If you’re looking to add to your exercise regimen—and if your doctor has given you the green light—walking and swimming are both excellent exercises for lumbar spinal stenosis. You can even combine both activities by doing water walking.
How is spinal stenosis treated in the elderly?
A conservative approach should be the initial course of treatment for stenosis, especially in the elderly. Relief of symptoms is often seen with simply decreasing activities and the use of anti-inflammatory medications. Physical therapy and strengthening exercises can also be helpful.
Can you cure spinal stenosis with exercise?
If you are in pain from spinal stenosis, you probably don’t even want to think about exercising. However, as counterintuitive or impossible as it sounds, exercise, stretching, and movement can help relieve your spinal stenosis pain. Exercise, stretching, and movement can help relieve your spinal stenosis pain.
What activities should be avoided with spinal stenosis?
Contact sports like basketball, football, soccer, and martial arts are exercises to avoid with spinal stenosis. These activities can involve sudden trauma to the spine, which may lead to further injury. Activities that involve jumping, such as jumping rope, should be avoided with spinal stenosis.
What is the best exercise for spinal stenosis? – Related Questions
What can worsen spinal stenosis?
Spinal stenosis symptoms tend to worsen the more you walk without treating it since the leading cause is a contraction of the spinal cord, which irritates the leg nerves. The irritation of the terms causes inflammation, and so this should be part of the treatment.
How do you stop stenosis from progressing?
Having good posture and practicing proper body mechanics are some of the best ways to prevent stenosis from progressing and to ensure the health of your back. Good posture and body mechanics should be practiced all the time—whether you’re sitting, standing, lifting a heavy object, or even sleeping.
What is the newest treatment for spinal stenosis?
What are interspinous spacers? Interspinous spacers are a new approach to treating spinal stenosis that work gently and in a targeted way by opening the spinal canal to create room and reduce pressure on crowded nerves. A spinous process is the part of your vertebra that projects backward from your vertebral arch.
Is climbing stairs good for spinal stenosis?
As you’ve discovered, spinal stenosis does sometimes make it extra painful to walk uphill or climb stairs. Both of those activities cause you to lift your leg higher than normal, and depending on where your nerves are being pinched, this movement can put more pressure on the nerves.
What triggers stenosis?
The most common cause of spinal stenosis is wear-and-tear changes in the spine related to arthritis. People who have severe cases of spinal stenosis may need surgery. Surgery can create more space inside the spine. This can ease the symptoms caused by pressure on the spinal cord or nerves.
What is a common problem for patients with spinal stenosis?
If you have lumbar spinal stenosis, you may have trouble walking distances or find that you need to lean forward to relieve pressure on your lower back. You may also have pain or numbness in your legs. In more severe cases, you may have difficulty controlling your bowel and bladder.
What stretches are not good for spinal stenosis?
People with spinal stenosis should avoid these three types of exercise
- Cobra stretch.
- Piriformis stretch.
- Standing extension stretch.
Does walking hurt spinal stenosis?
Walking is a good exercise for spinal stenosis. It’s low impact, and you control the pace and distance. However, if walking triggers your symptoms, choose a different type of exercise. Discuss alternative movement options with your doctor.
Does lying down help spinal stenosis?
Spinal Stenosis
With this condition, it may be preferable to sleep on the sides with the knees curled up (in the fetal position). This helps relieve pressure on the nerve root. Sleeping in a reclining chair or an adjustable bed that allows the head and knees to remain elevated can also relieve pressure on the nerve.
Is bending over good for spinal stenosis?
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.
What position should you sleep in with spinal stenosis?
Many people with spinal stenosis find the most comfort sleeping on their side in “fetal position” — that is, with knees curled up toward the abdomen. Another alternative is to sleep in an adjustable bed or recliner that allows the head and knees to remain elevated.
What is the latest treatment for spinal stenosis?
Conventionally, cases of spinal stenosis that can’t be resolved with non-surgical therapies have been treated with laminectomy and spinal fusion. Laminectomy creates more space in the spinal canal, while spinal fusion stabilizes the spine.
