Playing Basketball And Your Lower Back Hurts Very Bad Now? Tips On What You Can Do

If you were playing basketball and when you finished your lower back started hurting, this can be due to many different things. Fortunately, there are some things you can about this. Below is some more information about this so your back can get back to normal.

Use Muscles in Back

You use the muscles in your lower back a lot while playing basketball, such as when you play defense, jump for the ball, dribble the ball, and throw the ball to a teammate. Someone running into you during play can also affect these muscles.

Your lower back pain problem could be due to muscle strain or when you tear or over-stretch the back muscle, which results in a pulled muscle. You may also have a lumbar sprain, which is when the ligaments in your back are torn or stretched. Ligaments are what connects the bones in your back together.

No matter if the cause is muscle or lumbar sprain, you are likely in a great deal of pain.

Strengthen Muscles

Back pain happens most often if you do not play a lot of basketball or exercise, as your muscles are weak. Playing basketball more often can help strengthen these muscles. There are also exercises you can do to help with this problem. It is important that you do these exercises correctly, or you could cause further damage. Go to a gym in your area as they have equipment that you can use to help strengthen these muscles. They will also have trainers there that can help you with different types of exercises.

Rest, Ice, and Heat

For the first few days after the pain begins, you need to rest your back, and after this slowly start moving again. Do not rest longer than a few days, or these muscles with tighten up too much.

Applying ice and/or heat to the area can help with the pain. Heat dilates the blood vessels and increases the oxygen supply to the muscles in your back, which can help if you are having muscle spasms. Cold may decrease the size of your blood vessels, as well as the blood flow to those muscles. This may help with inflammation and pain. You should try both to see which one helps you better.

For heat, you can use a heating pad or a heat wrap that you can purchase at a pharmacy. For cold, you can use an ice pack or even a bag of frozen vegetables.

If you continue to have pain in your lower back after a few weeks, you should make an appointment with your doctor or a primary care physician, such as those at Rural Health Services Consortium Inc.. This is because you may have a herniated disc. The doctor cannot tell if you have a herniated disc by an MRI or x-rays but will only go by what you tell them. The doctor cannot do a lot for you but they can prescribe muscle relaxers, as well as stronger pain medications. 


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