FEELING GREAT: How to ease unwanted back tension (hint: you might need to exercise less!)

“Paul, I was wondering if you could help me. As you know I really enjoy running.

“I run 5-6 times a week with at least one day of rest.

“But lately my body has been feeling lethargic and my back feels tense, do you have any tips for what I can do?”

Feeling lethargic, and experiencing tension isn’t always a ‘bad thing’. You might be raising your eyebrows right now, and of course any kind of muscle tension is unpleasant and something we don’t want, but these are signs from our body telling us to slow down and ‘heal’.

Back tension is a very common thing I see amongst runners. If we over-exercise, and live busy lives, we’ll most likely experience some form of niggle. This alone can get in the way of your health goals, and in the long run, your back, or any other part of the body, may only get worse.

So to prevent this from getting in the way, here’s some things you can do just like my patients:

Get A Good Night Sleep: We all know that getting a good sleep is important, but we’re not told to get up to eight hours for no reason. Studies actually show that consistently getting eight hours a night helps to reduce unwanted aches and pains in the body, as well as rid of that lethargic, heavy feeling.

Exercise Less: Sometimes taking a break from exercise will have huge benefit your body.

It’s important to give your body a chance to recover in order to see and feel the benefits of exercise, repair your muscles and reduce inflammation that comes from exercise.

This doesn’t mean that you have to stop exercising - you could simply switch up your workouts so you’re not always using the same muscles and be sure to take at least one or two days off.

If you have back pain right now you can claim a copy of my free, special report which shows you ways to ease tension from the comfort of your home: https://www.paulgoughphysio.com/back-pain/