Don’t Bring Your Pain into the New Year:

The ball has dropped and the year has just begun. As always, you begin to think about what you want to do differently this year to make yourself better. If you’re like many and all last year you kept wanting to begin exercising, but never could get around to it because an achy back was stopping you … please read on. Little did you know, the pain in your low back that you have been putting up with for quite some time, could be an alarm for you to begin exercising. 

In 2017, the American College of Physicians created a guideline of recommendations for noninvasive treatment for people dealing with low back pain. In this guideline, exercise was strongly recommended as one of the initial treatments that should be chosen for patients dealing with chronic low back pain. Chronic low back pain doesn’t have to prevent you from exercising, but rather can be used as an indicator to exercise. In fact, in an article published in the Journal of Clinical Rehabilitation, exercise programs consisting of strength/resistance and coordination/stabilization were found to be a more effective treatment than other interventions.

 For the thought of, “I will make it worse if I exercise” or “I can’t do too much because of the pain”, research actually shows the opposite of this. In 2019, there was a randomized control trial that came to the conclusion of high-intensity exercise being an effective and tolerable exercise modality to be used for chronic low back pain. So not only is high-intensity exercising safe to perform, it’s also effective in combating chronic low back pain. Also, exercising doesn’t just stop at being effective for chronic low back pain. Research shows that exercising can also be effective in the treatment of migraines and chronic-tension headaches. 

So, if you’ve been on the fence about exercising but chronic pain has prevented you from getting after it, go forth and exercise. It just might prevent pain from being a part of your plans for the new year. As always, if you struggle to get started or need a little help, Focus On Health and the Movement Lab are here to help and make sure all your movement goals are met. Now go out and exercise! 

Citations:

Daenen, L., Varkey, E., Kellmann, M., & Nijs, J. (2015). Exercise, not to exercise, or how to exercise in patients with chronic pain? Applying science to practice. The Clinical journal of pain, 31(2), 108–114. https://doi.org/10.1097/AJP.0000000000000099

Qaseem, A., Wilt, T. J., McLean, R. M., Forciea, M. A., Clinical Guidelines Committee of the American College of Physicians, Denberg, T. D., Barry, M. J., Boyd, C., Chow, R. D., Fitterman, N., Harris, R. P., Humphrey, L. L., & Vijan, S. (2017). Noninvasive Treatments for Acute, Subacute, and Chronic Low Back Pain: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the American College of Physicians. Annals of internal medicine, 166(7), 514–530. https://doi.org/10.7326/M16-2367

Searle, A., Spink, M., Ho, A., & Chuter, V. (2015). Exercise interventions for the treatment of chronic low back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Clinical rehabilitation, 29(12), 1155–1167. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269215515570379

Verbrugghe, J., Agten, A., Stevens, S., Hansen, D., Demoulin, C., O Eijnde, B., Vandenabeele, F., & Timmermans, A. (2019). Exercise Intensity Matters in Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain Rehabilitation. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 51(12), 2434–2442. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000002078