Exercise for someone with a bad back?

denise980
denise980 Posts: 296
edited September 24 in Fitness and Exercise
I broke my back about 7 years ago and because of it I have constant back pain and when I do some exercises it increases the back pain tremendously. I was wondering if anyone had ideas for exercises that I could do that would not cause so much pain?

I do have strenthening exercises that I do to help it out, but even when I do them, I still have excrutiating back pain when I am done. I have gone to physical therapy, but that is out of the question now because I do not have the time...

Thanks for the help!

Replies

  • cnjbarry
    cnjbarry Posts: 91 Member
    I have a bad back and I have always been told by my doc that walking is the best excercise for back pain:wink: It dosent seem like much of a workout but just by watching your posture, aand holding your stomach in you are working quite a bit. Adding ankle and wrist weights will add more intensity too.
  • Snina
    Snina Posts: 4
    Hi. you know I just recently injured my back it is no fun at all its actually torture i am currently in physical therapy right now because i still cant sit longer than 20 min if that....unfortunately I have been ask the same question to my therapist etc and they said really all I can continue to do is stretching and strengthening. :( you can try treadmill on a slower pace thats what i'm doing i cant to that long but it is physical activity. But outside of that I believe you should focus on strengthing your bad I know its hard to here but if you can barely stretch I think exercise is out the question.... One thing at a time trust me I know the frustration I was a active workout person and now can barely do the stretch and strengthing exercises. I wish you the best of luck.
  • fuzzymel
    fuzzymel Posts: 400 Member
    My husband has had a lot of success with spin bikes. He can set it to how good (or bad) he feels at that moment.

    He has found over time he back pain is getting a little less.
  • AdoraK
    AdoraK Posts: 724 Member
    I also struggled with back pain. I have a bulging disk in my lower back. I started out slow walking on the treadmill. I did not push it to the point that cause me more pain. I found that after a few weeks my back was doing better and increased the spead a bit. This cycle became the norm for me. I started on the treadmill in Oct 2010 and now I am doing all other workouts without much back trouble at all. I beleive that starting out slow on the treadmill strengthened my back.
  • curleesam
    curleesam Posts: 462 Member
    My hubby is a Physiotherapy Manager and he is always telling me about patients that have bad backs but do not do their physio exercises. It's all well and good if you do not have the time to go to a physiotherapist but after such a serious injury I should imagine you need to strengthen before you attempt any kind of hard core activity. Maybe make time to go to the physio once to get some strengthening exercises that you can do at home. Hubby is always saying if you don't keep up the physio exercises then you will just get progressively worse until the damage is irreversible.

    Once you have strengthened your back a bit I would recommend Pilates. I slipped a disc in my back four years ago (the disc is still slightly protruding) and a combination of Pilates and Swimming REALLY helped my back pain. Now I very rarely get pain unless I do not work out.
  • Newfiedan
    Newfiedan Posts: 1,517 Member
    try swimming or water workouts it will lessen the impact to the back and joints but still strengthen the muscles.
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