Many people report that their back feels much better when they swim, and it is often prescribed as a treatment plan by many health professionals. However, this is not always the case and like most things to do with health the answer is not that simple for not all types of back pain are the same. What might help one type of back pain may hurt the next so you need to be certain as to what type of injury you are dealing with. Secondly, and more importantly even if swimming helps to manage your pain it does not address the reason for it or change the faulty movement you are continually using when you are standing up. Swimming may help some people to counter the damage of their dysfunctional movement but it will not be able to change it and this is where you efforts must be placed if you want a successful long term treatment.
Why Swimming Feels Good For Some And Not For Others
Exercise is much better than doing nothing and sitting down all day as that will certainly make a sore back much worse. Swimming can be great exercise for some people but you must not be fooled into thinking it will fix you and that is all you need to do even if it does make you feel better at the time.
The reason swimming feels good for most back pain sufferers is that it places them in EXTENSION and the most common for of back pain is flexion related such as a bulging disc injury.
The weightlessness of the water allows their weak back extensor muscles to be able to strengthen without the compression and strain that would normally be felt with land based movements and exercise. Swimming will definitely help this person with pain from flexion dominant movement and postures which is why they feel so good after swimming.
Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite with people who suffer with sacroiliac joint pain who will often find swimming aggravates their back as they have too much extension. Swimming will jam their back up even more and leave them feeling worse.
This is why it is so important to know what type of pain you have before taking up swimming in the hope it makes you feel better.
Below is a video of a simple test you can use to help determine this.
Swimming Does Not Address The Root Cause Of The Back Pain
Even if swimming does make you feel better there are several problems with relying solely on this approach to “fix” back pain.
•It DOES NOT solve the source of the problem.
•It DOES NOT change how you move.
It cannot make you stronger or improve joint stability when you stand.
There is no point spending time swimming only to continually move poorly.
If you are flexion intolerant you must learn how to improve your posture and adopt more efficient MOVEMENT strategies in particular with BENDING.
It is not the lack of swimming the reason you developed back pain, it is the poor movement with bending or lack of hip stability that developed back pain. You will need to learn how to correctly brace the core and align the body in various positions that are likely to trigger the pain.
Even if you do manage to identify your source and also be able to change your movement patterns your body may not be strong enough to hold the adjustments. You need to devote serious training to build up the endurance and functional capacity of the muscles otherwise you risk falling back into old habits due to lack of strength.
Swimming will not address weaknesses found in standing positions.
You MUST apply strength methods to ensure your joints can maintain alignment and stability during movement.
What Are The Best Exercises For Back Pain?
As I am sure you are aware there is no one size fits all approach and no one exercise that will fix you.
You must start with a detailed assessment of your body and the results will tell you where to look and what to do. Starting with mobility and basic stability tests before progressing gradually to isolated strength tests and lastly improving the strength and efficiency of functional movement patterns. It is this last stage where all the solutions are found but you must be careful in the process of getting to that stage.
The secret is to find where your energy leak is and design a program to correct it.
Summary
Swimming is a great activity and there is no doubt it can help some people with back pain to manage their symptoms. Care must be taken to know what type of back condition you have before using this as a consistent form of exercise. The most important part of back pain recovery is finding the source of the problem and applying a corrective program to address faulty movement patterns and muscle imbalances. Swimming can be part of that process but is not effective by itself.
Do You Need More Help?
Before jumping straight into any type of corrective program make sure you have seen a qualified Health professional for an accurate diagnosis and assessment of your condition. I cannot stress this enough as self-diagnosing can potentially lead to more problems. We often refer out to Doctors, Chiropractors, and Physiotherapists before implementing our program to know exactly what we are dealing with. Being certain on where to start is crucial to the success of the program.
If you have seen a health professional and are now looking at implementing a series of exercises and stretches this article will provide you with many great ideas on how to do this. As many people struggle to implement this into a gradual progression I created some detailed step by step programs for the most common injuries to the back, knee, and shoulder that you can instantly download by going to the ONLINE SHOP.
The back pain secrets program is shown below.
About The Author
Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 20 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specializes in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise. He has worked with professional athletes in Golf, Tennis, Basketball and Football but is known throughout the local community more for his work with injury prevention and rehabilitation.
References
•Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes – By Shirley Sahrman
•Low Back Disorders – by Stuart McGill
•Back Pain Mechanic – by Stuart McGill
•Movement – by Gray Cook
•Motor Learning and Performance – By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
•Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance – By Vladimir Janda
•Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course – By Paul Chek
•Scientific Back Training – By Paul Chek