When you were little, you used all of your muscles.  At some point, for some reason (sitting, sports, injury) you started getting out of muscular balance.  When this happened, you were setting the stage for pain in your back.

When all of your muscles were “balanced” (neither too tight nor too weak) you didn’t have back pain.  But, now you do.

So, what should you do?

Part of the answer depends on exactly what is causing the pain in your back.

Do you have trigger points?  Trigger points are hyper-irritable places in muscles which refer, or “fire,” pain elsewhere (sometimes far away.)  Does your back hurt simply because of tight muscles or muscle strain?  Is it due to the positions or furniture you spend a lot of time in?  Or your mattress?

Could it be poor posture or habits?  A rotation in your torso?  A “slipped disk”?

The first part of the answer is to stretch the muscles which have become shortened.  These muscles are most likely at the root of your back pain, and they are usually in the front of your body from knees to neck.  These muscles cause your back muscles to be overstretched.

The second part of the answer is to strengthen the muscles on your whole back side, from knees to skull, except for your calves.  When these muscles get weak, they are easily strained and can develop trigger points.  Trigger points need to be released (pressed into) to normalize the muscle.

The third part of the answer is to figure out what is causing your pain and how to get rid of it.

These three things will bring you closer to the muscular balance you had as a child.  As you regain the balance in your muscles, you will have less back pain.  And, there are self-help tools that can help you get better faster.

Another “tool” to help speed your recovery is therapeutic massage.  A knowledgeable massage therapist will listen to your symptoms and work in the areas that are causing your pain.  Those might not be the same areas you expect.  (Your abdomen is the front of your back!)

Now, you know there are many things you can do to get rid of the pain in your back naturally.  Which ones will you do today to help get on the road to no more back pain?