If you experience persistent or periodic back pain, it may seem like the best thing to do is to stop engaging in activities you previously enjoyed.
However, your back and your body need to move regularly to function at their best, and participating in regular physical activity is an important step in recovery.
“Protecting” your back by restricting your activities may actually be contributing the pain.
If you’ve been restricting activities for a while, it’s likely that you’ll need to gradually resume activity, both to get your body used to it again and to, over time, learn how beneficial being active again can be.
In addition, if you’ve been inactive for a while, your muscles and joints may be tight and your cardiovascular system may not be at its best. Try this gradual, progressive, 3-step method for regaining all of your lost activities (adapted from Dr. Ronald Siegel’s Back Sense).
Step 1. List all of the activities that you’ve stopped doing entirely, or have modified or restricted because of the pain.
Be thorough and complete, and include activities from all areas of your life, including home, work, sports and recreation, travel, social, and other.
Step 2. For each activity, rate how much you enjoy the activity (enjoy/ok/dislike), and how difficult you perceive the activity to be (easy/moderate/difficult).
You could also use a number scale such as 1-5.
Step 3. Next, select an item to start with. Begin with an activity that you perceive to be both enjoyable and easy to do, and make a plan to do this activity in the next 24 hours.
Take slow, deep diaphragmatic breaths during the activity, noticing any areas where you feel tightness or pain. Allow any tight muscles to relax as you exhale.
Gentle walking is a great activity to start with for most people.
Make your way through your list one at a time until you can do everything that you wish to do and have fully regained all desired activities.
It may take a while, both from a physical standpoint and to adjust to the idea that it’s ok to move again. Each time you regain an activity you will be building your self-efficacy and have more confidence that you can go on to the next activity.
Enjoy all of the benefits of physical activity, including stress relief, a healthy spine and body, and the personal enjoyment of moving again.
Begin the process of doing everything that you wish to do – today!
Copyright © 2022 Mary A Williams, MSEd, BACKCoach, LLC. All rights reserved.
PS: Message me if you’d like me to send you the chart/worksheet I use with clients for this exercise. -Mary
