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How Do I Get Rid Of Lower Back Spasms

Bad Posture Can Cause Sore Back Muscles And Neck Pain

5 Ways To Relieve Muscle Spasms In Back

Bad posture in its many forms may be to blame for your back or neck muscle pain.

An overly rounded upper or lower back can stress the tissues of the spine and over time this can even lead to anatomical problems. Hunching over your phone or slouching at your desk can cause your muscles lose strength and flexibility that are needed to hold the spine in a neutral position.

Correcting any imbalances, strengthening your core and working on the loosening up your hip flexor muscles are key to fixing bad posture. A posture brace that helps hold your shoulders back can help train your body not to slouch. And you can check out this blog post for some quick fixes and tips for better posture.

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Heat Or Cold Treatment

Ice and Heat tend to provide some relief from the pain that is caused by the back spasms. It tends to provide immediate relief and could be used throughout the day for pain management.

How to use?

  • Apply ice to a back spasm for the first 48 to 72 hours.
  • Apply ice for 20 minutes, remove for 1.5 hours, then re-apply for 20 minutes.
  • Repeat this cycle as often as possible during the first 2 to 3 days after a back spasm begins.

Back Spasms: Symptoms Treatment And More

Do you feel a sudden tightness in your back or pain in your back muscles in the morning?

Did you overexert yourself at the gym, or could it just be the way you slept?

Sleeping in an awkward way, training too hard at the gym, bending, lifting, or standing can sometimes cause a back spasm.

Back pain is one of the most common medical problems in the United States it can occur from both extreme exertion and doing innocuous tasks, and the worst part is your likelihood of experiencing it increases with age.

Almost 65 million Americans have recently experienced back pain, hitting the country with $12 billion a year in health care costs.

Sometimes it may resolve on its own, as long as you take it easy in the meantime, and sometimes, you may need to see a doctor for proper treatment.

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How To Prevent Future Back Spasms

The best way to reduce your risk of another painful episode is to stay active, says Dr. Hanscom. He recommends both aerobic exercise and strength training. The stronger your core muscles are, the less likely they are to spasm, he explains.

Need suggestions? Dr. Hanscom recommends yoga and tai chi, both of which are good for back pain. At home, you can also do knee-to-chest stretches, planks, hip bridges and bird dogs.

And if you lift anything heavy, do it properly: Keep your knees bent and tighten your abdominal muscles, rather than reaching your arms out.Optum Perks can help you save money! to receive access to a catalog of coupons that work at more than 64,000 U.S. pharmacies.

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What Does A Back Spasm Feel Like

Pin on Get Rid Of Back Pain

A back spasm can feel like a tightening, pulling or twitching of the muscles in your back. With some muscle spasms the muscle will be hard to the touch or show a visible twitching.4

The intensity and duration of each muscle spasm can vary.

A back spasm involving the piriformis muscle in the lower back may also lead to leg pain called sciatica5 .

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Use Back Support To Limit Stress On Your Back

When resting in bed, you may find that the most comfortable position is on your back with pillows placed under your knees and a rolled towel or small pillow placed in the small of your back. Also, when sitting in a chair use a back support cushion to maintain a better posture. This helps to support the natural curvature of your back, and takes pressure off the lower back by providing additional support to the area.

What Is A Back Spasm

A back spasm is an involuntary contraction of the back muscles. Moving in a certain way may trigger a back spasm. More often than not, spasms happen because of muscle weakness, overuse, or injury.

Chronic back spasms may be the result of an underlying condition. If muscle spasms are particularly severe, they may stem from nerve irritation or damage.

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Hot Fomentation For Sudden Back Spasm

Hot fomentation is perhaps the most accessible way of all as it can be done with things available at home. For this, first, take a bowl of water, and heat it over the gas stove to a temperature of around 45 degrees. Add a tablespoon of salt to it and take a thick towel.

Now, dip the towel on it and squeeze it, then apply over the painful areas on your low back. This is the best and most effective method because, in hot fomentation, the steam absorbs quickly in the muscles. Do this procedure thill the water comes to a normal temperature.

Apply hot fomentation twice or thrice daily.

Whats Causing The Muscle Spasms

How to Get Rid of Upper Back Spasms

People will often blame the movement, suspecting they simply made one wrong move such as bending over with bad mechanics. This is probably true, especially in situations outside of what you ordinarily do, but for things youve done a million times before, like reaching for your shoes or unloading the dishwasher, why this time and why now?

Perhaps youre thinking spinal disc herniation. But were here to tell you that making one wrong movement usually is not the root cause of a herniated disc. An acute disc herniation would typically require more forceful impact such as an industrial accident or car collision. Otherwise, there are two explanations for the everyday disc herniation: cumulative injury and genetics both of these involve the disc slowly herniating over time. Slowly herniating discs are an underlying issue that go undiagnosed in up to 63% of individuals whom experience little to no pain despite their MRIs revealing one or more herniated discs. Understanding acute spinal disc herniation makes this aforementioned scenario entirely plausible.

For example, lets say youve had a herniated disc for years without knowing about it. Then one day you finally moved in such a way that the disc became more compressed than usual or the disc pressed onto a nearby nerve triggering a protective yet painful response by your body.

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How To Get Rid Of Back Spasms

A back spasm is a common muscle problem that one can experience when waking up and getting out of bed, lifting something heavy, or after a sudden or jerky movement. These types of spasms usually strike without warning.

The spasm occurs due to an abnormal contraction of the muscle that takes hold and does not relax. Factors that can contribute to such spasms include obesity, poor posture, structural imbalance in the body, dehydration, electrolyte loss and poor sleeping positions.

Occasionally, back spasms can be a sign of a spinal injury or other illness that require medical attention.

When it comes to common back spasms, treatment should start as soon as possible or the pain can become unbearable and severely affect your daily activities. In fact, muscle spasms are one of the most common causes of back pain.

Spasms in the back can be easily treated with home remedies and other popular techniques.

Note: If the pain is consistent and gets more severe with movement, consult your doctor immediately.

Here are the top 10 ways to get rid of back spasms.

Contents

Muscle Strain Or Injury

A spasm in the back can occur as the result of any type of strain or injury to the soft tissues of the back, including the muscles, ligaments, and tendons. For example, heavy lifting, as well as sports that involve sudden and repetitive movements, are common causes of muscle spasm in the back. However, any type of activity that puts excessive strain on the muscles of the back can lead to an injury, and subsequently muscle spasm.

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How Are Back Spasms Treated

Healthcare providers used to prescribe bed rest for those who deal with back spasms. Such inactivity is no longer recommended. Instead, follow your provider’s instructions about the following:

  • Ice/heat: Apply ice or heat to the location of your back spasms. Wrap the ice pack or heating pad in a towel or pillowcase and apply it to your skin for 20 to 30 minutes. Then reapply after 20 to 30 minutes.
  • Over-the-counter pain medications: Over-the-counter pain medications, including acetaminophen , naproxen or ibuprofen .
  • Muscle relaxants: Your provider may recommend taking a muscle relaxant like cyclobenzaprine, metaxalone or methocarbamol. If you do take them, take them at night and only for 72 hours or less.
  • Physical therapy: Your healthcare provider might prescribe physical therapy, where you can learn relaxation techniques and stretches for your back muscles.

Start These 2 Simple But Very Effective Exercises Now

The 25+ best Sciatica stretches ideas on Pinterest

What you can do now at this point is to practice these 2 simple exercises. They are among many specific and targeted exercises from the eBook which are the Seated Twist and the Lying Twist. They will help you both to loosen, strengthen and stabilize your spine, making it much easier for you to turn and reach to avoid triggering another spasm.

Reducing your back spasms will also reduce muscle guarding, a major factor which causes many to suffer from recurring pain in the morning.

The Seated and Lying Twist exercises help to release tight, lower back muscles which can fatigue and trigger a spasm. If you suffer from them, you may find that even these simple movements can be difficult to execute in full range.

As with all exercises, dont force yourself to perform the full stretch right away. You may cause more pain by doing this. Work your way up one degree or inch at a time very slowly over several days. Remember, your body is NOT accustomed to such movement.

It is common to trigger yourself by reaching or moving in a twisted position due to excessive tightness. They can strike during even the most mundane and simple of action such as reaching for a pen on the floor. These exercises help you to improve these tight areas to protect you.

STRETCH AND STRENGTHEN THE MUSCLES THAT ARE PRONE TO SPASM WHILE CONDITIONING THE CORE MUSCLES THAT PROTECT YOU

Back spasms are NOT a quick fix problem.

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Treating Back Spasms With Chiropractic Care

During your initial visit, your chiropractor will determine the cause of your muscle spasm. If it is caused by strain or injury, they might perform spinal adjustments or soft tissue therapy to ease the pain and discomfort.

However, if the chiropractor finds an issue with a spinal disc, then you may require different treatment or further imaging. The requisite rehabilitation may involve different exercises and stretches. In some instances, you may also be referred back to your medical doctor for additional care.

If youre worried about the treatment hurting, dont worry chiropractic care is gentle and is always a discussion between you and the treating practitioner.

Heat And Ice For Back Pain

A hot water bottle or heat pad may help ease muscle spasm and pain. Make sure your skin is protected dont put heat pads directly on your skin. You can buy pads that you put over your clothing on the area that hurts. These are available from pharmacies and last for several hours.

Ice packs may also be helpful, especially in the first few days of any injury. Make sure you wrap the ice pack in a towel to protect your skin. You can apply the pack to the area that hurts for 15 minutes at a time.

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The Quickest Way To Relieve Your Muscle Cramp Naturally

Through my research and personal experience, heres the quickest natural way to stop your back muscle strain:

Magnesium oil/Epsom Salt hot bath.

Ill bet you want to know: why Magnesium oil?

Because when your back muscles go into spasm, the fastest way to relieve the pain is to simply relax them.

And Magensium, through my research, is the best natural muscle relaxant on the planet.

Magnesium oil is the best way to absorb Magnesium quickly, and definitely much faster than ingesting it.

It is absorbed through your skin fast and pulls excess fluids out of your tissues while reducing inflammation and relaxing your muscles.

All you have to do is rub some Mag. oil on your painful area and wait that aaaah moment.

If you want to supercharge this muscle spasm home treatment, hop into an Epsom salt bath at home.

The powerful combination of heat and the Magnesium in the Epsom salt can stop your back spasm in just a few minutes.

Next Step A Short Rest

Various studies have found that too much bed rest will worsen your condition.

When you rest, do not attempt to use the injured muscle in any way.

How To Get Rid Of Extreme Back Spasms In The Morning

Relieve Your Back Spasm Fast With NO Equipment or Medication

This article was co-authored by Steve Horney PT, MPT, MTC, CSCS. Steve Horney is a Licensed Physical Therapist and the Owner of Integrated Health Sciences, a New York City-based company that provides continuing education, health care products, and manual and movement physical therapy. Steve has over 15 years of academic and professional physical therapy training and specializes in the assessment and treatment of athletes with the goal of helping them become pain-free and less susceptible to injury. Steve is also a certified strength and conditioning specialist from the National Strength and Conditioning Association . He received a BS in Health Science from Quinnipiac University in 2004 and a Masters of Physical Therapy from Quinnipiac University in 2006. He then completed his Manual Therapy Certification from the University of St. Augustine in 2014.There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 85% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 74,840 times.

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Lower Back Stretches And Exercises For Muscle Soreness And Lower Back Spasms

Low back pain can make even small daily activities like getting dressed, bathing or going to the bathroom feel like they are impossible to do. Prompt and thorough treatment of even small back with back exercises pain can prevent the underlying problem from worsening. Doctors, therapists and sport rehab specialists will always put a lot of emphasis on the need to exercise tight and sore lower back muscles. But often not enough emphasis is placed on preparation the need to first get the muscles and other soft tissues ready to do back stretches for lower back problems. Taking enough time to properly warm up and stretch the back muscles can make the difference between lower back exercises helping or making the problem worse.

Knowing and using a few simple but extremely effective low back stretches can do wonders for muscle stiffness and pain and prepare you for a helpful series of low back exercise. If you have a history of a touchy low back that flares up easily, committing to a back stretching routine can mean the difference between having low back pain or not.

The following series of warm-ups and stretches are for sore and tight back muscles only, not for tears or back problems that have not been diagnosed. A serious back problem can be easily aggravated by making excessive demands on abnormal tissue. Always check with your doctor or chiropractor if you are not sure about a current back problem before doing these back stretches.

Preventing Lower Back Spasms In The Future

Lifestyle changes are the key to reducing your chances of suffering from lower back spasms in the future. Here are some of the most effective changes you can make:2,3,4,6

  • Improve your posture by sitting and standing up straight.
  • If youre overweight, lose weight to reduce stress on your spine and lower back.
  • Engage in regular physical activity to strengthen your back and abdominal muscles.
  • Avoid wearing high-heeled shoes for long periods.
  • Dont spend too much time sitting or lying in bed as this can worsen back problems.
  • When youre resting in bed, your upper body should be slightly inclined. Place a pillow under your knees to reduce stress on your lower back.
  • Start an exercise program gradually and work your way up to a more intense workout. Always perform stretches and warm-up exercises before your workout.
  • Practice yoga, tai-chi, meditation, or mindfulness to improve mobility and relieve stress and anxiety.

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What Causes A Back Spasm

A mild strain is one of the minor causes of back spasms. However, for some others, back spasms are triggered by more complex conditions such as a herniated or ruptured spinal disc. If you feel like your back muscles are moving or contracting firmly, you should look out for the following common causes.

Take Care Of Your Back With Regular Exercise

PiriformisSyndromeStretchesWomen

Painful lower back spasms can make it difficult for you to work and relax. If you keep pushing through the pain, you are putting yourself at risk of further injury and delaying recovery. Rather, you should give your lower back a short period of rest. Pay attention to the activities that worsen your symptoms and avoid them for some time. But remember, long periods of inactivity can lead to stiff muscles and lower back spasms.

Its important to start a gentle stretching program to loosen up your tight lower back muscles. Stretching exercises promote blood flow to the area, which helps speed up the healing process. Once your symptoms are under control, you can start performing strengthening exercises for your lower back. Doing these exercises regularly will improve flexibility, mobility, and stability in your lower back. The exercises will strengthen your back muscles. A whole-body exercise program can help you lose weight. These are all important contributing factors to lower back spasms.

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