Lower Back Decompression at Home is an alternative way to treat back pain. There are many ways to do this, either at home or in a office setting. Many doctors will even offer this as a formal course of treatment.
At home, you can either do yourself or have a home massage therapist do the compressing. You can also go to a yoga class and have your teacher do the compressing. Or you can go to a doctor who has done compressing for years and is now certified by the state to do it more formally.
Many people report relief once they DO this regularly. It is very individualized, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t find immediate relief.
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Kneel on the pillow
If you can’t find a home easily, try using a sheet or two on the floor to kneel on. It will make it easier to get your back as low as possible on the pillow and feet touched.
If you can get a knee under your ankle, that too help. If you can put your foot on the floor, great! You are almost done.
If you can put your foot on the ground, great! But if you can do this with minimal support from the pillow and minimal support from the floor, then you have some issues with support.
The issues may be neck or back pain, or possibly both. Once found, partly removingthe source of support may help restore some normalcy to the body’s movements. This is called re-covery or re-nurturing.
Place your hands on the back of your head
Now, instead of holding onto your wallet or keys, place your hands on the back of your head. This places your arms at the right angle to decompress your lower back.
Now, pull your head back as far as you can. This puts pressure on the vertebrae that connect your lower back to Your neck and shoulders.
Continue pulling until you feel a wave of relief pass through Your body. This is called a spinal decompression massage.
Spinal massages can be performed at home, but they must be offered by a licensed chiropractor or licensed osteopathic doctor (OD). Only they have the right training and experience to do them correctly.
Most don’t have home-based spinal decompression massage equipment, so they just walk their clients through the process and teach them how to do it themselves in a setting where it is provided (see below for more details).
Bend your knees
When you have a big back pain spot, you can try a different position to relax your body. This may be bend your knees, sit up on a cushion, or even put a pillow under your feet to lay on the floor.
Kneel or sit up with your knees just slightly ahead of your feet. Your back should be arched and your chest should be higher when you are in this position. This is called lumbar recompression or lower back decompression.
In this position, the low-back muscles pull the vertebrae deeper into the sac around them and lower back bone. This allows more nerve tissue to flow more freely, promoting relief from pain.
This position can be helpful when ongoing pain prevents you from sleeping or sitting in any other positions make you extremely uncomfortable.
Lower your torso to the floor
This is the toughest way to decompress your back. It can be tricky at first, but with time as you experience it more and more back decompression techniques will become easier.
Start on your front, with your hands just behind your shoulders and then down to your wrists. Next, turn under onto your left side and then up onto the right side. Then, turn over onto your back and relax.
This process can be repeated on the other side, until you are all the way down to a roll on each back. After you have achieved this, you can stop or add additional backs. You can also do this if you have no mattresses or pillows involved or if you have them already!
This treatment may feel hard at first, but it is worth doing at home or in a doctor’s office if you have trouble doing it in a therapist’s private room.
Push your lower back into the floor
As mentioned earlier, breathing deeply can help decompress your upper and lower back muscles. However, it can also trigger a Lesser Continence reflex, causing your back to round even more.
This is a minor muscle contraction that helps keep your bones in place and prevent you from sliding off the chair or bed. When it occurs, make a conscious effort to relax the muscles around the back of the neck and shoulders.
It may take a few minutes for the lessened pressure on your lower back to fully register, but Gradually increasing the pressure on your lower back as you decrease the breath rate is an effective way to relief pain.
Hold for at least 30 seconds
When you cough or sneeze, the air in your lungs is released. This action can also decompress your back, neck, and shoulders.
By hanging on for a moment after you come down from the coughing or sneezing session, you help maintain more joint and muscle alignment, which benefits your back.
It also helps prevent additional back pain later by holding onto muscle and joint alignment for a bit.
You can do this at home by holding your breath for seconds or minutes on the cough or sneeze and then holding a minute on the next one. It takes some practice, but eventually you will get used to doing it.
Repeat twice
If you have a very high back office or carry a large bag daily, you may find it necessary to use a second sheet of foam to help reduce pressure on the back. Because of the weight of the bag or desk, this may be difficult to do every time you need to decompress.
Many practitioners recommend twice per day (or at least in the morning and evening), but that is up to your preference. Some even suggest not necessarily using two foams, but just one per day!
Either way, this treatment can take about an hour and can be done in your own home without any supervision. Repeat around noon or mid afternoon to help ensure you are awake before it starts feeling heavy and painful.
You can also try doing it early in the morning if you are feeling alert and ready for your day.