Lower back pain can be defined as any aches of the back that fall above the legs but lower than the ribs. As this area serves as the hinge of the body, where the lower and upper body meets, it is often the target of injury. Usually, it is the twisting motions, reaching beyond the extension of your arms and strength or lifting without using your knees that cause the aches. For this reason you need a lower back pain exercise to ease you through and work out the pain.

Causes of Lower Back Pain

The cause for your pain may dictate the type of lower back pain exercise you choose as different injuries may require different treatments.  These exercises are also different from upper back pain exercise due to the different muscle groups involved in the injury. Exercising the wrong area could actually aggravate the pain you have so it is important that you have a handle as to the cause.

Misjudging your strength and lifting something too heavy can cause pain as can contact sports, a car accident or even stepping off a curb the wrong way. Diseases like osteoporosis and arthritis are culprits, as are herniated discs and loss of muscle and bone mass due to aging. All of these conditions require lower back pain exercise regiments to ease the pain and strengthen your body to prevent more injuries.

Types of Exercise

There are three main lower back pain exercise types to consider and what it all boils down to is strengthening the core of your body which in turn supports the spine and eases the aches.  Stretching, aerobic and strength training are all key to reducing or even getting rid of pain in the lower back.

With stretching lower back pain exercise, the movements warm your muscles up to prevent further injury as well as maintain flexibility. Aerobic activities help oxygenate the blood which can make your recovery progress faster while strengthening lower back pain exercise targets the legs, back and stomach areas, places that provide the most support for all body movements.

Depending on the injury, you will have the best success if your pain sort of dictates how you perform your lower back pain exercise. For instance, you might feel more comfortable in a sitting position with your hips stretched out while other people may feel relief standing. Let your pain be your guide when it comes to lower back pain exercise but whatever you do, do not take it easy for a few days and be lazy about physical activity as this could make matters worse.

spiritual journey

The subject of how to meditate used to be associated primarily with the counter culture and the hippie generation. However, these days, it is almost trendy to learn to meditate and it is something that more and more people are seeking to learn about. While there are many Easter cultures that have practiced and perfected meditation techniques over the course of thousands of years, the Western world seems to just be waking up to the full benefits of the practice.

In recent years, an increasingly expanding list of professional athletes, celebrities and business leaders have been learning how to meditate for themselves. These high-profile people have also been more and more willing to speak up and share the benefits they have received from meditation techniques. In some instances, coaches of professional or college sports teams, leaders and owners of businesses have introduced meditation practices to their teams and/or employees to help improve performance.

There are many different approaches these days that people can utilize in order to learn how to meditate. There was a time when the only viable option was going off to an Eastern ashram, where a religious leader or mystic would lead the participants through meditation techniques and principles. Getting to one of these retreats was usually quite expensive and there were limitations on how many people could be accommodated.

Many different books have been published over the years to teach meditation. But, somehow trying to learn meditation through a book was a challenging task for many. As a result, many people were not able to experience the full benefits of meditation and in some ways were even left with a negative experience, simply because they were not utilizing the best learning method.

These days there are many guided meditations on CD, as well as MP3 downloads. These mediums are an easier and more effective way to introduce people to mediation. Most of the time, once they become familiar and comfortable with this practice, they are able to expand and meditate on their own or with special meditation music.

Another popular way to learn how to mediate is with DVDs or online videos. For many people, it really makes more sense to stick with the guided meditations that they can receive as an audio file, because many of the DVDs are simply an introduction to the meditation practice. In most forms of meditation, the person’s eyes are closed and so they will not be watching a video, although the DVD might include a section of meditation music for the person to use.

Once a person learns the basics of how to meditate, they can customize their practice to suit their own needs and to support their own spiritual journey. They may move on to learn Zen meditation, transcendental meditation, or some other form, and in many cases they will develop a practice that borrows elements from various meditation techniques.