Frequent medical examinations are routine when one expects a new child; they should suffice to stay away from the travails of lower back pain in early pregnancy. It is only natural to ask a doctor about any perceptible discomfort, and physical examinations will generally uncover any significant risks even before pain first sets in. Clinic visits can be stressful affairs, and doctors are generally pressed for time, so it is best to write down points which need discussion, especially any pain which you may experience in the lower back region soon after a fetus begins to develop in the womb.

Obstetricians are aware of the chances of lower back pain in early pregnancy, and invariably counsel their patients on how to prevent this. The condition is very common and doctors try and keep their patients well informed about what to expect as a pregnancy unfolds. Not all the non-medicinal prescriptions are written in detail, so it is important to pay close attention to verbal instructions and to remember them, at least until it is time for the next visit. Experienced nurses who assist obstetricians are also very knowledgeable and helpful in matters related to staying fighting fit during pregnancy.

Stay Fit and Clean to Prevent Lower Back Pain in Early Pregnancy

Many women are overly conscious of their bodily changes after they conceive, so a degree of lower back pain in early pregnancy is only to be expected. There may great burdens of expectations from spouses and from other members of the family. Home makers and working women are especially susceptible to feeling physically and mentally stressed by prospects of a new addition to the family, so back pain could be a combination of somatic and psychological strain. A supportive family and a contented view of the pregnancy can ease all burdens on the body of an expecting mother.

Keeping the reproductive tract scrupulously clean, and building up muscle tone through prescribed exercises, should suffice to keep lower back pain in early pregnancy within entirely bearable limits. The obstetrician in charge of a pregnancy is the best person to decide on the extent and types of exercises to keep the back muscles strong and supple, while personal habits, including those of a partner, are crucial for keeping the reproductive system free of infections which can cause the womb to swell unnecessarily. Physical examination and tests do reveal the presence of any infection, and a doctor can prescribe treatment for both partners to deal with it.

It's one thing for someone who sits at a computer all day and never exercises to have back pain, but for a bodybuilder, someone who spends hours and hours each week pouring everything they've got into building muscle, it should be criminal!

The reason we say this is because, if you are going to spend so much time, money, and energy trying to build the "perfect body", you have to make sure that you not only look good, but also feel good?

We've identified what we call "Bodybuilding Sins" that lead to back pain, sciatic pain, and other injuries? read em and take action now if you are serious about bodybuilding and are fed up with your back pain.

Because there is so much information to share with you, we've broken it down into a series of 5 articles, each covering a different component of how back pain affects bodybuilders.

Here's a breakdown of the articles to look for:

1. Article #1 - Choosing The WRONG Exercises (below) 2. Article #2 - Training Variations for Pain Relief and Maximum Results 3. Article #3 - Targeted Stretching 4. Article #4 - Targeted Exercises 5. Article #5 - Rest, Recovery, and Injury Prevention

Article #1 - Choosing the WRONG Exercises

Get ready, this is gonna hurt! The exercises most bodybuilders focus on the most, are the ones that cause the most problems? hopefully, you're different J

But before we share with you what those exercise are, let's talk real quickly about what bodybuilding is?

The goal of bodybuilding isn't to get as big as you can, or at least to us it isn't and shouldn't be, but to build a balanced body that is as strong as possible in every way. For example, while being freakishly big may get people's attention, it serves you no purpose at all?

while on the other hand, what if you were not only big, but also extremely strong and powerful, lightning fast, flexible, and agile enough to kick ass if needed?

So many bodybuilders build massive amounts of muscle yet are so unbelievably weak and inflexible? for example, we know a guy who can bench press over 350 lbs but can't do a measly 50 push-ups!

The point is, the exercises you choose and how you perform them not only determine how big, strong, and flexible you are, but also affect how your body functions and whether or not you suffer from aches, pains, and injuries like back pain and sciatic pain.

Ok, here they are? the exercises that create the most problems and are most likely to lead to back pain:

1. Bench Press 2. Leg Extension

So, any of your favorites on this list?

While there are others, these are the two that cause the most damage.

There are several reasons why these exercises made our list of the "worst bodybuilding exercises". First, all of them target areas that already tend to get worked a lot in everyday life and often times are overdeveloped?

and by focusing so much on these exercises you end up creating muscle imbalances, or worsening existing muscle imbalances, which pull your bones and joints out of their normal position?

and this leads to uneven pressure and wear and tear on your muscle, ligaments, tendons, bones, and joints and will sooner or later lead a break down or injury.

For example, chronic overuse of the bench press, coupled with little or no exercises targeting the upper back, leads to an overdevelopment of the chest and a lack of strength and development in the upper back?

This all too common combination leads to what we call "Turtle Back". You know what we're talking about, when the shoulders are pulled so far forward, lats are as wide as barn, and from behind, their back looks like a giant sea turtle shell!

This "Turtle Back" posture can create neck, upper back, and shoulder pain and injuries faster than you can pop an Advil!

Plus, how many times during your day are you forced to lie on your back and push up a bar loaded with weights? There are so many better exercises for chest development that not only stimulate more muscle, but also build more usable strength.

Now let's talk about the fabulous thigh builder, the leg extension?

Not only does it place an unbelievable amount of strain on the knee joint, but it also will quickly overdevelop the quads, which are already getting far more work than their counterpart, the hamstrings.

An imbalance between the quadriceps and hamstrings, which is also extremely common in bodybuilders, is a key contributor to back pain. This imbalance is easily identifiable by what people often call "Bubble Butt" or "Ghetto Booty".

So hopefully you can see how important it is to choose your exercises wisely. We strongly recommend you cut out these exercises, or at least cut back on using them and add in targeted exercises for the opposing muscle groups and targeted stretches for those tight, overdeveloped muscles.

The key to eliminating back pain, or any other ache, pain or injury for that matter, is to bring your body closer to balance?

What good is muscle if you can't use it? How many more workouts are you going to miss because of back, neck, or shoulder pain? How much bigger and stronger could you be if back pain and other injuries weren't ruining your training?

Just imagine how bad things will be 10, 20, or 30 years from now if you don't make changes to your training now? but don't take our word for it, ask some of the older bodybuilders who are paying the price now… you can spot them easily at the gym because they limp around trying to find something they CAN do.

Look for the next article, "Training Variations for Pain Relief and Maximum Results" very soon and in the mean time, if you are suffering from back pain or sciatic pain, here's what you need to do?

Head on over to our website http://www.losethebackpain.com now to find out exactly what's causing your back pain and the specific steps you need to take to get relief fast and get back to training at 100%.

Article by Jesse Cannone, CFT, CPRS and Steve Hefferon, CMT, CPRS Find out which back pain exercises actually work and you need to be doing? and which ones you must avoid like the plague!

The first thing to consider is, "What is the origin of the sharp or sudden pain of a back injury?" To some, it feels like a sharp, stabbing pain; to others, a seizing grip that interferes with breathing. Perhaps it is just that: the seizing grip of muscles going into spasm, causing stabbing back pain and interfering with breathing, nothing more.

Back Pain Treatment and Physical Therapy

Medical practitioners, including physical therapists, face a peculiar quandary with regard to back pain and muscle spasms in general: so often, the pain they encounter in their patients comes from muscular spasticity, so much of their effort goes into ending muscular spasms, and yet so many of their patients return with the same muscle spasms and back pain for which they have been treated in the past. According to one physical therapist, the likelihood of a patient who has had back pain returning again with the same problem is about 80%.

Let's take another look at back pain, in particular.

Overview Of Back Pain And Muscle Spasms

Unless you have had a violent accident, your back pain, whether sudden or chronic, has been coming for a very long time. Muscular tension builds up for a long time before crossing the point of no return and becoming a back spasm. Then, like the straw that broke the camel's back, a small movement is sufficient to trigger a crisis.

We return to the quandary of back spasms. What causes the build-up of tension? What controls muscular tension?

The answer may be obvious to you: your brain controls your muscular tension; your brain causes your muscles to go into spasm.

Why?

Muscle Spasms — Usually a Brain-Conditioning Problem

Here, the answer may not seem so obvious — but obvious it is when you think about it: brain conditioning. Your brain, the master control organ of your muscles, is an organ of conditioning (learning). People acquire their tensions through conditioning: repeated overuse, repeated overstrain, repeated stress. Repetition leads to habit formation and habit formation leads to involuntary habits of tension. Back pain is a nervous tension habit conditioned into you through the repetitive strains of life. At that point, your nervous tension is no longer a reflection of a momentary emotional state, but set in the habituation operation of your brain and muscular system.

So the problem is simpler than you might expect. You probably do not have a medical problem; you probably have a conditioning problem. With tingling or numbness, the muscles of your back are so tight that they are pulling your vertebrae (the small bones of your spine) so close that they are pinching nerves. By relaxing those muscles, you can take the pinch off the nerves.

Fortunately for those using the right methods, a muscular conditioning problem can often be cleared up fairly quickly — past experience notwithstanding.

Perspective on Therapeutic Methods to End Back Pain

The problem with most methods used to relax muscles — mental methods, manipulative methods, therapeutic methods in general –is that they may not adequately teach muscular control. Muscular control has two parts: the ability to create muscular tension and the ability to relax muscular tension. Both abilities are needed; otherwise, you are either musclebound (and prone to cramping) or weak. Such methods also often neglect an important part of control: sensory awareness. Too often, people are given therapeutic exercises but no instructions in how to do them; they're told, "These are strengthening exercises," so people go for strength instead of control; they go for effort instead of sensory awareness. If you can't feel how to regulate your muscular tension, you can't feel how to relax your muscular tension. You feel pain with no connection to the sense of contracting those muscles to the point of fatigue. Progress comes slowly, at best, from working too fast and too mechanically.

So you need to improve both muscular control and the ability to feel your muscles.

Then, you develop freedom of movement, and then, you can relax more completely than you ordinarily do and stay more relaxed without thinking about it. "Freedom of movement" means it's your natural state.

To, show you how do-able this is, I'll present some coordinated movements that can often restore your comfort. Before I do, read and understand the following instructions:

(NOTE: If your problem is severe, (numbness or tingling in your extremities) see your doctor to rule out a medical emergency. That done, find a Hanna Somatic Educator (for fastest results) or use the procedure shown below or other self-help resources found below.)

Simple Somatic Coordination Exercises to Help End Back Pain

• Do these movements as a way of creating sensations of movement.
• Move slowly and smoothly.
• Be gentle, working within the range of sensations you're willing to experience. Done gently, they are safe to do even with disk problems. If in doubt, consult your physical therapist before proceeding.
• Always separate repetitions of a movement with complete relaxation.

   

  No More Back Pain. EBook(R) On Back Pain Relief.

   

If you do these movements mechanically (for example, by counting repetitions instead of feeling movement), if you do them too quickly or too hard, you deprive yourself of the sensations needed to discover your own control over yourself. You may make yourself tighter, instead of looser. You will get better results by doing too little than by doing too much. You will have an easier time if you have somebody read these instructions to you. The movements should feel comfortable to do; if they create pain, do a smaller amount of movement. Move more slowly, more gently.

A: STARTING POSITION:

 

 

• on your belly
• face turned to the right
• right hand under your left cheek (like a pillow, palm down)
• left arm loosely by your side

 

 

1. Slowly lift just your left leg.

    

   Feel the first sensations of muscular effort. Go slowly.

   Tip! Avoid becoming overweight. Overweight increases the risk of back pain.

    

2. Slowly lower your left leg.

    

   Feel the last sensation of relaxation, as it happens. Take a deep breath and let everything go.

   REPEAT THIS LEG LIFT FOUR (4) TIMES AT DECREASING LEVELS OF EFFORT.

    

3. Simultaneously lift your left leg, head, and right arm.

    

    

4. Slowly lower yourself down, take a deep breath and relax all the way.

    

   REPEAT 4 TIMES AT DECREASING LEVELS OF EFFORT, THEN SWITCH SIDES.

    

 

B: STARTING POSITION:

 

• On your back
• knees up
• feet near your buttocks
• Fingers interlaced behind your head.
• Elbows out flat on the floor

   

   

 

 

1. Arch:

    

    

   • Inhale.
   • Gently, gradually turn your tailbone down into the surface (arch your low back).
   • Gently press your elbows down.
   • Tug your heels toward your buttocks and hold.

      

      

    

    

2. Curl:

    

    

   • Begin to exhale.

      

      

   • When you can feel your back tighten, relax your back and gradually press your back onto the surface.
   • Bring your elbows together. (pause)
   • Press down on your feet.

      

      

   • Continue to exhale.

      

     Use equal strength to curl as you did to arch.

      

   • Point your elbows at your knees.

    

    

   • Curl forward and look at your knees.
   • Exhale completely.

      

      

    

   REPEAT THIS "ARCH AND CURL" MOVEMENT FOUR TIMES MORE AT DECREASING LEVELS OF EFFORT.

    

 

 

Do these movements for ten minutes daily for a week or two. Many people get just the results they need.