We want your back to feel good again. It’s as simple as that, really.

If you’ve been following along with our series on back pain for the past month, then you know how common this problem is.

We know you might not have time to dig through each of those articles to mine the most precious information, and we wanted to make it easy for you to get the solutions you need quickly.

We’ve broken down all the detailed advice from the past few week’s worth of articles into this ultimate guide. Consider this your one-stop-shop for the exact process to find relief for your back pain.

Here are the three steps to take to find relief for your back pain.

1. Pay Attention To Your Body And Understand The Possible Causes Of Your Pain

Because you’re the best advocate for your own health, it’s important that you’re paying attention to your body on a daily basis to be mindful of how you feel before slight back pain turns into a chronic problem.

You’ll want to pay attention to how often your back hurts, where it hurts, for how long, and if anything causes the pain or helps it subside. If certain activities bring the pain on or help to ease the pain, these may provide clues as to its cause.

The source of most low back pain is damage to the spine itself, and studies show that a variety of holistic health practices can improve low back pain that has musculoskeletal origins.

Effective treatment options for your back pain may include a combination of movement and stretching, professional massage, and possibly even over-the-counter pain relievers.

2. Create A Manageable Daily Back Stretching Routine

Stretching is a proven way to alleviate back pain and improve mobility when done consistently.

If you’ve got an extra five minutes, you can watch the demonstration videos for each stretch in our 5-minute stretching routine right here: The 3 Best Stretches For Lower Back Pain.

Child’s Pose flexes and loosens the lower spine, Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch opens up the hip flexors, and the Supine Figure Four eases tension in the piriformis.

In just five minutes per day, these stretches can significantly reduce the muscle tension in your low back!

3. Choose A Type Of Exercise That Reduces Your Back Pain

Now that you’ve got a simple stretching routine you can do each morning when you wake up, it’s time to talk about what type of more intense exercise you can do that will make your back feel better, not worse.

While almost any form of gentle to moderate exercise offers some relief for back pain, there are a few stellar choices that stand out from the rest.

Walking, that age-old form of natural human movement is one of the best exercise methods for relieving back pain because it’s simple to do just about anywhere and has almost zero learning curve. Simply lace up your sneakers and hit the trail!

Yoga is another excellent choice because it strengthens and stabilizes the core muscles of the body that weave into the back. If you think of your body like an apple, the core of the apple is the very center. In the same way, the core of your body is not just the front of your abdomen, but the muscles centermost in your torso. The central muscles wrap around your spine and support – you guessed it! – your low back. A healthier core means a healthier back, so yoga is an easy winner here.

Creating A Lifestyle That Supports A Healthy Back

The important thing to take away from this guide is to take great care of your body. After all, it’s the only one you’ve got!

Maintaining an active lifestyle and varying your movements are helpful for avoiding repetitive use back injuries from sitting, lifting, or performing any movement over and over each day.

Receiving professional therapeutic massage is another way to alleviate low back pain and reduce the risk of further injury. Be sure to tell your therapist about your history of back pain and that you’d like them to focus on this area during your session.

Above all, stay hopeful about healing your low back pain. When you take the steps outlined here and keep an optimistic mindset, there’s no telling the kind of healing you can achieve.