Did you know that low back pain affects hundreds of thousands of people each year? We all know the symptoms. One wrong twist or turn and our back makes a twang and ouch! Sometimes, it happens fast, while other times its a gradual process. Symptoms develop through times perhaps starting with stiffness and progressing on to soreness. At some point in our lifetime, we will experience low back pain. As someone that has lower back pain, I found that a massage chair has helped in many ways.
Prevention of low back pain is important to help avoid problems down the road. There are a number of things to keep in mind to prevent back pain from occurring. Prevention requires that you take action before the symptoms of low back pain appear. One of the first items to be aware of is how to protect your back when undertaking various activities. The most often overlooked areas are lifting, sitting and standing.
The most common areas to correct are your standing posture, sitting positions and lifting techniques. These are areas of the highest probability of an injury. So if you are standing, hold your head up high and put your shoulders back. Try not to slouch forward. This creates concentration of pressure on your spinal column.
How do you sit? For the most part we sit with our shoulders slouched forward. This places more strain on the muscles of the upper back. You can immediately correct this pain by holding your shoulders back and sitting up straight. This protects the back from top to bottom.
Another area to monitor proactively is lifting. Lifting involves additional weight and movement. Because of the extra weight, using proper lifting techniques is very important. The main change that is needed is to let your legs do the lifting and not your back. Most people bend over and let their lower back take the brunt of the weight. The proper way is to bend your knees and pick up the object by extending your legs straight again.
Massage chairs help relieve lower back pain by massage treatments. There are a variety of programs I have used to reduce soreness and discomfort. A rolling massage helps to adjust the vertebrae. You can use a shiatsu massage to relieve soreness and to revitalize your muscles. I have even used some of the traction features of the newer massage chairs to stretch my lower body.
Relax your back with a soothing rolling massage from a massage chair. The rolling massage moves the rollers up and down the spine. The chair is usually reclined back so the weight of the body is used to help adjust each disc in the spinal column as the roller passes each one. This provides a stretching of the soft tissues which helps to keep them flexible and elastic.
Try the shiatsu massage program. Shiatsu is a centuries old technique originating in Japan. Shiatsu uses different thumb and finger pressures along with acupressure points. It is a very invigorating and pain relieving massage. Shiatsu around the spinal column helps the muscles to reduce in stiffness and become more flexible.
Some of the more advanced massage chairs have a traction system. The massage chair will actually hold your feet. It raises the leg rest to the horizontal position. With you in a seated position, the leg rest starts to move downward to 3 successively lower positions. This stretches out the lower body. All this while you are getting your massage treatment!
If you have back pain, then a massage chair may be an important compliment to your overall health and wellness plan. Prevention is certainly the best medicine. However, if you are affected by low back pain, then finding the right treatments is paramount to proper recovery. A massage chair can help you both on the prevention side and on the recovery side.
