Exercise causing lower back pain?

Question

I live a very sedentary lifestyle and work a very sedentary job. I am also overweight. (Big surprise.)

I have recently started eating healthy and working out in order to try to fix these problems, and because diabetes and heart problems run in my family.

The problem is, when I exercise, it causes strong lower back pain within about 10 minutes.

I tried just taking walks during my breaks and lunch at work, because I thought I might have been overdoing the workouts for someone so out of shape. However, even walking for just 10 minutes causes the back pain.

It seems that my body is so used to sitting (and probably a bad posture) that just standing up for that long is causing the back pain.

I need to exercise in order to get healthy and lose weight, but the back pain is making it very difficult. Is there something else I can do about it? Will it stop hurting as I lose weight?

I've stuck with the exercising for about 2 weeks now and the pain hasn't gone away yet.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Many years ago I was more or less in your position. I was so out of shape from sitting at a desk hunched over a computer that I couldn't exercise. Fortunately, my chiropractor recommended a physical therapist. I was skeptical, thinking surgery was my only answer, but the PT got me back on the road to recovery again.

He had me start by exercising in the pool, by walking in water, so that most of my weight was supported. When I got up to 1/2 hour of that, he had me put on a floatation belt that held me out of the water from my waist up and use only my stomach muscles in various exercises.

After about 6 weeks of this, I graduated to treadmill walking and other back and abdominal exercises in the gym.

I suggest you try the (slow) water walking for a few weeks and see if you can do that without pain. If so, gradually try replacing some of those water minutes with walking out out of the water.

If you cannot walk in water without pain or if you cannot replace any of the water minutes with land minutes, I would strongly advise seeing a physical therapist.

Oh, and to answer your question, "will it stop hurting as I lose weight", my answer would be, unless you've ruptured a disk, it will probably stop hurting when your core muscles (back and abs) get strong enough to support your weight.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Exercise, in my opinion, shouldn't cause you to have lower back pain unless you've injured your lower back during exercise.........

Your lower back pain could be due to you not doing a proper warm up.

I think the injury is severe because your muscles are so tight and cold and stiff (due to your sedentary life style and lack of exercise) that when you put stress on them, they've a "shock" and go into "protest" mood.........

Always do a proper warm up of 3-5 mins, to warm up your muscles and body so that blood get circulated all over and your muscles become more pliable in subsequent exercise movements.

Have a read on how to do warm-up here: http://www.perfect-body-toning.com/before-exercise-warm-up.html

And cool down afterwards is important too.

Try this out. If the pain doesn't go away, then I think it could be something relating to your medical condition, so it's best then to seek out your doc's advice.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

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Answer 5

I would focus on walking and stretching for now and until you are able to perform exercise at a higher level of intensity.

how is the diet coming along? what kind of changes have you made? what kind of short & long term goals have you set?