Source : Ezinearticles

The last thing someone with back pain would want to do, would be something strenuous...like martial arts.

I first heard about the health benefits of martial art kicking was from an article by editor, Mark Bricklin. Mr. Bricklin described his on-going back problem that he later solved by practising Tae Kwon Do. The logic was that the exercises and the kicking movements strengthened the abdominal muscles and stretched the hamstrings.

How about that for simplicity?

Later on, my research turned up the same approach for easing back pain: strengthen the abdominal muscles and stretch the lower back and hamstrings. This was confirmed by the American College of Sports Medicine. Maybe I was onto something.

Sure enough years later, I met a Tae Kwon Do instructor who explained that he too was able to overcome back pain by practising the martial art Tae Kwon Do. I found the same with my own training of kick-boxing, kung fu, Pilates and Power Yoga. However, I found that the kick-boxing roundhouse kicks aggravated some of my back and hip pain. I figured out later that it was from excessive kicking the heavy (punching) bag. This hard, pounding motion tended to tighten my hip flexors and strain the back muscles. My chiropractor later told me that many of his patients were from the kick-boxing schools. As he was a Kung Fu sifu, he found that the classical schools, such as kung fu and karate, seemed to have less back problems than their kick-boxing counter parts.

This is not to say that one style is better. Just some techniques are healthier.

Try this simple kicking warm up: Stand with one leg bent so that the knee is above your ankle and your other leg is straight behind you. Keeping your front foot flat on the ground, swing your rear leg forward as high as you comfortably can. Then return your leg back to the ground behind you. As you swing your leg, you should pull your foot up so that you get a deeper stretch in your hamstrings and lower back. Do this five to ten times and switch sides.

Once you achieve balance to do this several times, with your supporting foot flat on the ground, you can move onto to several other kicks.

Try a kicking style class like Tae Kwon Do, Tang Soo Do or Hapkido. After a month, you should feel your back loosening up. You might even release another back pain producer: stress.