to reduce back pain – www.backcare.org.uk 020 8977 5474The Pain Society; Information on pain management clinics, 020 7631 8870Pain Relief Foundation; Information on chronic pain, 0151 523 1486Chartered Society of Physiotherapy; 020 7306 6620British
with the results: “I’m training to run a marathon and have been increasing my weekly mileage to about 40 miles with no leg pain,” she says. Case Study TwoRob Watts had been running for more than 12 years before an old back injury he’d sustained playing cricket as a
. Avoid bed rest. Movement, even crawling on hands and knees, is better than inactivity. Backs: to the future. (Real-life solutions) Real-life stories: how two runners beat back pain Injury-Proof Your Back: five sets of everyday tips to stay pain
sets of 10 repetitions. To add resistance, hold a 10-pound weight against your chest. Avoid this exercise if you have history of lower-back pain.Ball Bridges Lie on your back with your arms at your side and your feet on a stability ball. Slowly lift
of your spine, pulling you upwards. Start with just 20 and work your way up to 100. And hey, why stop there?2. ‘Good mornings’ are another exercise for lower-back strength.They’re very effective and give your hamstrings a good stretch into the deal
fingers to toes. Simultaneously lift your left leg and right arm six to 12 inches while contracting your buttocks’ muscles. Lower them and do the same with the other two limbs. Repeat 10 times on each side. Backs: to the future. (Real-life solutions
breaking down. It'll do it anyway. – SlowboyUse a scoring system to keep things in perspectiveMy advice is to rate pain on a scale of one to 10. Anything up to three or four and I'd train as normal providing it starts to go away within a week. Five to six
for prolonged periods aggravates your pain. This is known to increase the pressure on the back. Raise these points with a chartered physiotherapist, and if indeed it proves to be nerve- or back-related, they will show you nerve stretches and establish why
, making massage a helpful remedy. Try 10 minutes of massage on alternate days for a week, and see how this affects your pain when running. As the symptoms are in both calves, the problem could also stem from your back whether you have symptoms of back
take it seriously. Better to ease off and try again in a fortnight than to be laid off completely for a month.Lower-back painIs the pain… one that’s been developing over a few days or even weeks?If so… it’s a typical lower-back problem that starts off
