The most irritating problem with chiropractors is the fact that we can not carry one with us. Back pain can strike you at any moment, at 3am, at the top of Mount Everest and so on. The second biggest problem with chiropractors is, of course, the price...
This is the first reason this eBook was created: it provides a list of exercises one can perform to ease (or remove completely) the back pain. These exercises are considered safe, though you should consult an expert, especially if you have particular health problems. Yet, they are safe.
The second reason this eBook was created, see these same exercises, when done on the regular basis, will streighten your back muscules, allowing them to better support your spine. It means that you will have less episodes of accute back pain, at some point, your back will likely stop hurting completely.
All exercises should be performed on a relaxed way, and if something causes sharp pain: stop. Stretch as far as you comfortably can, sooner or later, your ligaments will adapt and you will be able to do the routine "right". But at the beginning, just go as far as you can.
There are (unfortunately) many ways our back can hurt. Still, there are just few things that can go wrong with it: knowing what they are, we can do something to either prevent the problem from happening, or to ease the pain, if the problem have already occured.
First of all, our back has vertebrae, disks between them, muscles (including very small ones) surrounding the spine, large muscles or our torso and nerves that go from the spinal cord to the outside organs. This is how our back is arranged, and these are things that can go wrong.
Important note: this is, of course, an oversimplified picture. For example, if you have herpes, your back might get sore, yet chiropractor will not help in this case. But mostly, considering the modern lifestyle, we abuse our back... well... mechanically.
As I mentioned the modern lifestyle, let's see how it can hurt our back. Say you work at a computer. Usually it means same pose for many hour, your shoulders tense and so is your back. Now, our body is an energy saving device. If a muscle (almost) does not move, it will grow a connecting tissue in it, like many tiny ropes holding your shoulders in "hands on a keyboard" position, but without spending any muscular energy.
It works fine, until your friend asks you to list a piano: the tiny fibers of connecting tissue break, and it hurts like hell.
"A problem!" - the body reports. "When this muscule moves, it hurts". And a protective mechanism kicks in, a spasm that blocks the muscule, preventing it from moving.
And it hurts even more. Because you see, when the muscule is in spasm, it produces lactic acid, a metabolic product that should normally be removed by blood flow... Except, when a muscule is in spasm, blood flow is limited. More lactic acid - more pain - more spasm.
Now, saying "muscule" I don't mean one of the LAGRE muscules, though it is also possible. But mostly, we are talking about small muscles holding vertebrae in line. When such a muscule goes from one vertebrae to the next one... and it goes to a spasm... it is pulling diskc towards each other. Plus, disks need nutrition, too, and if surrounded by spasmed muscles, they are starving.
This is how we get a disk rupture, the disk breaks and its height is being reduced. Remember I mentioned nerves that go from the spinal cord? This is when they get pinched, plus the tissue around gets swollen, which is a bad thing, too.
Leaving aside an obvious "do not lift pianos" advice, we still have few options to explore. First of all, we can use massage. It is as simple as that: massage squeezes the lactic acid off the spasmed tissue, pain goes away and a muscle gets its chance to go off the spasm.
We can pull the muscle. I mean it - pull. Stretch. Make it longer. Sometimes it is enough to end the spasm, and this is exactly what your chiropractor does when twisting you. It might or might not "crack", it really does not mater.
We can exercise. If you break your work every now and then, to move your neck and to do couple of stretches, your body will not build connecting tissue in your mucles, and whatever connecting tissue is already there, will become more flexible, which means it will not break if you, well, lift a piano. Or sleep on an uncomfortable pillow, for that mater.
The eBook provides a small set of SAFE exercises (beware that any exercise can pose danger if you do it with too much enthusiasm). These exercises can be used to ease the pain in the back if you already have it. It will also - when done on a regular basis - reduce your chances to get this sort of problem in future.
As I mentioned above, exercises are safe, but it is always a good idea to consult the local authority.