Feeling like you’re in for a great night? Nope, just relief from an aching back.

Back pain relief is more than performing repetitive exercises designed by a physical therapist from hell. It’s more than lying down in a hospital bed in traction. You don’t even have to partake of vile herbal remedies created by someone lacking taste buds.

Back pain relief can be a pleasant, relaxing, simple, and even enjoyable experience.

What are some tried-true and alternative techniques for back pain relief? Visualization, massage, hot/cold therapy, yoga, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, and a good bed can all help an aching back feel better.

These back pain relieving therapies will help anyone suffering from an aching back due to age and a lifetime of poor posture, sports injuries, occupation related back strains, and too little exercise.

Lifestyle choices and proper technique are key to relieving the pain from an aching back. Quitting smoking, proper diet, sitting and standing with correct posture, regular massage, and walking daily will help take care of a hurting back.

Take me for example. I spend much of my time typing words on my word processor, even when I’m done working for the day. This puts a ton of stress on my back. I relieve it by taking an occasional walking and self-massage break. When typing, I try to sit with my feet firmly on the ground, back erect. When I’m done working, I go out for a run. Upon completion of this workout, I sit down on the grass and do a bit of yoga/stretching. Once a week, I enjoy a massage and hot bath. I have also found that eating well helps me too.

Remember, avoiding exercise is about the worst thing you can do. I have heard many excuses for not exercising. “I’m too tired after work” and “I have bad knees” are common. If you don’t want to suffer a bad back for life, you’ll have to make a conscious effort to get out and move. Have time to sit and watch TV? Then you have time to exercise. Have bad knees? Try a low impact exercise like swimming. Quit making excuses and make daily exercise a habit. It’s vital for a healthy back.

Though it helps in most cases, back pain exercises are not always a helpful cure. Slipped discs, for example, require complete bed rest. Gentle back exercises slowly build and strengthen the muscles up.

Physical therapy is often prescribed for sufferers of back pain. Studies have shown that physical therapy and back pain exercises, even for bedridden patients, will help alleviate pain. Physical therapy can include both active and passive exercises. It has been proven that more active people are less likely to experience back pain and injuries.

Weak back muscles are the main cause of back pain. These muscles serve two primary functions: hold and align the vertebrae together and hold the pelvis together. People who work office jobs are the most likely to have weak back muscles. They sit and use bad posture all day, the two leading causes of weak back muscles.

When these people with weak back muscles tweak their backs, the weak muscles won’t be able to take the pressure. A back sprain can result.

Warming up muscles before strenuous use is important. Since tight hips and hamstrings contribute to lower back pain, keeping these loose and strong is important as well.

So how can people prevent self-inflicted back pain? Physical therapists agree that stretching, strengthening, and warming up muscles before heavy use will help keep these muscles strong and flexible, able to handle strenuous use and awkward positioning. Back muscle strengthening exercises include low impact aerobics, bicycling, swimming, and walking.

The exercise you choose to participate in depends on your age, gender, amount of current back pain, and personal preferences.

Physical therapy related back exercises are beneficial to patients who have strained their backs, have a disk disease, or have suffered some other muscle-related injury. Tumors and fractures are two causes of back pain that won’t benefit from exercises. These conditions must be corrected by other means.

To prevent back pain, one must know how to avoid putting too much stress on the spine. Proper techniques for sitting, standing, and lifting must be used.

Evenly distribute your weight when standing for long periods of time. Bend your knees, not your back, when lifting heavy objects. When pushing or pulling objects, put the strain on your arms, not on your back. You can do this by keeping your back straight.

Perhaps the most effective preventer of back pain is good posture. Use good posture when sitting and standing, and your back will thank you.

It’s certainly common ground regardless of all other differences.

The desire for back pain relief is universal. It crosses all borders and boundaries of race, religion, and politics. You might even call it a common enemy.

Maybe the search for back pain relief could do what all the powers-that-be have failed to do — unite the world.

Medical doctors have prescription pads to write prescriptions for pain killers and muscle relaxers, and surgeons have scalpels. Acupuncturists have needles. Acupressurists have their finger and thumbs. Chiropractors have tables where adjustments are made to the backbone.

There are herbs, vitamins, and minerals, singularly and in unison, that are touted to relieve back pain.

And those who suffer from back pain have tried some or all of these pain-relieving techniques.

The longer they have suffered from back pain, the more techniques they will have likely tried.

Just about all of the people in all of the back pain-relieving disciplines will advise the same basic three things for the relief or the prevention of back pain:

1. Maintain a healthy and stable body weight: Weight gain can cause back pain.

It shifts the center of gravity. Even a gain of as little as 10 pounds can produce back pain. A loss of only 10 pounds can also usually reduce back pain to some degree.

2. Practice good posture: Sit, stand, walk, and lay with your back bone straight and your weight evenly distributed.

Poor posture results in putting added strain on some muscles while letting other muscles atrophy. So do as your mother said and stand up straight.

3. Stay physically fit: Regular exercise that doesn’t strain muscles will help to keep back pain away or at least at very manageable levels.

When back pain is at its worst, you can feel the effects of wiggling your pinkie. Okey, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.

There are many things that cause back pain. There are even serious diseases that manifest as back pain, but most often back pain is caused by overly extended muscles or muscle strain.

You can bend over, pick up a small box that isn’t even very heavy, and induce muscle strain that will cause a backache.

You can even do the very same thing that you have done a million times before without any problem at all and manage to strain a muscle in your back.

Whatever the cause of back pain is, the main focus of the person who is suffering with back pain is to get some relief and to get it as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

When a person’s back is aching, it seems everything else in his life takes a back seat, and pain relief is his main objective.

When a back muscle gets strained (and you won’t have to ask), the first thing to do is to get an ice pack on it as quickly as possible to prevent the tissues around the strained muscle from swelling. Swelling will increase pain, and ice can help to reduce swelling.

After the initial injury, most doctors and therapists will recommend alternating heat packs and cold packs to help reduce pain.

Epsom salt is an age-old home remedy that works well to treat muscle strain. A warm bath containing Epsom salt will ease the pain. The body absorbs magnesium through the skin, and magnesium is a natural muscle relaxant.

Back pain can make those who suffer short tempered and cranky. Pain can cause people to use poor judgment and make really bad decisions.

When the back hurts, the whole body is affected. The mind and the emotions are affected as well.

Most of the time, doctors treat only the physical aspects of all diseases and human ailments, including back pain. They may prescribe pain killers and muscle relaxants, but they don’t even begin to tell you how to keep your emotions and your relationships intact.

Pain — any pain, but maybe especially back pain — affects the way that we all react to the world around us.

A situation that we would view as a mere speed bump on the road of life can become an insurmountable obstacle when we are suffering with back pain.

That one critical word from a spouse or significant other can quickly escalate and translate into a relationship-ending event when we are in pain.

Back pain isn’t just physical; it is mental and emotional, as well.

The main thing that the person who is suffering from back pain needs to keep in mind is that the back pain is going to end.

The pain WILL end sooner or later but the decisions you make while you are suffering can have a life-long effect.

The safest thing to do is simply delay any decisions until after the pain has subsided.

The decisions that you make while you are in pain will be based on your abilities that are limited by the pain. You will see things differently once the pain subsides.

If your partner is suffering with back pain, try to involve yourself in helping to relieve the pain and, if you are the suffering partner, allow your partner to help.

If you ask your significant other or your coworkers, they might tell you that your back pain is also causing them mental stress because you have turned into a world-class grouch.

All of your family, friends, acquaintances, and sometimes even perfect strangers will happily give you advice about how best to deal with back pain.

The controversy of whether to apply heat or cold to an aching back has raged for centuries.

If you take a poll (when your back isn’t hurting, of course) among the people you know, you will find that they are about equally divided between those who advocate the use of heat on an aching back and those who advocate cold for an aching back.

So, just how are you supposed to know whether to plug in the heating pad or get an ice pack out of the freezer?

The truth is that the heat SOUNDS like a better idea. The idea of sticking a cold pack on your already aching back isn’t very appealing, is it?

The fact is that the real answer to the question of heat or cold for an aching back is BOTH. That’s right. Both heat and cold can help to relieve pain and promote the healing of a strained muscle.

First, use ice. You can buy ice packs at your local drug store. There are even ice packs that don’t have to be stored in a freezer. They are filled with chemicals that produce cold.

As quickly as you can when a muscle in the back is strained, apply an ice pack. Leave cold on the injury for at least a half hour to help prevent swelling.

After about a half hour of ice, begin to alternate the ice pack with a heating pad.

The ice prevents and reduces swelling, and the heat will help increase blood flow and promote healing.

When back pain strikes, one finds out that ever tiny muscle in their entire body is connected in some way to their back bones. How can batting your EYELASHES hurt your back, for crying out loud?

Back pain isn’t a joking matter. Those who suffer back pain will all agree that getting relief is their number one priority.

Those who suffer with back pain frequently might well want to invest in a hand held back massager.

Hand held massagers will not replace massages given by trained and licensed masseurs.

The cost of hand held massagers vary greatly. The cheapest ones are about $10, and the price goes up — WAY up — from there.

Massaging an aching back has been a pain-relieving treatment for many centuries. It’s still around because it works.

Massage increases blood flow to the injured muscle, and increased blood flow reduces pain and promotes healing.

Often physical therapists and massage therapists will use hand held massagers to loosen tight muscles before they begin deep massage.

New technologies are always being applied to products that make them work better, more efficiently, or just better. Hand held massagers are not an exception.

If you are interested in purchasing a hand held massager, the best and most efficient way to look for one is by using the Internet.

Simply use your favorite search engine and plug the words “hand held massagers” into the search box. You will get an abundance of hits.

Read what each massager promises to deliver and also about any guarantees that are offered for each product.

Make your choice, based upon your own needs. Some hand held massagers will require another person to use them effectively on your aching back.

On any half-decent weather day, you can find hundreds of thousands of amateur golfers out on the public links and country club links all across America. Avid golfers believe that any weather is suitable golfing weather except thunderstorms.

With all of those swings being taken, it’s no wonder that amateur golfers suffer frequent episodes of back pain.

But amateurs don’t have that market cornered. Jack Nicklaus and Lee Travino, among others, suffer from back pain that is caused by swinging a golf club.

Back pain is second only to the common cold as the cause for employee absenteeism in America today, and much of that back pain is associated with playing golf.

Much of the back pain that is associated with playing golf can be eliminated by golfers learning and using the proper stance when addressing the ball.

Even professional golfers don’t realize how much strain can be put on the back over 18 holes of golf if an improper stance is used over and over again.

One factor in a proper stance includes bending at the hips rather than at the waist.

Core back muscles need to be developed as well to help prevent back pain that is caused by the repetitive action of swinging the golf club.

If a person plays enough golf, they actually develop what is known as a golf body. The posture changes and flexibility is lost. Poor swing mechanics that many amateur golfers have only worsens the problem.

The key for golfers to avoid much back pain associated with golfing can be done by getting themselves into good physical condition and losing those unwanted pounds around the middle.

Learning the proper way to swing a club can help just as much.

This is the kind of pain that is surprising and will take your breath away.

The usual reaction to this kind of pain and just back pain in general is to stop using the muscles that hurt. If walking hurts, you sit; if sitting hurts, you lay.

This lack of motion might be all right for the first couple of days after a muscle strain or sprain, but it isn’t all right for the long term.

Exercise is an essential part of healing a muscle. Inactivity prolongs the healing process and will leave muscles weak.

Now, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. I am certainly NOT implying that you should start doing strenuous aerobic exercises.

I am saying that two days after the initial muscle strain, you do need to start doing some very controlled exercise of the muscles involved.

This muscle exercise should be in the form of stretching — not lifting, and never twisting.

Stretching exercises should be done in a very gradual and progressive way. Start slow, but start.

Exercise helps to provide nutrients to disc space and soft tissues in the back and to help keep discs, muscles, ligaments, and joints healthy. Lack of these nutrients will only slow or stop the healing process.

Exercising back muscles will not only promote healing. It will reduce the pain and possibly help to prevent future back muscle strains and sprains.

If you can, see a physical therapist for instructions and stretching exercises that will help to speed healing.

If you can’t see a physical therapist, see Google. By using Google and searching for exercise to reduce back pain, you will get a lot of hits.

One (exercise), they will tell you, is not possible with the other (back pain).

After all, they have just discovered that every single bone and muscle in their bodies is attached to their back bone and moving ANYTHING makes the back pain worse, not better.

Not only that, they will go on to tell you, the exercise is exactly what caused the back pain in the first place.

These back pain sufferers are partially right. The wrong kinds of exercise can only make the pain worse and increase its duration. But the right kinds of exercise can actually decrease the pain and make the pain be of a shorter duration.

Both a decrease in pain and its stopping as soon as possible are both desirable effects that those who suffer with back pain will be eager to learn how to accomplish.

Those who suffer from back pain should never do any exercises that increase the pain. Those kinds of exercise are only adding to a problem that already exists.

The exercises that a person who is suffering from back pain needs to participate in are ones that will strengthen the muscles that have allowed the back to become sore and aching in the first place.

Only a certified physical therapist or a licensed chiropractor can recommend and instruct a back pain patient in the exercises that will help rather than hurt the problem.

Medical doctors have been instructed in exercises that relieve pain, but if it isn’t their specialty, they may not be aware of the latest developments.

Ask your doctor to refer you to either a physical therapist or a licensed chiropractor so that you can learn how the exercises that will help to relieve your back pain sooner rather than later.