Throwing your back out isn’t reserved for your grandparents. In fact, nearly 90% of adults will throw their back out at some point in their lives.

Now that we know it’s somewhat common to throw your back out, what next? What do you do when you throw your back out? If you’re reading this without any pain, the best step you can take to prevent severe back pain is to be proactive and visit a chiropractor in Littleton.

What Does Throwing Your Back Out Mean?

Overworking or straining your back muscles to where it becomes painful and nearly impossible to move is the same as throwing your back out, and it typically happens in your lower back. Specifically, throwing your back out can be stress or tension in your lumbar spine, which is responsible for many of your body’s movements. It’s a little area of your back with a big job, so it’s no wonder why throwing your back out is so common.

Throwing your back out or a pulled back aren’t true medical terms. It’s understandable and relatable code for “my back hurts and I can’t move.” It can be a back spasm, muscle strain, herniated disc, broken vertebrae, or something else.

What To Do When You Throw Your Back Out?

Rest, ice, and stretching will be your best friends. You may not want to rest, but your strained muscles are likley so stiff and tight that you literally cannot move. Try lying on a hard surface and icing the strained lower back area for about 20 minutes every hour. You can take anti-inflammatory medications and use over-the-counter rubs like CBD treatment lotions, Ben-Gay, Bio-Freeze, etc.

If it isn’t terribly painful, try to straighten out and try some simple stretches to help relieve the strain and pain, but it’s important not to push through the pain too much. Here are some at-home stretches you can try if you’ve thrown out your back.

Our Littleton chiropractors can also help with adjustments and other in-office treatments to help speed up the recovery process. By realigning the spine or working through some stretches, you will be moving around quicker than if you don’t visit a chiropractor.

It’s also important to see a chiropractor to make sure you didn’t do any other damage. More than 31 million Americans suffer from back pain, and our Littleton chiropractors can help figure out why you have back pain or why you’re more susceptible to throwing your back out.

Throwing Out Your Back Recovery Time

While you may not feel as much pain a few days into it, some people have to take it easy or visit a chiropractor for two weeks before returning back to normal. Remember, your lower or upper back muscles are strained, so you have to give them enough time to heal correctly and fully. You’ll want to avoid bending, lifting, and twisting. So if you’re sitting in a chair, turn your entire body instead of rotating at the hips and twisting. Some people feel such tremendous pain, that the thought of twisting isn’t even an option.

How To Avoid Throwing Your Back Out?

We want to stress two ways to ensure you don’t throw your back out. By visiting a chiropractor in Littleton even every few months to help strengthen your back muscles can be incredibly helpful. This is known as preventative chiropractic care.

If you’re about to take on a new activity, like golf lessons for example, or hitting the slopes for winter season, visiting a chiropractor or physical therapist to help strengthen the muscles you use the most for those new activities will be incredibly beneficial. It’s more difficult to strain muscles that are strong and worked out, then weaker ones. You’ll notice a lot more patients in our Littleton chiropractor office about 2-3 weeks before the slopes open here in Colorado. That’s to help work on movements and strengthen muscles they’ll be using while skiing or snowboarding, to avoid throwing their back out. There are even some physical trainers and local gyms who focus classes on those activities to help reactivate those dormant muscles.

As one of the best chiropractors in Littleton, we take great pride in how we treat our patients. We have more than 21 years of experience serving the Littleton community and we offer a variety of chiropractic treatments and physical therapy. Give us a call at 303.904.0331 to schedule your free consultation, or to book your New Patient Special. We take most major insurance plans and have same day appointments available as well as emergency chiropractic appointments in case you throw your back out and need immediate help.