful effect of avoidance-behavior could be useful.”

Workers caring for the sick and older populations have higher rates of low back pain than the general population, likely from the positioning of bedridden patients, heavy lifting, twisting, and bending that comes with the job, the researchers said.

Physical workload on the job has been associated with low back pain, but other studies have suggested that coping strategies such as fear-avoidance — unwillingness to participate in certain physical activities that might cause pain — could also contribute, they said.

To explore the issue further, Jensen and her colleagues looked at data on 2,677 female healthcare workers who were participating in the Danish Health Care Worker Cohort — Class of 2004 study (DHCWC-2004).

They filled out questionnaires about physical workload and fear-avoidance beliefs shortly before they finished their training, and again one year later, after they had become employed as helpers or helper assistants.

Overall, 1,111 had no history of low back pain and 1,566 had current or previous low back pain at baseline.

By the one-year follow-up, 47% of those with no history of back pain had experienced at least one day with low back pain.

Physical workload was associated with the occurrence of low back pain among those with a history of such pain only (P<0.05).

“Thus, those without low back pain experiences currently seem to be less vulnerable to high physical load,” the researchers said. “This might be because relatively healthy people can withstand higher work loads, while those who have already experienced low back pain have a lower threshold level for physical exposure.”

After adjusting for age, smoking, leisure time physical activity, body mass index, emotional job demands, and influence at work, those with the highest workload had a threefold increased risk of having more than 30 days of low back pain (OR 3.08, 95% CI 1.74 to 5.45).

Fear-avoidance beliefs regarding pain related to both physical activity in general and to work were associated with a high number of days suffering from low back pain for all workers, regardless of their previous history with low back pain.

For example, among workers without a history of low back pain, fear-avoidance beliefs related to work were associated with a 126% increased risk of having greater than 30 days of low back pain (OR 2.26, 95% CI 1.45 to 3.51).

Among those with a history of low back pain, fear-avoidance beliefs related to work were associated with a 59% increased risk of having a high number of days suffering from low back pain (OR 1.59, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.04).

There were similar findings for fear-avoidance beliefs related to pain from physical activity in general.

The researchers found no evidence “that fear-avoidance beliefs will increase the negative effect of physical work load on low back pain.”

They acknowledged some limitations of the study, including the fact that the Danish versions of the questionnaires used to assess fear-avoidance beliefs have not been validated.

In addition, they said, the participants may have underestimated their fear-avoidance beliefs and the workers with low back pain may have assessed their physical work load as more demanding than those without pain would have.