Swimming as solution for back pain

As physical activity which produce low or none pressure on spine and joints, swimming stands out as one of the healthiest and harmless exercises modern man can include into his daily routine. That is why swimming became frequently used therapy for various sport injuries, but it’s been found that it can be pretty effective rehabilitation for injuries within back area. Although different researches proved that swimming definitely can ease back pain, not all strokes are ideal, some actually can cause or complicate back issues, and it’s also good to know that the swimming rehabilitation is not recommended for all kinds of back injuries. So, in case you suffer back pain, swimming may be good exercise for you, but only before you learn more about following things:

How swimming helps with back injuries

swimming-girl

Unlike running or walking which leads to encumbering the joints with body weight, swimming takes away most of the pressure throughout the body since water actually absorbs weight so your body actually moves by floating. In order to gain spectacular benefits for back injuries, it’s recommended to practice strokes which enable total elimination of back pressure, where backstroke swimming is so far the best exercise you should start with, because in that position water generously supports back without excessive muscle activation. Swimming also showed great results for back injuries related to muscle weakness, since certain moves can strengthen and activate back muscles. However, physicians recommend planning your swimming rehabilitation according to exact cause of your back injure, where it’s always the safest to start with simple balls and bands.

Best stroke techniques for getting rid of back tension

If you’re struggling with pain or discomfort in lower back area, the reason for that may be excessive stiffness, strain or tension in muscles, but it can be also the result of chronic spine deformities, such as lumbar disc disease. While structural spine disorders usually can be solved with surgery, low back tension can be efficiently eliminated by practicing couple of stroke techniques which include:

Vertical exercising

The point of this exercise is to work out abdominal muscles by maintaining body balance which can be a good starting venture if you suffer non progressive back pain. Depending from the pain intensity you deal with, you can perform flutter or freestyle kicking, while your hands are out of water. After a minute switch to keeping your legs in stationary position and activate your back muscles by making circles with your hands.

Swimming by pulling

If overuse of muscles led to low back pain, you can try to swim while letting your legs to trail behind, because this exercise stretches back muscles and eliminates painful moments which may happen during flutter kicking. It’s very useful to perform this type of swimming on longer distances, preferably couple of series of 50m of length, where Sydney swimming pools’ solutions may be good for customizing your small size pool into an appropriate area for long pulling exercises.

Breaststroke

Thanks to low possibility to cause hyperextension, breaststroke, along with backstroke stands out as one of most beneficial beginning exercises for people who have trouble with back pain. Breaststroke equally stretches abdominal and back muscles without too much exertion and gently stresses off tensed areas which produce pain.

Which strokes should be avoided?

Although swimming presents powerful aquatic activity which certainly has positive impact on various kinds of back injuries, some of swimming techniques can actually cause back pain. Muscles within low back are susceptible to aggressive extension if you frequently perform crawl or butterfly technique. Hence, you should stay away from those strokes if you already have some back injury, and make sure you’re not overdoing it even if your back area is completely healthy. In fact, you can prevent back pain by focusing rather on side and back strokes than on front swimming. Side swimming allows you to keep your head above the water surface so you don’t have to make frequent movements which can result in over- usage of neck muscles.

Among exercises known as beneficial for resolving back related problems, swimming, due to almost non existing impact on spinal and muscular system and excellent ability to distress painful areas, stays as the most powerful back injury rehabilitation which can even replace surgical procedures.

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