5 Things to Stop Doing If You Have Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

If you have lumbar spinal stenosis, lifestyle changes can often help relieve your back pain caused by narrowing spaces in the spinal canal. Just as there are tips for what you should do, there are also tips for what you should not do.

You may be waiting and hoping it will go away. You may be doing exercises without knowing if you are doing enough or the right kind. Finally, you may be wondering if you should have surgery to fix the problem.

This article looks at what you should stop doing if you have lumbar spinal stenosis. It also explores some non-surgical ways to relieve pain and strengthen your spine.

Stop Waiting for It To Go Away

You may be waiting and hoping your symptoms will just go away. But lumbar spinal stenosis is different from many other causes of back pain. It is a progressive condition that often gets worse if you do nothing.

"Progressive" doesn't mean there is nothing you can do. Exercising can help you move more freely. It can also decrease back and leg pain. Working to improve your strength and range of motion can help you walk better with less pain.

Taking an active role in your care is one of the best ways to manage your condition.

Stop Treating Only the Inflammation

Spinal stenosis is caused by a narrowing of your spinal canal. This narrowing can irritate the nerves that travel down your legs. Symptoms are typically worse when you walk. They often get better when you sit down or bend forward.

With this condition, your spinal nerves can become inflamed and irritated. Taking anti-inflammatory medication can bring you some short-term relief.

To treat your condition, you must change the biomechanics of your spine—the way your spine moves. You can do this by exercising and correcting your posture.

Stop Doing Only Flexion Exercises

In the past, many specialists prescribed only flexion exercises for people with spinal stenosis. Flexion exercises bend the spine forward. Why? Bending forward increases the diameter of your spinal canal. Creating more space in your spinal canal takes pressure off the nerves in your spine.

Today, it is more common to include exercises that allow you to bend backward, too. One such movement is called a sustained standing lumbar extension. This exercise gently presses against your spinal discs, moving them away from your spinal canal and nerves to give them more room.

Talk to your healthcare provider or physical therapist to find out if spinal extension exercises may help you. They can show you how to do these exercises safely.

Stop High Impact Exercise

High-impact exercise involves running, jumping, and climbing. These activities create repeated impacts on the spine, which can worsen pain. Even prolonged walks should be avoided because they can cause muscle fatigue, which can increase the strain on your lumbar spine.

Contact sports such as football, soccer, basketball, and martial arts also involve a lot of impact and can result in sudden trauma or further injury to the spine.

Stop Wondering if Surgery Is the Only Option

Your healthcare provider may have talked to you about treatment options. You may have discussed a spinal surgery called a lumbar laminectomy.

But for some people, non-invasive treatment and surgery have similar long-term outcomes for lumbar spinal stenosis. For example, for some people, epidural steroid injections, in which medication is injected into your spine, can be a good treatment option.

Surgery can sound like an intimidating option, but it may be the best option in some situations. The right treatment for you depends on many factors—the severity of your spinal stenosis, which levels and how many levels of your spine are affected, your age, your overall health, and whether you are prepared to participate in post-operative rehabilitation.

Living With Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

If you are living with lumbar spinal stenosis, the discomfort and difficulty of walking can be hard to bear. It is normal to want relief right away. Depending on the nature and severity of your condition, there are things you can do that may help reduce pain or slow the progression of the condition.

Stay active. Moderate, low-impact exercise (such as swimming, water exercise, walking, and cycling on level surfaces) as well as exercises to build abdominal and hip strength can support your spine. Be sure to get advice from an expert about the exercises that are safe to do.

Maintain a healthy weight. Excess weight puts added pressure on the spine when walking and standing.

Practice good posture. Concentrate on standing and sitting up straight with shoulders back and use proper back support when sitting or driving. Sleeping on a firm mattress can also reduce discomfort.

Try home remedies. Using an ice pack, or heating pad, or taking a hot shower may provide some temporary pain relief.

Alternative therapies. Along with home remedies, massage and acupuncture may provide pain relief. Clinical trials are beginning to emerge with the majority demonstrating benefit from certain acupuncture techniques.

Physical therapy. A physical therapist can teach you exercises to improve your range of motion (ROM) and strength. They can also show you proper ways to lift objects and how to change your posture to help ease your symptoms.

While these strategies aren't a quick fix, they may bring lasting results when done properly and consistently.

Summary

Lumbar spinal stenosis is a progressive condition. If you don't take any action, it is likely to get worse over time.

Instead of waiting and hoping your lower back will improve, you can talk to a physical therapist or another healthcare provider about different types of exercise you can do to build up your strength and mobility and slow the progression of the condition.

While anti-inflammatory medications may ease symptoms, in the long run, you may be better off changing your posture and the way you move.

Surgery is a good option for some people with lumbar spinal stenosis. But, for some people, physical therapy can often achieve good results with fewer risks.